VIEWPOINTS

'Viewpoints' is a technique of improvisation that provides a vocabulary for thinking about and acting upon movement and gesture. Originally developed in the 1970s by choreographer Mary Overlie, Viewpoints theory was adapted for stage acting by directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau.
As taught by Tina Landau at The Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, Alexandra Billings has taken The Viewpoints to the actor and made the process actor friendly as well as stage worthy. She continues to teach at The Steppenwolf in both Chicago and Los Angeles.
Overlie's Six Viewpoints (space, story, time, emotion, movement, and shape) are a more logical way to examine movement and work better for analysis. Bogart's Viewpoints work better in a practical way for creating movement. It is telling that Bogart threw out emotion and story, since these issues so dominate the thinking of most actors, there was little need to isolate them as Viewpoints. In Bogart's Viewpoint work, actors are invited to work with isolated issues that are outside of the narrative mindset assumed in most acting training.

Contents

The Viewpoints

Time

Space

Sound

References:

The Viewpoints

Time

★ Tempo - How fast or slow something happens on stage.

★ Duration - How long an event occurs over time; how long a person or a group maintains a particular movement, tempo, gesture, etc. before it changes.

★ Kinesthetic Response - A spontaneous reaction to a motion that occurs outside of oneself. An instinctive response to an external stimulus.

★ Repetition - a) Internal: repeating a movement done with one's own body, and b) External: repeating a movement occurring outside one's body.

Space

★ Shape - The contour or outline of bodies in space; the shape of the body by itself, in relation to other bodies, or in relation to architecture; think of lines, curves, angles, arches all stationary or in motion.

★ Gesture - a) Behavioral gesture: realistic gesture belonging to the physical world as we observe it everyday. b) Expressive gesture: abstract or symbolic gesture expressing an inner state or emotion; it is not intended as a public or "realistic" gesture.

★ Architecture - The physical environment, the space, and whatever belongs to it or constitutes it, including permanent and non-permanent features.

★ Spatial Relationship - Distance between objects on stage; one body in relation to another, to a group, or to the architecture.

★ Floor Pattern - The movement over landscape, floor pattern, design.

Sound

★ Volume - The loudness or softness of a sound.

★ Tone - The pitch or frequency of a sound.

★ Timbre - The quality of a sound.

★ Acceleration - To gradually gain speed in sounds.

★ Silence - Absence of sound.

References:

★ Bogart, Anne. 2001. ''A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre''. London: Routledge. ISBN 0 415 23832 3.

★ Bogart, Anne. 2007. ''And Then, You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World''. London: Routledge. ISBN 0 415 41142 4.

★ Bogart, Anne and Tina Landau. 2005. ''The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition.'' New York: Theatre Communications Group. ISBN 1-55936-241-3.

★ Dixon, Michael Bigelow and Joel A. Smith, eds. 1995. ''Anne Bogart:Viewpoints''. Career Development Ser. Lyme, NH: Smith and Kraus. ISBN 1 880399 94 6.