Challenges and Rewards: Using Laban/Bartenieff Fundamentals

in Movement Coaching William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

by

Stefan Sittig

CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION

When asked to be movement coach for Virginia Commonwealth University's 1996 production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, directed by Dr. Kenneth Campbell, I immediately accepted the challenge.  I did not know exactly what lay ahead of me, but I was determined to apply what I had learned since beginning my work as a movement coach.  As my work with the cast of Julius Caesar progressed, what I had feared was a common physical problem of contemporary actors came to surface.  These actors were unsure of how to use their bodies to communicate Shakespeare's words efficiently on the stage.

By viewing these actors I realized that the twentieth century theatre world has not placed enough emphasis on movement.   Many of the actors cast in Julius Caesar were appearing on stage for the first time in their college careers and they often treated the stage as if it were a film/tv studio.  Instead of focusing on a fully embodied performance (that is, a performance that utilizes all of an actor's equipment, including the body and voice), these actors were trying to recreate the world of film and television on the stage. Understandably, many of these beginning actors were probably just emulating whatever examples of acting to which they had been exposed; probably from film or television.  But film and television actors use physical restraint, almost a sort of transparency, to recreate what they envision as actual movement.  Although this style of acting is still a valuable skill for an actor to possess, it is very specific to the medium and can be deadly on stage.  Stage acting is not supposed to be an exact replica of everyday movement.

While the film and TV screen is intimate and the audience is often provided with close-ups, the stage is more distant, people appear smaller, faces are less distinguishable and gestures are more easily missed.  Movement in theatrical acting should be the  "artistic enhancement of human action. . ." (1), not just a reproduction of actual mannerisms and habits.  This idea was the crux of my work on this project and I made sure every actor I coached understood that essential difference.

I use the above definition of theatrical movement, created by Rudolph Laban, a renowned movement instructor, because his contribution to movement coaching has been tremendous and his work has been the main source for this project.  By dividing actor's movements into eight "movement qualities", Laban was able to create a system that allowed the movement coach to effectively communicate with the actor.  I used Laban technique throughout my movement coaching work on this project, and I found it to be efficient, clear and even ground breaking in some cases.  The eight movement qualities, which I shall describe later in detail, were invaluable in helping me be as specific as possible when working with the actors.

These actors were often so scared of using their bodies that then, when they had to work with a non-contemporary text that is in verse and demands a complete physical commitment, the challenge increased.  William Shakespeare is perhaps the most difficult of playwrights for contemporary actors with movement problems and this particular group was no exception. 

Despite the enormity of the task, what I ended up creating and working on consisted of two main sections.  The first, and much smaller section consisted of working with the entire cast to be able to achieve the accurate portrayal of the way people moved during the period in which the production was set.  Dr. Campbell, the director, eventually chose the 1930's and I thrilled at the chance to do period research by using film and photographs from that period.  The second and more extensive section consisted of working specifically and individually with three main actors playing crucial roles in the production: Jason Linkins (Marcus Brutus), Jake Burger (Caius Cassius) and Paige Larson (Portia).  This is where my Laban research became most useful.  In my work with these three actors, I frequently used Laban terminology, specifically the eight movement qualities, to communicate what I wanted from them.  For this section I also knew I could use the training I had amassed in my work with Melanie Richards and other movement coaches of Laban Movement Analysis.  Having this two-prong project set in mind I started my work.

(1)  Rudolf Laban, Mastery of Movement (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd, 1988), 7.