The Actor and His Body - (Theatre Makers) 4th Edition by Litz Pisk (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

'Once you start working with someone like Litz you don't ever want to stop if you can help it' - Vanessa Redgrave

Litz Pisk was widely regarded as the most influential teacher of modern theatre movement of the 20th Century. She innovated and advocated a physical training that sought to combine awareness, emotion and imagination specifically for the actor's craft. Her seminal book, The Actor and His Body, is the direct result of her unique dual career as a professional movement director and as an actor movement teacher working in leading British conservatoires.

Pisk's quest was to find expression for the inner impulse that motivated actors to move. Her teachings, as outlined in this book, offer insight on the specific craft of the actor, and the relationship between movement, imagination and the 'need' to move.

The Actor and His Body is also a practical manual for keeping the actor's body physically and expressively responsive. In addition, there are a range of movement exercises, illuminated by her exquisite line drawings, and a complete weekly programme which concentrates on movement practice within different timescales.

This fourth edition features the original foreword by Michael Elliot as well as a new introduction by Ayse Tashkiran, contemporary movement director and Senior Lecturer at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, which contextualises Pisk's work.

Review Quotes

Litz Pisk was a theatre visionary who introduced to the field of actors' movement a startlingly new approach, which remains ground-breaking to this day. With her background in the visual arts, Litz Pisk viewed the actor's body as a piece of dynamic sculpture capable of expressing to the audience people and places they had never known. However, a special kind of physical training was necessary before the actor could reach 'a state of readiness' where the body could respond totally to the imagination. In these pages, we begin to gain an insight into how Litz Pisk went about achieving this.

No one who worked with the movement teacher Litz Pisk, either as actor or student, will ever forget the sheer theatrical impact of her own movement, at once dynamic and sculptural, intense and totally possessed.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to be taught by Litz will never forget the inspiration she gave us. Through her movement work Litz made an extraordinary contribution to the theatre... A unique teacher of movement, an inspiring movement director, this book gives an insight into the seminal work of Litz Pisk
Sue Lefton, Movement Director and Teacher

About the Author

Litz Pisk taught movement to generations of actors at RADA, the Old Vic Theatre School and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She movement directed productions at the Old Vic, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and English National Opera. Litz also worked on television and films, most notably movement directing Vanessa Redgrave in Isadora. As a pioneering movement director her legacy is felt in the current growth of movement direction. First published in 1975, the Actor and His Body continues to be a seminal guide to movement practice.
Ayse Tashkiran trained at L'Ecole International Jacques Lecoq for two years in Paris and spent twelve years as a physical theatre performer. She has taught movement in a conservatoire setting for ten years and works as a Movement Director for a variety of professional theatre productions and companies.