Brooke Hall

Movement

12/11/18

Expressive Actor Final Test

In terms of Michael Lugering, the term “expressive action” refers to the integrated

activity of thinking, feeling, and doing. As we have learned, the process to create an expressive

action is known as stacking. With stacking, the actor picks one of the ten major properties first –

charge, release (energy), contact, withdraw (orientation), expand, contract (size), center,

periphery (progression), free, and bound (flow). There are also the minor properties of direct,

indirect (direction), fast, slow (speed), heavy, light (weight), stable, unstable (control), sharp, and

diffused (focus) which can be added. Once a major property is picked, the actor will then move

around the space that they are in with their body in overcurves or undercurves initiating from

their pelvis. The actor will also do this while figuring out where the moment of expression

should occur in the action. The moment of expression can be before the action, on the uphill, at

the peak, on the downhill, or after the action. In addition, the actor should phrase the action by

initiating, developing, expressing, resolving, and resting it. Once an action is singular, identified,

and can easily be repeated, the actor adds breath with either a falling “h” or sustained “s” sound.

After this, the actor uses a voiced/vocal sound instead – such as “ah” or “oh.” The final step is to

add text with the action. Once the action is fully figured out in its movement and the text, the

actor can play around and choose to either repress, exaggerate, or explode it.