Viewpoints

Viewpoints

Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that provides a vocabulary for thinking about and acting upon movement and gesture. Originally developed in the 1970s by choreographer Mary Overlie, Viewpoints theory was adapted for stage acting by directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau.

Overlie's Six Viewpoints (space, story, time, emotion, movement, and shape) are a more logical way to examine movement and work better for analysis. Bogart's Viewpoints work better in a practical way for creating movement. It is telling that Bogart threw out emotion and story, since these issues so dominate the thinking of most actors, there was little need to isolate them as Viewpoints. In Bogart's Viewpoint work, actors are invited to work with isolated issues that are outside of the narrative mindset assumed in most acting training.

The Six Viewpoints

TEMS

Easy way to remember the six elements of Viewpoints, and also signifies which elements Mary Overlie considered the most important. Note the change from the classical and modern periods in performance art, where story always took precedent over the other elements. Viewpoints is part of the post-modern tradition, in that there is no hierarchy in the different elements that make "theatre."

pace

*Architecture - The physical environment, the space, and whatever belongs to it or constitutes it, including permanent and non-permanent features.
*Spatial Relationship - Distance between objects on stage; one body in relation to another, to a group, or to the architecture.
*Topography - The movement over landscape, floor pattern, design.

hape

*Shape - The contour or outline of bodies in space; the shape of the body by itself, in relation to other bodies, or in relation to architecture; think of lines, curves, angles, arches all stationary or in motion.
*Gesture - a) Behavioral gesture: realistic gesture belonging to the physical world as we observe it everyday. b) Expressive gesture: abstract or symbolic gesture expressing an inner state or emotion; it is not intended as a public or "realistic" gesture.

Time

*Tempo - How fast or slow something happens on stage.
*Duration - How long an event occurs over time; how long a person or a group maintains a particular movement, tempo, gesture, etc. before it changes.
*Kinesthetic Response - A spontaneous reaction to a motion that occurs outside of oneself. An instinctive response to an external stimulus.
*Repetition - a) Internal: repeating a movement done with one's own body, and b) External: repeating a movement occurring outside one's body.

Emotion

Movement

*Movement of your body, different ways of moving - for example, jerky versus smooth/flowy versus very slowly or fast. The movement of different parts of your body.

tory

Integration/Isolation

*All of the different elements influence each other and work together, and can "cause" a change in a different element. For example, the shape of your body may carry a certain emotion with it as well - something in the space of your environment may make a story out what you are doing - etc.
*The actors must focus first on the isolation of each separate viewpoint element on its own, before integrating and working them all together. It's often that a performer finds one of the elements comes naturally, and perhaps uses that one element they really understand to access the other elements, which they must work to become more familiar with.

References:

* Bogart, Anne. 2001. "A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre". London: Routledge. ISBN 0 415 23832 3.
* Bogart, Anne. 2007. "And Then, You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World". London: Routledge. ISBN 0 415 41142 4.
* Bogart, Anne and Tina Landau. 2005. "The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition." New York: Theatre Communications Group. ISBN 1-55936-241-3.
* Dixon, Michael Bigelow and Joel A. Smith, eds. 1995. "Anne Bogart:Viewpoints". Career Development Ser. Lyme, NH: Smith and Kraus. ISBN 1 880399 94 6.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • viewpoints — n. point of view, standpoint, position; observation point …   English contemporary dictionary

  • Opposing Viewpoints series — The Opposing Viewpoints series is a series of books on current issues which seeks to explore the varying opinions in a balanced pros/cons debate. The series attempts to encourage critical thinking and issue awareness by providing opposing views… …   Wikipedia

  • New World Order: Opposing Viewpoints — The New World Order: Opposing Viewpoints is a book in the Opposing Viewpoints series. It presents selections of contrasting viewpoints on five central questions about the new world order[1]: what it will be; what role the U.S. will play in it;… …   Wikipedia

  • Criticisms of anti-scientific viewpoints — are many and varied. Most seem to focus on the confusion of conceptual metaphors arising in the process of learning science and negotiating acceptance of scientific truth in the larger culture. In Western education, for instance, students are… …   Wikipedia

  • War - Opposing Viewpoints — War: Opposing Viewpoints is a book, in the Opposing Viewpoints Series, presenting selections of contrasting viewpoints on four central questions about war: what causes war; when war is justified; how war should be conducted; and, how war can be… …   Wikipedia

  • Department of Defense Architecture Framework — DoD Architecture Framework.[1] The Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) is an architecture framework for the United States Department of Defense, that provides structure for a specific stakeholder concern through viewpoints… …   Wikipedia

  • RM-ODP — Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (RM ODP) is a reference model in computer science, which provides a co ordinating framework for the standardization of open distributed processing (ODP). It supports distribution, interworking,… …   Wikipedia

  • Anekantavada — Part of a series on Jain philosophy Concepts Anekāntavāda · Syādvāda · Nayavāda · …   Wikipedia

  • PREview — (Process and Requirements Viewpoints) is a requirements method which focuses on the early stage of Requirements Engineering: discovering and documenting requirements. PREview uses a Viewpoint Oriented Approach to enable the conversion of top… …   Wikipedia

  • Alan Kay — Infobox Scientist name = Alan Curtis Kay image width = 150px caption = Alan C. Kay birth date = birth date and age|1940|5|17 birth place = date = 5988 place = residence = citizenship = United States nationality = ethnicity = field = Computer… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”