Routledge Act as a Feminist: Towards a Critical Acting Pedagogy

Act as a Feminist maps a female genealogy of UK actor training practices from 1970 to 2020 as an alternative to traditional male lineages. It re-orientates thinking about acting through its intersections with feminisms and positions it as a critical pedagogy, fit for purpose in the twenty-first century. The book draws attention to the pioneering contributions women have made to actor training, highlights the importance of recognising the political potential of acting, and problematises the inequities for a female majority inspired to work in an industry where they remain a minority. Part One opens up the epistemic scope, shaping a methodology to evaluate the critical potential of pedagogic practice. It argues that feminist approaches offer an alternative affirmative position for training, a via positiva and a way to re-make mimesis. In Part Two, the methodology is applied to the work of UK women practitioners through analysis of the pedagogic exchange in training grounds. Each chapter focuses on how the broad curriculum of acting intersects with gender as technique to produce a hidden curriculum, with case studies on Jane Boston and Nadine George (voice), Niamh Dowling and Vanessa Ewan (movement), Alison Hodge and Kristine Landon-Smith (acting), and Katie Mitchell and Emma Rice (directing). The book concludes with a feminist manifesto for change in acting. Written for students, actors, directors, teachers of acting, voice, and movement, and anyone with an interest in feminisms and critical pedagogies, Act as a Feminist offers new ways of thinking and approaches to practice. Review "As Lisa Peck says in this fine book's first sentence, Act as a Feminist: Towards a Critical Acting Pedagogy is 'a call to arms.' This thoroughly researched, historically grounded engagement with performance pedagogies and practices in the UK takes up how traditional practices operate to disempower women, and how this can be reframed by theatre artists from feminist perspectives. Peck engages feminist theories seriously to critique some current methods and attitudes, and provides alternative ways of thinking and working; particularly useful are the rich case studies. This book is a valuable contribution to understanding how to more fully empower women in theatre practice." Rhonda Blair, Professor, Southern Methodist University; author of The Actor, Image, and Action: Acting and Cognitive Neuroscience; co-editor of Theatre, Performance and Cognition: Languages, Bodies and Ecologies   "Tremendous care and rigour is given to thinking through a feminist stance in the context of actor training. New feminist materialism proves to be a valuable ‘hub’ that allows for both critique of patriarchal, even abusive, systems of training whilst simultaneously embracing the essential physicality of training and its engagement with objects, spaces etc…It is testimony to Peck’s writing skill that she can so seamlessly navigate between the different textures and rhythms of thinking and experiencing. It is a signature of the book’s methodology and as a critical text it nevertheless aims to demonstrate the very claims she makes for women’s actor training, that it is empowering, ‘embraining’ and embodying." Libby Worth, Reader, Royal Holloway University; co-editor of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training   "At a critical time in Drama School training, where models of teaching and learning are being rightly interrogated, this book takes us through a feminist perspective to endorse feminist pedagogy as part of the vital reimagining of the importance of "how" we teach, not "what". This is a succinct and exciting study of feminist theory and its application in current training and theatre settings, through the work of women practitioners past and present, many of whom have yet to be recognised for their vital contribution to embodied learning and theatre practice. It will be a valuable asset to Drama Schools as they re-configure their syllabus an