"The study of acting should not begin with an exploration of feeling, perception, imagination, memories, intention, personalization, self-identification… or even performance—but physical action."

Michael Lugering's The Expressive Actor presents a foundational, preparatory training method, using movement to unlock the entire acting process. Its action-based perspective integrates voice, movement and basic acting training into a unified approach.

A wealth of exercises and diagrams guide the reader through this internationally taught program, making it an ideal step-by-step course for both solo and classroom use. Through this course, voice and body training becomes more than a simple skill-building activity – it is the central prerequisite to any actor training.

This new Routledge edition has been fully updated, to include:

A revised prologue, further discussing the historical and philosophical grounding of The Lugering Method

A new introduction, with particular focus on the integrative nature of the method and how the book should be used.

New developments, clarifications, and 12 new exercises.

6 new illustrative diagrams.

Contents

Part 1: Prologue 1. Introduction to the Method 2. Overview of the Method 3. Introduction to the Actor Part 2: Principles of Expressive Action 4. Expressive Action 5. Expressive Action in Context 6. Architecture of an Expressive Action Part 3: Principles of Integration 7. Integration Part 4: Stacking 8. Introduction to Stacking 9. Moving 10. Breathing 11. Sounding 12. Speaking 13. Extending the Barre Part 5: Technique 14. Preliminaries 15. Voice and Body Exercises 16. Language and Character Exercise Epilogue Appendix I: Expressive Continuum Appendix II: Actions Bibliography