Books by Dawn Langman

The third volume of 'The Actor of the Future' series in which Dawn Langman continues to explore the integration of Steiner's research into speech, drama and eurythmy with Michael Chekhov's acting methodology.

Building on the metahistorical exploration of drama that was the subject of Tongues of Flame, Dawn Langman explores the practical pathways through which the art of acting can evolve beyond the 'body and soul' paradigm.

The Art of Speech presents a dynamic path of practice leading to an experience of the Word as a living, healing and creative power. Helping to deliver Western intellectual speech from what Artaud described as shrivelled throats and monstrous talking abstractions, Langman brings to life the spiritual realities out of which a true Art of Speech arises. Inspired by Rudolf Steiner and pioneered initially in the German language by Marie Steiner, this artform is illuminated here through the genius of the English language.

Over the past decades there has been a resurgence of interest in Chekhov's acting technique. The original publishers of his fundamental text, To the Actor, removed most of the author's references to Rudolf Steiner, but recent studies acknowledge Chekhov's personal interest in anthroposophy as the source of his artistic inspiration. Dawn Langman explores the fundamentals of Chekhov's psycho-physical technique and the metaphysical principles on which it is based. She examines this technique in relation to the specific challenges and gifts provided by the actor's constitution of body, soul and spirit, and in the context of the canon of great poetic and dramatic texts - illuminated by Steiner's insights into humanity's evolving consciousness. The Art of Acting lays the foundation for the second and third books in her series, in which Langman explores Rudolf Steiner's art of speech and its integration with Michael Chekhov's methodology. Together, these books offer a contemporary, spiritually-enlivened path of development for the actor, in which the combined insights of Steiner and Chekhov lead to new possibilities for the performing arts.