Phillip Zarrilli - (toward) a Phenomenology of Acting

In (toward) a phenomenology of acting, Phillip Zarrilli considers acting as a question to be explored in the studio and then reflected upon.

This book is a vital response to Jerzy Grotowskis essential question: How does the actor touch that which is untouchable? Phenomenology invites us to listen to the things themselves, to be attentive to how we sensorially, kinesthetically, and affectively engage with acting as a phenomenon and process. Using detailed first-person accounts of acting across a variety of dramaturgies and performances from Beckett to newly co-created performances to realism, it provides an account of how we do or practice phenomenology when training, performing, directing, or teaching. Zarrilli brings a wealth of international and intercultural experience as a director, performer, and teacher to this major new contribution both to the practices of acting and to how we can reflect in depth on those practices.

An advanced study for actors, directors, and teachers of acting that is ideal for both the training/rehearsal studio and research, (toward) a phenomenology of acting is an exciting move forward in the philosophical understanding of acting as an embodied practice.

Phillip Zarrilli is Artistic Director of The Llanarth Group and Emeritus Professor of Performance Practice at Exeter University, UK. He directs, performs, and teaches internationally, with recent professional productions in the UK, Singapore, Costa Rica, Ireland, and Norway. Zarrilli is widely known for his publications on acting including Psychophysical Acting: An Intercultural Approach After Stanislavski (2009, 2010 Outstanding Book of the Year, ATHE); Intercultural Acting and Performer Training, co-editor; Acting (Re)Considered: Theories and Practices, editor; and Acting: Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Perspectives, co-author.

Responses to (toward) a phenomenology of acting

A master of practice-based research, Phillip B. Zarrilli transports us in this book to experiences that Stanislavsky and Grotowski could only imagine. Combining phenomenology, cognitive science, dynamic systems theory, the enactive approach and a lifetime of discoveries as an actor, director, Asian-inspired actor trainer, interdisciplinary philosopher and international performance maker, Zarrilli expertly unlocks what the lay-actor might call being in the moment. Every page gave me pause for thought; in fact, the reading experience itself was phenomenological! Written with great poetic style and evocativeness, this impressive tome takes Zarrillis already impactful contribution to contemporary acting many steps further. Its destined to become a twenty-first-century classic.

Bella Merlin, Actor, Professor of Acting at University of California at Riverside, Author

In this exhaustive, lucid, and rigorous study, informed by years of studio work, Zarrilli explains how the actor can nurture and grow through the act of embodiment, attending to lived experience and enriching it through work on awareness. The book provides a clear and unpretentious view of how one might apply the field of phenomenology in training and rehearsal, to enrich approaching the creative state of the actor. Offering profound insights, Zarrilli examines in detail phenomenologys potential implications for a wide range of acting practices, from Stanislavskis later work on experiencing to the actors work in the post dramatic context. It takes the reader on a journey between disciplines, repositioning both processes of acting and the languages we use to reflect on and lead actor training. It is a far reaching and thrilling journey into the embodied processes of acting which will liberate the actor.

Ian Morgan, Performer and Course Leader MA Theatre LAB (RADA)

with a foreword by Evan Thompson

First published 2020

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Phillip Zarrilli

The right of Phillip Zarrilli to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Zarrilli, Phillip B., 1947 author.

Title: (toward) a phenomenology of acting / Phillip Zarrilli ; with a foreword by Evan Thompson.

Other titles: Toward a phenomenology of acting

Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019028923 (print) | LCCN 2019028924 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138777675 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138777682 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429322525 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: ActingPhilosophy. | Acting.

Classification: LCC PN2061 .Z37 2019 (print) | LCC PN2061 (ebook) | DDC 792.02/8dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028923

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028924

ISBN: 978-1-138-77767-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-77768-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-32252-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Garamond

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

For Caitlin:

Thanks for the journeys we have taken together in life and in the studio.

Onwards ever onwards