Movement, Text, Performance (Elements in Contemporary Performance Texts)

This Element argues that movement, overseen by a movement director, is vital for theatre-making. It can support actors with characterisation and playing others responsibly and ethically, for scripted and non-scripted tasks: from dances to fights, from parades to murders, or other human behaviour. Movement directing is an increasingly common role as it helps forge an ensemble and build 'worlds' on stage, and plays a crucial part in shaping how actors work with and in space. The Element's autoethnographic approach draws on the author's movement direction for ten productions in the UK, most with director Katie Mitchell, based on his research into and experience with Gardzienice Theatre Association, Poland, from 1989. The Element offers a perspective that is missing in accounts of Mitchell's oeuvre and much British movement scholarship by examining the influence of the Grotowskian lineage on British theatre and by discussing voice work and text delivery, something often overlooked.