Communication in Theatre Directing and Performance: From Rehearsal to Production By Jennifer Lanipekun

Communication in Theatre Directing and Performance: From Rehears ...

Chapter 2:

Communication Overview

Read

ABOUT
- Data
- Description
- Reviews
- About Author
- Cover
RESEARCH
- Bookmarks
- Notes
FONT
- Font Size
  - x-small
  - small
  - medium
  - large
  - x-large
- Line Height
  - 1.00
  - 1.25
  - 1.50
  - 1.75
  - 2.00
- Letter Spacing
  - Default
  - 1 pixel
  - 2 pixels
  - 3 pixels
  - 4 pixels
DOWNLOAD
- Complete Edition
PAGE
- TOC
- Copyright
- Preface
- About Author
- Index

This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.

stance may be wrong. Klineberg (1940) and Birdwhistell (1970) both took a stance against universality in facial expression, arguing for the expectation of learned patterns of cultural behaviour. Ekman (1972) countered this by making a case for the cultural management of spontaneous expressions, for example, in Japanese culture, with the masking of muscular actions of disgust or fear by superimposing a smiling movement. Davidson and Malloch (2009, 565), in their performance research regarding bodily movements, had this to say in relation to intrinsic and cultural layers:

[M]usical performance might be conceived of as the performer communicating with co-performers and audience through the intrinsic musicality of body movements, the sounds that are produced by the movement of the body being disciplined by cultural practice and performance technique so as to create meaning in a gestural narrative.

Within the performance arts, that ability to communicate through the face and body is highly cultivated in the skilled performer and is, plausibly, most sought after. It is generally agreed that the majority of people can spot a simulated smile, can sense voluntary control of the underlying musculature in a gesture or movement rather than the spontaneous generation of actions caused by true feelings. Runeson and Frykholm (1983), cited in Davidson (1993, 104), have demonstrated that the body sends out messages recognizable to an audience, even when they are complex and include covert detail:

[C]overt mental dispositions become specified in movement and are detectable to observers…Runeson and Frykholm (1983) encapsulated this in their proposal that there is a Kinematic Specification of Dynamics. That is, movements specify the causal aspects of events. Runeson (1984) goes on to suggest that very complex emotional, cognitive and personal information may be specified in this way too.

The artiste who can imbue an interpretation with an emotional level of truth or who can portray, in theatrical terms, the essential core of a