The Actor and His Body

Litz Pisk was widely regarded as the finest and most influential teacher of modern theatre movement. Her seminal book The Actor and His Body is the direct result of her unique dual both as a professional director of movement at the Old Vic, the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the English National Opera, and in television and films -- including the movement for Vanessa Redgrave's film role in Isadora; and as a teacher in drama schools. She was Director of Vienna's School of Art and Movement, and has worked at the Old Vic School, the Bath Academy of Art, RADA, and the Central School of Speech and Drama throughout the Sixties and Seventies. Litz Pisk's subject, in her teaching and in this book, is a search for and awareness of the emotional and psychological impulses that should, quite literally, motivate an actor in his or her role on the stage. It is totally unrelated to choreography or prettified posturing. 'For her', writes Michael Elliott in his Foreword, 'the step comes last, and only as the final and outward expression of an inner impulse.' Pisk's theory is illuminated by her comments on specific texts, the relationship between meaning and movement and her own line-drawings used throughout the book.The Actor and His Body is also a practical manual for keeping the body physically fit and responsive - in Litz Pisk's terms, fully 'tuned'. There are suggested workouts for 15-, 30- and 60-minute periods as well as a complete weekly programme concentrating on different parts of the body each day.