WORKSHOPS AND APPROACH

The psycho-physical process tackles how to subtly transform physically and mentally into a character. It helps to develop openness and sensitivity to space, image and impulse and cultivate connectivity to yourself and your surroundings. The process puts the actor as artist at the heart of the creating, celebrating and cultivating the creative potential within a unique individual. 

“It is a known fact that the human body and psychology influence each other and are in constant interplay…the actor, must consider their body as an instrument for expressing creative ideas on the stage, [they] must strive for the attainment of complete harmony between the two.” 

The main purpose in developing the system was to enable the actor to be in ‘the creative state’, to achieve the ‘creative sense of the self’ in each and every performance, experiencing and embodying the role fully, allowing the actor ‘to be in the moment’. 

“We cannot directly command our feelings, but we can entice, provoke and coax them by certain indirect means. The same can be said about our wants…is there such a key to our will power [and feelings]? Yes, and we find it in the movement (action and gesture)... The kind of movement awakens in us a definite corresponding desire, and the quality of the same movement conjures up our feelings.”

The technique asks the question of how to truthfully recreate life itself on stage again and again? The technique approaches acting with the duality of mind and body but is forever endeavouring to connect the two into a harmonious, reactive and intuitive state of being. But by actively exploring character through these two directions it will help identify and release blocks towards realising a truthful embodied performance. By focusing on one it encourages release and resonance in the other, furthering the connection between body and mind. 

“The real task of the creative artist is not merely to copy the outer appearance of life but to interpret life in all it’s facets and profoundness, to show what is behind the phenomena of life… the body and voice are the only physical instruments upon which he [the actor] can play… they can only be of optimum value when motivated by an unceasing flow of artistic impulses; only then can it be more refined, flexible, expressive and, most vital of all, sensitive and responsive to the subtleties which constitute the creative artists inner life. ” 

Key practices people might recognise:

Psychological gesture, 7 levels of tension, animal studies, atmospheres, 4 brothers, Laban, Ideal Centres, Viewpoints, Archetypes.  

Notable Actors that integrate the techniques into their practices :

Simon Callow, Simon Mcburney, Gregory Peck, Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Depp, Helen Hunt, Anthony Quinn, Marilyn Monroe.