The Greek director Theodore Terzopoulos, a world-famous expert on ancient Greek tragedy, has written a book about bodily techniques that help relieve tension, strengthen the voice and establish a harmonious relationship between body and soul.
Actors in his performances exist, it seems, not even at the limit, but beyond the limits of human capabilities of concentration, energy and acting skills. For many years the method by which Theodore Terzopoulos works has been shrouded in mystery. The audience could only guess what should be happening behind the scenes of the theater, so that on stage you would literally be pierced by the energy of acting — just remember the Quartet with Alla Demidova and Dmitry Pevtsov or the recent premiere at the Perm Academic Opera and Ballet Theater Nosferatu with Teodor Currentzis as a conductor, nominated for the Golden Mask.
The master decided to share the secret by publishing a book about the technique used by the actors of his theater «Atttis», as well as thousands of participants in master classes around the world.
Why did you decide to publish a book about your method now?
Theodore Terzopoulos: At some point, I noticed that the theater began to forget the traditions, acting skills. Drama psychological theater under the influence of American and European postmodernism began to produce something strange. And not only in Russia, although there were and are talented actors here, for example, the great Alla Demidova. I watched performances based on classical texts: the tragedy of Shakespeare, Ibsen or Strindberg, and on stage everything was the same. A performance in Berlin is like a product in Albania or Crete or Naples. But the features of each text are unique, you can not play Ibsen in the same way as Shakespeare! Sameness in the theater is a symptom. Here are the problems of globalization, the commercialization of art. All together leads to the disorientation of the theater. We must very carefully begin to re-examine differences, because theater, like life, is about differences.
Having met with many different theater companies around the world, experienced and not very experienced, I see that most of them have a problem with physicality. The system I propose in The Return of Dionysus helps resolve this and many other questions. First of all, to make the voice stronger, which is still in the body, and not in the head, as many people think. It is not the brain or psychology that makes the voice strong, it is the body that sends energy to it.
What problems do you observe in people of different generations? What is happening to us?
T. T .: We are too absorbed in technology, the actors sit on Facebook (an extremist organization banned in Russia), leaning over to write or read something, do not care about the body at all and do not train. It is obvious to me that the current generation is losing focus and energy. If something is played, it is very external, at the weakest upper level. My method is to look deeper, inward.
Alla Sergeevna Demidova said that working with you helped her to free her voice, clamped by nature, by significantly increasing the breadth of the range.
T. T .: When I met Alla Demidova, she worked “from the head”, and I went from below and, figuratively speaking, we met somewhere “at the level of the stomach”. She worked with the upper energy, very subtle, and I worked with both, the lower and the upper. Starting to work with me, she began to pay more attention to the diaphragm, the lower resonators, and the spine. But Alla is a fantastic actress, and she always perfectly understood where Dionysus “lives”, and played “beyond the horizon”.
What exercises underlie the system?
T. T .: First of all, I work with building energy, focusing on the diaphragm. We start from scratch, with inhalation and exhalation. If you take in air and direct energy down to the genitals, then by training the duration of inhalation-exhalation, you can learn to speak for a very long time and at the same time clearly. Some actors manage to say several lines of text, almost 20 words in one cycle! We go gradually, each time opening the body a little more and deeper. You need to breathe calmly, relaxedly observing yourself, not trying to regulate inhalation-exhalation. At the same time, do not move and look at one point. As soon as you start to control the breath, try to control the process, you immediately stop the movement of energy. It is very important to be relaxed, to follow your own physiology. Everything does not come from the head — the mind should help the body, and not enslave it. Very soon you will feel how you begin to accumulate energy. Look at the actors of the Attis Theater — outwardly they are very strong, but at the same time soft inside.
You noted that your method is suitable not only for actors. How can it be used by ordinary people?
TT: We just did a month-long professional acting training, bringing in a few non-professionals for the sake of experimentation. They were so happy, full of enthusiasm – it was something fantastic! I saw very strong changes, including psychological ones. Participants became more concentrated, calm, decisive. What is very important in everyday life, you see. For the last 10 days of the training, they even acted as actors, which was very interesting. So next year we will definitely do a separate training for non-professionals.