Lorna Marshall

Yoshi Oida

Yoshi Oida is a Japanese actor and director who has worked mainly in the West as a member of Peter Brook's theatre company in Paris. He blends the oriental tradition of supreme and studied control with the Western performer's need to characterise and expose depths of emotion. In this study of the actor's art written with Lorna Marshall, Yoshi Oida provides every performer with all the simple tools which help place the technique of acting behind a cloak of invisibility. Yoshi Oida believes that once the audience becomes openly aware of the actor's method and becomes too conscious of the actor's artistry, the wonder of performance dies. The audience must never see the actor but only his or her performance.

The Invisible Actor

The Invisible Actor presents the captivating and unique methods of the distinguished Japanese actor and director, Yoshi Oida. While a member of Peter Brook's theatre company in Paris, Yoshi Oida developed a masterful approach to acting that combined the oriental tradition of supreme and studied control with the Western performer's need to characterise and expose depths of emotion. Written with Lorna Marshall, Yoshi Oida explains that once the audience becomes openly aware of the actor's method and becomes too conscious of the actor's artistry, the wonder of performance dies. The audience must never see the actor but only his or her performance. Throughout Lorna Marshall provides contextual commentary on Yoshi Oida's work and methods. In a new foreword to accompany the Bloomsbury Revelations edition, Yoshi Oida revisits the questions that have informed his career as an actor and explores how his skilful approach to acting has shaped the wider contours of his life.

'Stimulating and intelligent' Yoshi Oida Seventy percent of everyday conversation is conveyed through body language, twenty percent is the voice and only ten percent is the meaning of the words. In The Body Speaks, expert RADA trainer Lorna Marshall, shows how to recognise and lose unwanted physical inhibitions that our background, education or family have taught us and presents a fundamental re-thinking of our relationship to the body and its role in performance. Good performers - be they trapeze artists, Shakespearean actors, Butoh dancers or film stars - are able to fully reach their audience and engage with them because they have learnt to use their bodies to its best effect. Through a series of practical exercises, Lorna Marshall encourages us to unleash our potential, discover new possibility for the body and express ourselves more clearly. This new edition has been fully revised to include the latest thinking on the subject and more exercises particularly for performers in TV and film.

Performance and physical expression

The Body Speaks

Megan Biesele

The Ceremonial Dance of The!Kung Bushmen : a Study Guide

N/um Tchai

N/um Tchai : the Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen

The !Kung of Nyae Nyae

With style and depth, Lorna Marshall leads the reader through the intricacies, ambiguities, and silences of !Kung beliefs. Her narrative, based on fieldwork among the Bushmen of the Kalahari in the early 1950s, brings into focus a way of life that appears to have existed for millennia. She presents the culture, beliefs, and spirituality of one of the last true hunting-and-gathering peoples by focusing on members of different bands as they reveal their own views. This account, with photography by John Marshall, presents a system of beliefs, one in which personified deities and unpersonifled supernatural forces (n!ow and n/um) interact with man and the natural world. The !Kung believe that this interaction accounts for much of the mystery of life and the vicissitudes of the good and evil that befall mankind. The book also depicts an egalitarian lifestyle based on sharing and group awareness, a lifestyle that has not survived intact the increasing integration of the Bushmen into the modern world.

Nyae Nyae !Kung Beliefs and Rites

His account includes an explanation of the genesis of the techniques and exercises which have formed the basis of their internationally-celebrated work.

An Actor Adrift

A founding member of Peter Brook's international theatre company, Yoshi Oida infuses his acting and directing with the artistry of the Oriental traditions and a mastery of Western forms. In this disarmingly accessible study of the art of acting he shares his unique experience and range of expertise. An Actor's Tricks offers a meticulous scrutiny of the actor's preparation for performance and comes with a foreword by Peter Brook. Drawing on an unrivalled wealth and range of expertise in the fields of acting, directing and training, Yoshi Oida and Lorna Marshall provide an authoritative and fascinating study of the art of the actor. In scrutinising the process of performance from the twin perspectives of the actor and director, An Actor's Tricks is filled with hints, insights and stories from productions with Peter Brook and from around the world. Beginning with the daily preparation to train the body, it moves to the process of rehearsal for a performance right up to the moment when the actor steps onstage. An appendix of practical exercises is included for the actor to follow. The books combines principles and techniques from both Western and Eastern disciplines of acting to provide a masterful study essential for every actor and director.

An Actor's Tricks

'A fundamental rethinking of our relationship to the body and its role in performance Seventy percent of everyday conversation is conveyed through body language, twenty percent is the voice and only ten percent is the meaning of the words. In The Body Speaks Lorna Marshall shows how to recognise and lose unwanted physical inhibitions that our background, education or family have taught us. Good performers - be they trapeze artists, Shakespearean actors, Butoh dancers or film stars - are able to fully reach their audience and engage with them because they have learnt to use their bodies to its best effect. Lorna Marshall encourages us to unleash our potential and express ourselves more clearly.'

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

An Actor Adrift is the remarkable account of Japanese actor director Yoshi Oida, who in 1968 left Japan and joined Peter Brook's international theatre company in Paris. Since then he has become a leading member and trainer in the company. In this book, part personal story and part a workbook for actors and directors wishing to understand and employ Peter Brook's techniques, Oida describes the formation and early training of Brook's company and provides an account of the first decade of work. It provides a fascinating account of the company's first public performance - The Conference of the Birds in Iran, of the extraordinary explorative journey that followed through Africa, of work in America and of the return to work in France. While he relates productions of The Ik, The Conference of the Birds, The Mahabharata, Orghast and Timon of Athens, he interweaves his vivid personal experience as an actor in whom Eastern and Western culture and practices come together.

A guide to stage movement provides exercises that help actors rid themselves of unwanted physical habits and discover new ways to communicate effectively through the body.

Lorna Marshall

Books

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