Discovery through Re-discovery: Using embodied knowledge to rediscover historical exercise

This presentation will explore ways in which the previous knowledge and embodied experiences of modern performers can be used to rediscover historical exercises that are new and unfamiliar in modern theatrical practice. In the course of my PhD, I have investigated eighteenth-century acting techniques using Gilli Bush-Bailey and Jacky Bratton’s methodology of ‘Revival’ (2011) to fill in the gaps of knowledge in historical evidence available in the archive. This methodology consists of asking modern performers, including myself, to use their embodied knowledge of performance to bring the historical evidence to ‘life’. With no living practitioners available to consult on the proper use of eighteenth-century acting techniques, I have looked to modern exercises and acting styles to give insight into how archived exercises described in documents, or drawn by artists, could have actually been used. This talk will discuss the process by which we tackled these historical texts and acting styles, and then briefly touch on how these discoveries can amplify the performance of eighteenth-century plays today.

Semane Parsons is a third-year CHASE/AHRC funded PhD student at the University of Kent. Her thesis is a Practice-as-Research study of mid-eighteenth century acting and gender performativity. In 2018 she completed a six-month placement at Shakespeare’s Globe in London as a Research Assistant in the Education Department with Dr Farah Karim-Cooper. Prior to enrolling for a PhD, she finished an MA in Actor Training and Coaching at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and worked as an actor and director in London and New York. Her primary performance training was at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She has taught in South Africa and the UK, most recently evening acting courses at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a module on Sex, Gender and Performance: Beyond the Binary at the University of Kent.