Short description:

Inside The Performance Workshop is the first full-length volume dedicated to the history, theory, practice, and application of a suite of performer training exercises developed by Richard Schechner and elaborated by the editors and contributors.

Long description:

Inside The Performance Workshop: A Sourcebook for Rasaboxes and Other Exercises is the first full-length volume dedicated to the history, theory, practice, and application of a suite of performer training exercises developed by Richard Schechner and elaborated on by the editors and contributors of this book. This work began in the 1960s with The Performance Group and has continued to evolve.

Rasaboxes?a featured set of exercises?is an interdisciplinary approach for training emotional expressivity through the use of breath, body, voice, movement, and sensation. It brings together:

• the concept of rasa from classical Indian performance theory and practice


• research on emotion from neuroscience and psychology


• experimental and experiential performance practices


• theories of ritual, play, and performance

This book combines both practical ?how-to? guidance and applications from diverse contexts including undergraduate and graduate actor training, television acting, K-12 education, devising, and drama therapy. The book serves as an introduction to the work as well as an essential resource for experienced practitioners.

Table of Contents:

Part I: History and Theory

1. Richard Schechner and Origins of The Performance Workshop 

2. What is Rasa?

3. Rasaesthetics

4. Inside The Performance Workshop

5. Principles of The Performance Workshop: An Interview with Richard Schechner

With Paula Murray Cole, Michele Minnick, and Rachel Bowditch

6. The Unavoidable Guru: Roles of The Performance Workshop Leader

7. Freeing Emotional Expression in Young Performers: Rasaboxes in K-12 Context

8. Psychophysical Preparation for the Rasaboxes with Strasberg and Stanislavski

9. Adapting Rasaboxes to Rasa?Therapy: Clinical Applications in Drama Therapy

10. Rasaboxes, Drama Therapy, and Stability Through Dynamic Change: A Case Study

11. Rasaboxes in the Training of Drama Therapists

12. Dancing on the Tongue

13. Lights, Camera, Action! Rasaboxes Training and Coaching for Brazilian Telenovelas

14. Character Building Through Rasaboxes: Staging Electra at Teatro Prometeo

15. Experimenting with the Clown in Rasaboxes

16. Dramaturgy of the Emotions: The Performance Workshop and Rasaboxes in Directing Machinal

Rachel Bowditch