Quick questions on Movement and physicality: HSC Drama

The body is on stage from before the first line to after the last. The audience reads the body continuously: the carriage, the rhythm of breath, the use of space, the relationships between performers. Untrained bodies move randomly or in narrow patterns; trained bodies move with deliberate intention.

Posture. The carriage of the body. High status, low status, age, energy, mood are all communicated through posture. Trained performers choose posture for character and sustain it. Common postural exercises:

Several movement traditions inform contemporary drama training:

A typical pre-rehearsal movement warm-up runs 10 to 20 minutes:

In strong performance, movement and voice are integrated. A character's vocal pace is supported by their physical pace; their vocal register is supported by their physical carriage; their pauses are framed by physical stillness. The amateur fault is to work on voice and movement separately and never integrate them.

Realist theatre. Movement looks natural, but is in fact carefully designed to look natural. A character's gait, posture and gesture are deliberate even when reading as ordinary.

Random movement. Moving without intention. The body wanders; the audience cannot read the movement.

The carriage of the body. High status, low status, age, energy, mood are all communicated through posture. Trained performers choose posture for character and sustain it.

Movement of arms, hands and head used to communicate. Specific exercises:

The way a character moves through space. Specific exercises:

The ability to hold a still body fully present. Specific exercises:

The performer's relationship to other bodies and to the playing space. Specific exercises:

The total physical identity of a character. Built across rehearsal through:

French actor-trainer. Lecoq's school in Paris (founded 1956) trained many of the major figures of contemporary physical theatre. The Lecoq method uses neutral mask, the seven levels of tension, the four elements (water, fire, earth, air) as physical approaches, animal work, and clowning.

Hungarian movement theorist. Laban Movement Analysis identifies four "effort actions" (punch, dab, glide, slash, flick, wring, press, float) that combine three qualities: time (sudden or sustained), weight (light or strong) and space (direct or indirect). Laban's framework is the standard vocabulary for movement analysis in many theatre training programs.