Shakespeare and Lecoq: A Practical Guide for Actors, Directors, Students and Teachers

This book provides actors, directors, teachers and students with a clear, practical guide to applying the work of influential theatre practitioner Jacques Lecoq to the process of rehearsing or workshopping the Shakespeare text. Written by theatre practitioner Ed Woodall, who trained with Lecoq himself, and Shakespeare academic Abigail Rokison-Woodall, this guide begins with warm-ups and ensemble-building, and moves through explorations of the story, the world of the play, the text, character emotion, thought and physicality and staging. Lecoq's method often relies on 'play', and play is often seen as trivial or inconsequential. This book argues that the more playful you are, the more playfully you investigate your speech or scene and the more physically motivated that playfulness is, the more vital and lifelike your acting of Shakespeare will be. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents LIST OF VIDEOS Series preface Author’s preface Postscript by Abigail Rokison-Woodall Foreword – ‘Are we allowed to speak?’ by Toby Jones Acknowledgements Introduction Lecoq The Lecoq training Lecoq and Shakespeare This book How to use this book Chapter 1: Exploring the body in space Warming up the space Waking up your spine Movement with meaning Connecting movement to emotion Sending your voice into the space Chapter 2: Exploring the ensemble Exploring the space as an ensemble Making it physical Exploring the play as an ensemble Chapter 3: Exploring the story Story as a kinetic structure Exploring the story of the whole play in mime Exploring sections of the story Exploring the story of a scene Chapter 4: Exploring the world of the play A day in the life of the play The Seven Levels of Tension Exploring the texture of the play via colours and paintings Chapter 5: Exploring the text Embodying words Exploring the embodiment of rhetoric and stylistic devices Embodying speeches and dialogue Chapter 6: Exploring character types Exploring the four humours via the elements Leading with different parts of the body Exploring the dramatic dynamism of pushing and pulling Chapter 7: Exploring character drives Three words for characteristics Exploring character through animals Exploring passions Chapter 8: Exploring clowning and fooling The clown The bouffon Chapter 9: Exploring staging Balancing the stage Shaping the space of the play The chorus Facing the audience Bibliography INDEX