Acting with Passion - A Performer's Guide to Emotions on Cue (Paperback)

Every acting system, method and technique taught today - from Stanislavski's to the Method and Hagen's approach - concerns itself with the following: allowing the actor to stay fresh and spontaneous during eight performances a week, to know how to be 'alive in the moment', to be physically free of tension, access emotions with ease and to stop 'acting from the neck up' or 'over-thinking' the role. Since these established methodologies have evolved, breakthroughs in neuroscience and mind-body psychology now offer an alternative approach to acting. Indeed, so much more is now known about how the brain visualizes, imagines and remembers with more fluid and amazingly rapid processes than Stanislavski could possibly have realized when he developed his system of acting. Acting With Passion draws heavily on the world of mind-body psychology, primarily the work of Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen. Their theories - that the release of chronic muscular tension can be accompanied by the release of emotions - offer actors the keys to emotional ease on stage. Through a series of physical exercises, actors learn to access feelings through the body rather than the mind.Beginning with the body as 'the instrument', Acting With Passion leads actors through a series of physical exercises combining movement, tactile exploration and vocal release. Once physical blocks are removed, the actor then uses memorised text to place the feelings where they belong. Written with her characteristic clarity and simplicity, and using practical exercises to guide the actor through each stage, Acting With Passion is the culmination of Niki Flaks's popular workshops on the subject.