"Theatre and Boxing focuses on a problem which is of paramount importance for any theatre practitioner and researcher: the actor’s believable body. This problem has been taken up by Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Artaud, Brecht, Decroux, Copeau, Grotowski, and many others. It is an essential hurdle for all who practice the theatrical craft or want to study it theoretically. This hurdle can be considered one of the foundations of theatre science and of the relationship between technique, politics and ethics.
This book tells the story of a revolution in the work of the actor in the early- and mid-20th century, a period in which the focus of theatrical interest shifted from the emotions to the body. The actor’s body became a tool for purveying a dynamic set of actions which often transformed the very actor himself. This new centrality of the body also drew attention to those places in which the body is central: the gym, the boxing ring and the circus with its trapezes and tightropes became, together with the stage, laboratories for the theatre. Thus, in addition to the reformers of the theatre the pages of this book are filled with boxers, acrobats, gymnasts and wrestlers, pursuers of an utopia: the ""actor who flies""."
By:
Franco Ruffini
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 362g
ISBN: 9780415719261
ISBN 10: 0415719267
Series: Routledge Icarus
Pages: 183
Publication Date: 23 June 2014
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword, Boxing, Gymnasiums and bals musette, Boxers and acrobats, The actor who flies, Envoi, Index
Franco Ruffini teaches at the Rome Tre University. He is a member of the scientific staff of ISTA, the International School of Theatre Anthropology, of which he is one of the founders together with Eugenio Barba. He sits on the Board of Editors of the journal Teatro e Storia.
Reviews for Theatre and Boxing: The Actor who Flies
"""A must for anyone who really wants to understand the factors which influence change in theatre practice."" - The Stage"
