Physicality and Acting

Movement teachers, from outliers to pioneers, have changed theatre and physical expression for ever.

In recognition of the movement pioneers, this book is part-memoir and part-historical research as author Shona Morris traces the roots of her own pedagogy for movement training in drama schools from these radical beginnings. She acknowledges some of the shadows, which affected her own practice, the provenance of Laban in particular, and the current need for discourse to review these approaches, through practice-based research.

The book includes exercises and approaches developed by the author in the classroom and the studio that illustrate how actors can link their physicality to the craft of transformation and interpretation. The exercises accessibly cover both technical and expressive work, and offer principles for transformation through animal study, mask work, and character work.

The book also includes numerous practical examples, interviews and cases studies of how to teach and apply movement to theatre making. It also offers ways to facilitate your own vision and actor’s movement course in response to the present moment.

Lively, imaginative, critical and investigative, this book mirrors Morris’s classes and her approach to theatre. It is an essential read for anyone interested in how actors are trained in movement and how theatre is made.

Author Biography

Shona Morris is a movement teacher, movement director and actor. She has held positions at RADA (Lead Movement Tutor), Drama Centre London (Course Leader BA Acting) and Rose Bruford (Head of Movement), and taught at many other schools, including Manchester School of Theatre, Mountview and LAMDA. From 2003 to 2015, she was Head of Movement and visiting artist at the Stratford Festival Theatre, Ontario, Canada. She has taught movement, neutral mask and chorus work nationally and internationally, and has worked as a movement director on many productions, as well as creating her own work as a writer and director. She trained at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris and worked as an actor for 20 years, before training with Trish Arnold for 13 years.