Gesture in the theatre: Addressing Issues with modern pedagogy by bridging empirical studies and theatrical training July 20, 2016

1. Gesture in the theatre: Addressing issues with modern pedagogy
by bridging empirical studies and theatrical training
Ellen Gillooly-Kress, University of Oregon
The Problem in Western Realism
• In Western Realism, actors are expected to work from an
Impoverished communication signal, the script.
• Actors are taught that words from the script and speech are
the source of emotion and meaning.
• There is an implicit expectation of transformation of this signal
into a full and rich communicative experience.
• As an audience, we expect to see “real and spontaneous
behavior on stage,” including spontaneous gesticulation. 1
• However, most training in acting does not address the non-
verbal aspect of communication, e.g. Stanislavski/Meisner.8 9
• It is Implicit in training; the assumption is that “gesture will
take of itself in acting”10
What happens to an actor’s gestural system when acting in
Western Realism?
The Pilot Study
This pilot study measures the behaviors that people will exhibit
while recalling memorized language. This pilot does not aim to
imitate any kind of acting approach, but offers a way to simulate
the emphasis on the words that must be memorized as part of
the acting process.
Procedure
• 9 Participants speaking to Experimenter
• Experiment in 2 sessions
• 1st week: spontaneously produce material:
• Narrative task: 3rd person, Sylvester and Tweety point of
view with Canary Row cartoon11
• Creative environment task: imaginary objects
pareopteryx, had shad and blueblepip 12
• 2nd week: memorized from provided audio clips 25-40 secs.
from each activity: 1) their own words and 2) another’s words
from the same activities.
Coding
• Representational: any aspect of meaning captured (iconic,
mimetic, and emblematic gesture combined)13
• Beat: gesture with no obvious connection to meaning
Results
The results from representational and beat gesture counts are shown by
individual task. The charts are organized by spontaneous condition (1st week),
and the two memorized conditions (2nd week).
Narrative Task
Creative Environment Task
Summary of Results
! !!!
KENDON’S(GESTURAL(CONTINUUM(VS.(PROPOSED(THEATRICAL(CONTINUUM(
Spontaneous(Ges>cula>on( Aux.(Sign(Language(Emblems(Pantomime(
References
References and example table of 3 participants’ individual variation are available on the
back of handout.
Thank you to Eric Pederson, Melissa Baese-Berk, the Gesture work group, and Cognitive
Linguistics work group at University of Oregon for feedback and support.
Spontaneous! Memorized!OWN! Memorized!OTHER!
(Words!held!constant)! (Ac>vity!held!constant)!
Representa)onal,
More,Conven)onalized,Less,Conven)onalized,
Presenta)onal,
Western(Realism( Mime(and(Neutral(Mask(Work( Conven>onalized(Gesture( Dance,(Highly(Ritualized(theatre(
• Dance5
• Noh theatre6
• Chinese Opera7
• Kathakali4
• Classical Greek
theatre7
• Brechtian Gestus: “a single
aspect of an attitude is revealed
through conventional means” 3
• Mudras4
• French Mime (ex. Marcel Marceau)
• Lecoq school of mime
• Clowning 2
• Psychological
realism
• Literary tradition,
work from scripts
• The goal is to invent/
discover “real and
spontaneous”
behavior on stage1
21!
8! 5!
41!
25!
19!
0!
20!
40!
60!
80!
100!
120!
3rd!Person!!
(n=7)!
Sylvester!POV!!!
(n=9)!
Tweety!POV!!!
(n=8)!
Beat!
Representa>onal!
68!
46!
21!
36!
21!
15!
0!
20!
40!
60!
80!
100!
120!
3rd!person!!
(n=7)!
Sylvester!POV!
(n=9)!
Tweety!POV!!!
(n=8)!
Beat!
Representa>onal!
10! 7! 6!
18!
17!
11!
0!
20!
40!
60!
80!
100!
120!
3rd!Person!!
(n=7)!
Sylvester!POV!!!
(n=9)!
Tweety!POV!!!
(n=8)!
Beat!
Representa>onal!
32! 27!
35!
19! 32!
27!
0!
20!
40!
60!
80!
100!
Pareopteryx!
(n=9)!
Had!Shad!
(n=8)!
Blueblepip!
(n=9)!
Beat!
Representa>onal!
14! 10! 10!
15!
31!
18!
0!
20!
40!
60!
80!
100!
Pareopteryx!
(n=9)!
Had!Shad!
(n=8)!
Blueblepip!
(n=9)!
Beat!
Representa>onal!
1!
12!
4!
13!
19!
