CLASS/ACT EMBODIED PRACTICES FOR PERFORMATIVE PEDAGOGY

Class/Act: Embodied Practices for Performative Pedagogy is a personal and practical exploration of embodiment’s role in higher education acting pedagogy. In my thesis, I propose that embodied acting practices rooted in phenomenology and corporeal dramaturgy surpass conventional acting curricula. Embodied training is often confused with movement curricula and is regularly considered a shallow and/or unintelligent means to approaching acting work. However, I will argue the efficiency and effectiveness of embodied teaching techniques in four parts. Part One: Seeing is a retrospective of how my personal experiences outside of the classroom have drawn me toward embodied aesthetics. Part Two: Knowing unveils my research of embodiment, its origins, and its impact on theatrical disciplines. Part Three: Being/Doing is an in-depth look into diverse schools of acting and how they fall short of fully embracing embodied practices. Part Four: Becoming is an introduction to my creation of an embodied business approach for actors called Professional Embodied Preparation (PEP) and continues the discussion of embodiment’s transformative influence and integration into the higher education curricula. Throughout the thesis, I hope to prove that embodied acting pedagogy is an essential tool for providing greater efficiency, proficiency, and auto-didacity for the pre-professional actor in the academic classroom and beyond