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Palgrave Macmillan

Enacting Lecoq

Movement in Theatre, Cognition, and Life

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Maiya Murphy

    1. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

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  • Offers a sustained analysis of Lecoq pedagogy
  • Makes a contribution to the further advancement of interdisciplinary discussions between the humanities and cognitive sciences
  • Highlights movement, as opposed to embodiment, in cognitive and creative processes

Part of the book series: Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance (CSLP)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Introduction

    • Maiya Murphy
    Pages 1-32

  3. Crafting Necessary Temptations and Needful Freedoms: Lecoq’s Actor–Instructor Relationship

    • Maiya Murphy
    Pages 33-66

  4. Enacting Cognitive and Creative Foundations

    • Maiya Murphy
    Pages 67-105

  5. Lecoq’s Mime and the Process of Identifications: Enacting Movement, Selfhoods, and Otherness

    • Maiya Murphy
    Pages 107-153

  6. Significant Practices and Principles: Play, Improvisation, Mask Work, and Language

    • Maiya Murphy
    Pages 155-182

  7. Conclusion: “Beautiful, Beautiful, but Where Are You Going?”

    • Maiya Murphy
    Pages 183-205

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 207-214
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Keywords

About this book

This book examines the theatrical movement-based pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999) through the lens of the cognitive scientific paradigm of enaction. The conversation between these two both uncovers more of the possible cognitive processes at work in Lecoq pedagogy and proposes how Lecoq’s own practical and philosophical approach could have something to offer the development of the enactive paradigm. Understanding Lecoq pedagogy through enaction can shed new light on the ways that movement, key to Lecoq’s own articulation of his pedagogy, might cognitively constitute the development of Lecoq’s ultimate creative figure – the actor-creator. Through an enactive lens, the actor-creator can be understood as not only a creative figure, but also the manifestation of a fundamentally new mode of cognitive selfhood. This book engages with Lecoq pedagogy’s significant practices and principles including the relationship between the instructor and student, identifications, mime, play, mask work, language, improvisation, and movement analysis.

Reviews

“Compared to other texts in the field of theatre, Murphy’s Enacting Lecoq is unique both in its Enactivist approach and the way in which it focuses on the foundational versus executional abilities of the actor-creator. … it could be a hugely important text for graduate students in Theatre Education, Movement Pedagogy, Applied Theatre, as well as acting teachers, whose students will deeply benefit from an incorporation of Murphy’s insights into their pedagogy.” (Jordan Rosin,Theatre Topics, Vol. 31 (1), March, 2021)

“Murphy’s analysis of Lecoq and his work is outstanding in its breadth and depth. This work will be a central source for understanding the work of Lecoq, both for those versed in the field and those encountering his approach to acting for the first time. It sets the standard for work on Lecoq.” (Professor John Lutterbie, Stony Brook University, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Maiya Murphy

About the author

Maiya Murphy is a scholar, teacher, creator, and performer. She is Assistant Professor in the Theatre Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. She has written on Lecoq pedagogy, cognitive science, collective creation, physical theatre approaches, and dance. She also makes theatre with her collective, Autopoetics.

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