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Physicality and Acting

Movement Training as a Catalyst for Change

Physicality and Acting cover

Physicality and Acting

Movement Training as a Catalyst for Change

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Pre-order. Available 16 Apr 2026
£22.49 RRP £24.99 Website price saving £2.50 (10%)

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Description

Movement teachers, from outliers to pioneers, have changed theatre and physical expression for ever.

In recognition of the movement pioneers, this book is part-memoir and part-historical research as author Shona Morris traces the roots of her own pedagogy for movement training in drama schools from these radical beginnings. She acknowledges some of the shadows, which affected her own practice, the provenance of Laban in particular, and the current need for discourse to review these approaches, through practice-based research.

The book includes exercises and approaches developed by the author in the classroom and the studio that illustrate how actors can link their physicality to the craft of transformation and interpretation. The exercises accessibly cover both technical and expressive work, and offer principles for transformation through animal study, mask work, and character work.

The book also includes numerous practical examples, interviews and cases studies of how to teach and apply movement to theatre making. It also offers ways to facilitate your own vision and actor's movement course in response to the present moment.

Lively, imaginative, critical and investigative, this book mirrors Morris's classes and her approach to theatre. It is an essential read for anyone interested in how actors are trained in movement and how theatre is made.

Table of Contents

Preface

PART ONE


Introduction - What is Actor Movement Training?

Chapter 1 - How to Use This Book
Two Strands of Movement: Pure and Expressive Movement

Chapter 2 - The Elastic Body
A State of Readiness
Technical and creative foundation work for Actors - the body
Pure Movement- First Classes

Chapter 3 - Expressive Movement
First Classes – core principles
Working together, listening and responding using space.
Technical and creative foundation – the ensemble

Chapter 4- The Swings
The Liberators

PART TWO

Chapter 5 - Stories of adaptation and transformation
Creative Expression and Play through Matter, Animals, Shapes and Movement Qualities Expressive Movement developed

Chapter 6 - Breaking away
The other
The Neutral Mask and the Mask

Chapter 7 - Working with the elements and how to apply them to theatre-making and complex text

Chapter 8 - The Chorus: Ancient and Modern and the democratic space

PART THREE

Chapter 9 - Rehearsing with movement and how to make innovative work

Chapter 10 - How to make your own system using these fundamental techniques

Further reading

Bibliography

Index

Product details

Explore Methuen Drama
Published 16 Apr 2026
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 256
ISBN 9781350369146
Imprint Methuen Drama
Illustrations 12 b&w
Dimensions 244 x 169 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Shona Morris

Shona Morris was the former Lead Movement Tutor at…

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