Towards Embodied Performance

Towards Embodied Performance invites directors and other generative performance makers to experiment with making their own original, visually stunning, sonically immersive, and physically rigorous embodied performance.

Through historical context, the author’s 30-plus years of experience, and original interviews with leading theatre artists, this book sets the stage for a new generation of artists building boundary-breaking work. Directors are often categorized into one of only two frameworks: the Stanislavskian director, whose method is based on text analysis and character wants and needs, and the “auteur” director, whose work might focus on visual spectacle at the expense of text or character objectives. This book argues that the director of embodied performance fuses these two approaches, acting as the author of the event. In Part I, readers will explore the core elements of embodied performance – space, time, body, language, and action – through a lens that bridges traditional directing methodology with experimental, devised, collaborative theatre-making. Part II provides examples of this embodied practice by multi-disciplinary artists in visual and sound installation, video and film, dance-theatre, and new music/opera, including such artists as Shirin Neshat, James Turrell, Bill T. Jones, Janet Cardiff, Okwui Okpokwasili, William Kentridge, and Heather Christian. Part III suggests creative prompts and exercises for performance makers to engage the visual, physical, textual, and sonic in compositional storytelling on stage.

Towards Embodied Performance is an invaluable resource for theatre directors, devisers, and generative artists at all levels from students to teachers, from early-career to mid-career artists. Directors, actors, choreographers, designers, composers, writers, scholars, and engaged audience members can all use this text to explore collaboratively created performance that invites its audience into the ripest version of the present moment.

“In this compelling new book, the prolific director Rachel Dickstein illuminates the process of transforming text, ideas, and fixed narratives into powerful and fluid stage moments that combine the various languages of the theatre into a unified whole. She provides an alternative to the pervasive hierarchical methods of director training, and she does so in a way that sparks the reader’s imagination.”

Anne Bogart

“An original and indispensable guide to the language of the stage for anyone interested in theatrical composition and collaboration. Through a wide range of modes including memoir, textual analysis, theoretical and activity-based prompts, Towards Embodied Performance offers an immersive and kaleidoscopic approach to theatre making. Smart, inspiring, and full of practical advice, Dickstein’s book illuminates a path for all artists towards greater creative engagement and freedom.”

Charles Mee, Playwright and Professor of Playwriting, Columbia University School of the Arts

"Rachel Dickstein's award-winning work has captivated me, and audiences worldwide, throughout her career. How wonderful, at last, to have a source of inspiration and understanding of her artistry like this one...one that captures her theory, practice, and imagination into usable frameworks for generations to come. Towards Embodied Performance: Directing and the Art of Composition is more than just a guide to the visual, sonic, physical and textual world of directors; it is a magnificent blueprint for transformative performance, and what the world requires of its most visionary artists today."

Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Artistic Director, The Drama League

"Towards Embodied Performance, by the award-winning director Rachel Dickstein, is an utterly original work. It is both generous and generative; by offering us a window into her creative methodologies, Dickstein also gives us a roadmap for creating our own. This text will prove invaluable for both practitioners (of all levels) and scholars (across artistic disciplines)."

Dr. Patty Gallagher, Performer and Professor of Performance, Play, and Design, UC Santa Cruz

Rachel Dickstein is Associate Professor and Chair of Theatre and Performance at Purchase College, SUNY. She is a director, writer, and choreographer of opera, theatre, and dance-based performance, as well as the founding Artistic Director of the Obie-winning theatre company Ripe Time. Recent work includes the world premieres of Compass (ASU Gammage), Haruki Murakami’s Sleep (BAM Next Wave Festival, Yale Rep, Annenberg), The World Is Round (BAM-Fisher, Obie Award), and Septimus and Clarissa (Drama Desk, Drama League nominations, BPAC). Rachel also directs plays, chamber opera, and new music theatre. Recent work includes Blood Moon (Beth Morrison Projects, Prototype), Desire (with Jack Quartet, Miller Theatre, Columbia), Thumbprint (LA Opera, Prototype), and In What Language? (Asia Society, REDCAT, PICA TBA Festival).

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