The Actor and His Body (4th edition) by Litz Pisk

Many teachers may not have Litz Pisk on their radar, although she is considered someone who revolutionised actor-movement training in post-war Britain. This fourth edition of her practical exercises sports a new introduction by Ayse Tashkiran, a professional movement director and senior lecturer at Central School of Speech and Drama. Tashkiran's enlightening extended essay contextualises and connects Pisk with emerging movement practitioners of the early 20th century. She traces Pisk's development from interdisciplinary beginnings in Vienna – a cauldron of European creativity at the time – through a career in Britain as both an innovative movement teacher and professional movement director, working with theatre's eminent Michael Elliot.

Pisk taught at several key conservatoires for actors from the fifties through to the seventies where she transformed and modernised movement training. A core belief in the actor's body as an instrument underpins her exercises; they are designed to keep the body ‘tuned’ and enable actors to become physically eloquent.

For Pisk, movement is a practice of expression for the individual, never a way of acquiring virtuosic technique. Her exercises aim to rid the individual of habitual bodily constraints and achieve a malleable and supple physicality. This frees the actor by getting their own body ‘out of the way to give way to the other’, opening new routes to creative discovery. And gaining control of the body allows transmission from impulse to expression, to amplify thoughts and feelings. An emphasis on making a genuine connection between meaning and movement means audiences can read the inner motivations of characters, whether that might be a desire to fly or a desperate reaction to fate.

This new edition of her book is a welcome addition to any library referencing actor-movement. You can also try the 15, 30 or 60-minute daily warm-ups she outlines at the end, in addition to working through the detailed physical exercises.