19!
0!
20!
40!
60!
80!
100!
Pareopteryx!
(n=9)!
Had!Shad!
(n=8)!
Blueblepip!
(n=9)!
Beat!
Representa>onal!
Spontaneous! Memorized!OWN! Memorized!OTHER!
(Words!held!constant)! (Ac>vity!held!constant)!
0!
20!
40!
60!
80!
100!
120!
3rd!person!!
(n=7)!
Sylvester!POV!
(n=9)!
Tweety!POV!!!
(n=8)!
Pareopteryx!
(n=9)!
Had!Shad!
(n=8)!
Blueblepip!
(n=9)!
Beat!
Representa>onal!
0!
20!
40!
60!
80!
100!
120!
3rd!Person!!
(n=7)!
Sylvester!POV!!!
(n=9)!
Tweety!POV!!!
(n=8)!
Pareopteryx!
(n=9)!
Had!Shad!
(n=8)!
Blueblepip!
(n=9)!
Beat!
Representa>onal!
Spontaneous! Memorized!OTHER!
ISGS!7!Paris,!France!18V22!July!2016!
Discussion
• Research suggests that spontaneous gesture is ubiquitous,
automatic and hard to suppress.14
• Representational gesture: there is little production of representational
gesture in memorized contexts. Yet, This may be the type of gesture
an audience perceives as meaningful in performance.
• Beat gesture: they appear in the same numbers regardless of
condition. Gesture as a rhythmic or pacing tool in articulatory
planning still exists in memorized production.
Conclusion
• Representational gesture seems to be produced only with
spontaneous production rather than memorized/scripted language.
• If Western Realism’s goal is spontaneous behavior on stage, training
needs to recognize the unnaturalness of gesture production while
reciting memorized language.
Future Directions
• Intonation differences in all three conditions will be explored and
compared to gesture production.15
• Ultimate study will contrast this population with professional actors.
• Different approaches to acting may lead to different gesture
profiles. 1, 8
• How can acting pedagogy be modified to train young actors to
achieve this kind of “natural” behavior?

2. Ellen Gillooly-Kress, University of Oregon, ekress@uoregon.edu
References
[1] Stanislavski, C. (2013). An actor prepares. A&C Black.
[2] Lecoq, J. (2009). The Moving Body (Le Corps Poetique): Teaching Creative Theatre. A&C Black.
[3] Bai, R. (1998). Dances with Mei Lanfang: Brecht and the Alienation Effect. Comparative Drama, 32(3), 389–433.
[4] Zarrilli, P. (2003). Kathakali dance-drama: where gods and demons come to play. Routledge.
[5] Camurri, A., Mazzarino, B., Ricchetti, M., Timmers, R., & Volpe, G. (2003). Multimodal Analysis of Expressive Gesture in Music and Dance Performances. In A.
Camurri & G. Volpe (Eds.), Gesture-Based Communication in Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 20–39). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
[6] Fenollosa, E., & Pound, E. (1959). The Classic Noh Theatre of Japan (Vol. 79). New Directions Publishing.
[7] Carlson, M. A. (1993). Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present. Cornell University Press.
[8] Meisner, S., & Longwell, D. (2012). Sanford Meisner on acting. Vintage.
[9] Theatre Arts Requirements, University of Oregon (n.d.) retrieved from: http://uocatalog.uoregon.edu/arts_sciences/theaterarts/theaterarts.pdf
[10] Kemp, R. (2012). Embodied acting: what neuroscience tells us about performance. Routledge.
[11] Freleng, F (1950). Canary Row. Looney Tunes. Hollywood, CA.
[12] Lewis, C., Lovatt, P., & Kirk, E. (2015). Many hands make light work: Thse facilitative role of gesture in verbal improvisation. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 17, 149–
157.
[13] McNeill, D. (2000). Language and gesture (Vol. 2). Cambridge University Press.
[14] Hoetjes, M., Krahmer, E., & Swerts, M. (2014). Does our speech change when we cannot gesture? Speech Communication, 57, 257–267.
[15] Tooley, K., Konopka, A.; Watson, D. (2014). Can intonational phrase structure be primed (like syntactic structure)? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory, and Cognition, Vol 40(2), 348-363.
Fig. 1: Individual variation in spontaneous vs. memorized OWN vs. memorized OTHER in Narrative task.
0
5
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25
A
B
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3rd
person
Sylvester
POV
Tweety
POV
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25
A
B
C
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B
C
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C
3rd
person
Sylvester
POV
Tweety
POV
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25
A
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3rd
person
Sylvester
POV
Tweety
POV