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1st July 2026
By Olivia Dowd – Course Leader
In this blog, I want to walk you through some of the methodologies we will cover in the 5-day Embodied Acting course this August. If at any point in your reading you lose the thread or it feels too heady, please accept my apologies. Unsurprisingly, ‘Embodied Acting’ is something best felt and experienced in the body in a room full of other people before we make sense of it in our mind. Here, however, I have tried to break down why I think these methods are useful for the actor’s toolkit.
Cultivating Presence
Sinéad Cusack once said ‘acting is shy people’s revenge on the world’. You may not completely agree with this, but let’s stay with it. A shy person might feel or appear less visible than their externally confident peers, yet often is doing tremendous work under the surface: observing, listening, sensing. One component of ‘embodied acting’ then is the exploration and sharpening of these skills or what Ellen Lauren and the Suzuki Company of Toga might term ‘the invisible body’:
‘I have come to understand that the real significance of the training lies in creating a vivid presence in stillness and a sharpening of concentration to the present moment onstage’ – Ellen Lauren, ‘The Invisible Body’
Here ‘training’ is in reference to the Suzuki Method, something we will draw on each morning. Through a series of strict movements, we will learn to control our breath, centre of gravity, voice and energy (the cumulative product of combining the previous three with an imagined fiction, or an ‘objective’, an ‘action’, a ‘preoccupation’). In this process of sharpening internal and external awareness, I have seen actors transform and generate a real magnetic presence on stage. This is a great starting point and so often missed in acting methodologies that pedestal the psychological.
Expanding Awareness and Spontaneity
Building on this presence, we will deepen our awareness and research practice in relation to Shape, Space, Time, Emotion, Movement and Story – otherwise known as the Viewpoints (a movement methodology created by the choreographer Mary Overlie and subsequently developed by Anne Bogart and the SITI company). These are the deconstructed ingredients of a performance which are available and present at any one time. Through a series of exercises, we will explore these ‘Viewpoints’ individually and together, creating space for improv, spontaneity and ensemble work. By building our relationship to these, we will also strengthen our individual artistry as we green light our own impulses and lens with which to view/approach auditions or rehearsal rooms.
For example, a common phrase deployed in Viewpoints training is that the ‘problem is the material ’, where one or multiple of these components become a ‘problem’ for the actor to engage with: ‘the material’. Declan Donnelan would agree that time and space are not meant to be ‘the character’s friend’ (see Cheek by Jowl’s podcast ‘Not True but Useful’). These heightened problems of time and space, as in Macbeth’s murder of Duncan in his chamber, creates immense tension and drama but only if the actors are alive to them: the ticking clock of the guards waking up (time) and the proximity of Donalbain (space). If we see the actors have a genuine awareness of these, we feel their burden bleed into our own nervous systems. This is inherently ‘embodied’ as it requires the use of the actors’ whole being in relation to their environment.
We will therefore combine this work with text and see how it can build performances that are alive and exciting.
Clarifying Character
When we think about developing character, we can often rely on the psychological questions: who are we, what do we want and why? In life, we might not be so conscious of why we do things. And whilst we may describe a friend or a loved one by their qualities, we often justify them by what it is they do that makes them so generous, funny, stubborn. To this end, it can be helpful to remember that character development instead comes from the sum of someone’s actions and how they are executed rather than a psychological awareness of why they are doing what they do. We will therefore draw upon some traditional Stanislavski actioning, combined with the physical work of Rasabox emotions, Laban efforts and Michael Chekhov’s psychophysical work. When we work with these, we can break habits and find clarity in our choices. By playing with our breath, voice and body, we can also find dynamism and more ‘off-centre’ choices.
Remembering
In my personal exploration of embodied practices like those listed above, as well as 5 rhythms, contact improv and a deepening connection with nature, one of my favourite phrases I have come across is ‘learning to put your brain in your body’. In a screen-centred society, I am a firm believer that we are losing this art and trust in our wider cellular intelligence. I hope that a by-product of this course will be a greater relationship to ourselves, each other and this nature. What commonly occurs in these spaces is a sense of ‘remembering’ a relationship to our body that we have likely drifted from since childhood or perhaps never truly known but also never really lost.
Embodied Acting
Our five-day Embodied Acting intensive is designed for actors who want to move beyond technique and unlock instinctive, truthful performances.
Working with industry professionals, you’ll explore Suzuki, Viewpoints, Laban, Rasabox and somatic practices to develop a stronger connection between mind, body and performance.
Monday 17th August- Friday 21st August 2026