News from one of our Research Grant recipients from 2015:  Ayse Tashkiran, who was given a grant to pursue her work on Litz Pisk, has now published (at Bloomsbury/ Methuen Drama):

Movement Directors in Contemporary Theatre – Conversations on Craft

Examining the emergence of the movement director in contemporary theatre, this book explores and evaluates their work in a series of  conversations with key practitioners.

When directors understand the value of a movement director they remove any sense of hierarchy within the room and place movement directors firmly by their side for they are and should be their co-pilot, navigating and creating the world of the play.’ — Joan Iyiola

Movement directors work with the physical, living bodies at the heart of theatre productions, creating movement languages with actors and directors. Through a series of in-depth interviews with leading theatre practitioners, Ayse Tashkiran charts the growth of the movement director in contemporary theatre. The voices of Jane Gibson, Sue Lefton, Kate Flatt, Toby Sedgwick, Siân Williams, Struan Leslie, Ellen Kane, Peter Darling, Steven Hoggett, Ann Yee, Imogen Knight and  Shelley Maxwell explore processes of creativity, collaboration and innovation for the moving body in performance.

The conversations open up:

* Growth of movement direction through the 20th century

* New insights into embodied theatre practice

* Diverse movement approaches and creative preparation

* Physical trainings and influences

* Working methods with directors and actors in the rehearsal room

* Movement for actors in opera, film, television and musical theatre

* Relationships between movement direction and theatre choreography

* Potential future developments in the field

Ayse also authored a new introduction to the seminal actor movement book  The Actor and His Body  by Litz Pisk, (Bloomsbury, Methuen 2017) and explored the influence of Lecoq on Movement Direction in ‘British Movement Directors’ in The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq, (Abingdon; Routledge, 2016)

Ayse Tashkiran is a Senior Lecturer and Co-Course Leader MA/MFA Movement: Directing and Teaching at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and is the recipient of a Society for Theatre Research award for her research into the history of movement direction. She practises as a movement director for a variety of professional theatre productions and companies.