Copeau/Decroux, Irving/Craig: A Search for 20th Century Mime, Mask & Marionette (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)

"In this series of essays, Thomas Leabhart presents a thorough overview and analysis of the roots of Etienne Decroux's artistic genealogy. After four years' apprenticeship with Decroux, Thomas Leabhart began to research and discover how forebears and contemporaries might have influenced Decroux's project. Decades of digging revealed striking correspondences that often led to adjacent fields--art history, philosophy, and anthropology, forays wherein Leabhart's appreciation of Decroux and his "kinsfolk," who themselves transgressed traditional frontiers, increased. The following essays, composed over a thirty-year period, find a common source in a darkened Prague cinema where people gasped at a wooden doll's sudden reversal of fortune. These essays: investigate the source of that astonishment; continue his examination of Decroux's "family tree"; consider how Copeau's and Decroux's keen observation of animal movement influenced their actor training; record the challenging and paradoxical improvisations chez Decroux; and recall Decroux's debt to sculpture, poster art, sport, and masks. These essays will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners in theatre and performance studies"-- Provided by publisher In this series of essays, Thomas Leabhart presents a thorough overview and analysis of Etienne Decroux's artistic genealogy. After four years'apprenticeship with Decroux, Thomas Leabhart began to research and discover how forebears and contemporaries might have influenced Decroux's project. Decades of digging revealed striking correspondences that often led to adjacent fields—art history, philosophy, and anthropology—forays wherein Leabhart's appreciation of Decroux and his'kinsfolk,'who themselves transgressed traditional frontiers, increased. The following essays, composed over a 30-year period, find a common source in a darkened Prague cinema where people gasped at a wooden doll's sudden reversal of fortune. These essays: investigate the source of that astonishment; continue Leabhart's examination of Decroux's'family tree'; consider how Copeau's and Decroux's keen observation of animal movement influenced their actor training; record the challenging and paradoxical improvisations chez Decroux; and recall Decroux's debt to sculpture, poster art, sport and masks. These essays will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners in theatre and performance studies. In this series of essays, Thomas Leabhart presents a thorough overview and analysis of the roots of Etienne Decrouxâ€TMs artistic genealogy. Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 7 Preface 8 1. Introduction: Lessons from Prague 12 2. Blowing up the palace and hanging up on the Opéra: Dramaturgy in and of the body 18 3. Monkey business and Robin revelations: Animal observation in actor training 28 4. Friday night pearls of wisdom 40 5. E.G. Craig’s Übermarionette and E. Decroux’s “actor made of wood” 51 6. Triptych: Three aspects/one figure 63 7. Everything weighs: Wrestling with an invisible angel 78 8. From Copeau to Decroux: the mask in actor training: Sculpting new bodies for ancient heads 91 9. The face in corporeal mime: From plaster death mask to living actor’s visage 110 10. L’Homme de sport: Sport and statuary in Etienne Decroux’s corporeal mime 135 Index 181 pantomime;,puppets;,marionettes;,20th,century,theatre;,devising;,collective,creation;,corporeal;,Mime pantomime,puppets,marionettes,20th century theatre,devising,collective creation,corporeal,Mime