The Body Speaks: Performance and Expression

Lorna Marshall's revolutionary new book, The Body Speaks, is a fundamental rethinking of our relationship to the body and its role in performance. Seventy percent of everyday conversation is conveyed through body language. Lorna Marshall shows us how to recognize and lose unwanted physical inhibitions that we've learned throughout life. Good performers—no matter whether they're trapeze artists or Shakespearean actors—are able to fully reach their audience and engage with them because they have learned to use their bodies to their best effect. Marshall encourages actors in training as well as those already working on the stage to unleash our potential and express ourselves more clearly in a book destined to become a standard volume on any working or training actor's bookshelf.

ISBN-13: 9781403960283

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Publication Date: 12-20-2002

Pages: 240

Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.54(d)

Lorna Marshall is one of the foremost theater practitioners in the world today dealing with stage movement. She has worked in both western and eastern traditions of theater and collaborated with some of the most well-known directors in the world, most notably Peter Brook. Yoshi Oida is a Japanese actor and author of The Invisible. He is best known for his work with Peter Brook's Paris-based theater company.

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From the Publisher

"Marshall tends to focus on the inner being and the actor’s inner response...highly recommended..." — Library Journal

Table of Contents

Foreword by Yoshi Oida * Preface * Part One: Discovery and Preparation * Introduction * Connecting to the Body * Impulse and Response * Emotion * Voice and Words * What Stops us Working * Going Further * Part Two: Putting it into Practice * Introduction * Connecting to Others * Character * The Audience * Hints on Style and Technique * Conclusion