Shakespeare and Breath: Examining the psycho-physical impact breath has on both actor and audience in the contemporary performance of Shakespeare.

我提议的研究旨在挖掘吸气、呼气和呼吸暂停对当代莎士比亚表演的强大心理-身体影响。呼吸作为一个索引术语，在大多数理论表演专著中明显缺失；它在表演实践中的价值的广度和深度仍然被忽视和开发不足。简·波士顿和蕾娜·库克在他们的开创性著作《行动中的呼吸》中谴责《呼吸很少被详细研究》(波士顿/库克第13期)，强调呼吸的首要地位仍然是一个理论不足的工作领域，需要在培训工作室中进行更仔细的审查(波士顿200)。西丝莉·贝里、帕特西·罗登堡、彼得·霍尔和克里斯汀·林克莱特等戏剧从业者的基本文本已经有30多年的历史了。虽然他们对戏剧实践的贡献仍然很大，但由于现有话语的有限，呼吸对演员和观众的心理和身体影响仍然足够沉默。戏剧导演理查德·爱断言：[莎士比亚]戏剧的生命在于语言(Eyre176)；这种语言中心论掩盖了呼吸在表演中启发、表达和传递思想和情感的关键作用。我的跨学科研究将点燃艺术和表演科学之间的新对话；通过将莎士比亚研究、戏剧实践和呼吸生理学纳入动态话语，拓宽现有的话语。我的研究试图考察呼吸对演员对角色的心理和生理理解的不同方式。我的目标是揭示吸气和呼气的模式如何刺激演员身体的身体感觉，这些感觉直接与角色情绪状态的文字证据相对应。我的目标是证明创造性的呼吸--作为一种艺术选择对吸气和呼气的控制--是维持观众在表演中接受莎士比亚作品的关键，无论是在智力上还是在情感上。未经检查的呼吸习惯分裂了演员和观众对莎士比亚作品的文本理解。我提议的研究将突出呼吸行为如何悄悄地渗透到演员和角色之间；允许与现实和想象中的当下同时联系，并使莎士比亚语言在今天得到真实的体现。如果没有这项研究，呼吸作为一种创造性工具的潜力仍将是未知的，我的假设--在舞台上有意识地操纵呼吸模式直接影响并告知观众的情感反应--仍将没有答案。这项研究是对21世纪莎士比亚表演实践中呼吸的独特检验；它将历史学术与实践指导的研究以及呼吸和声音生理学的最新研究相结合。在我的研究过程中，我将通过观察专业排练室和采访知名戏剧从业者来丰富我的发现的当代相关性。随着研究的进展，我将在现场表演环境中收集和记录呼吸数据，以确保我的发现有科学依据。我希望我的研究将对表演实践领域做出引人注目的原创性贡献；与培训中的演员、专业排练室和更广泛的当代戏剧实践学术领域产生共鸣。

My proposed research aims to unearth the potent, psycho-physical impact inhalation, exhalation and breath suspension has on the contemporary performance of Shakespeare.Breath, as an index term, is strikingly absent from the majority of theoretical acting monographs; the breadth and depth of its value in performance practice remains overlooked and underdeveloped. Jane Boston and Rena Cook, in their seminal text Breath in Action decry that breath is 'rarely examined in detail' (Boston/Cook 13), highlighting that the primacy of breath 'has remained an under-theorized area of work' that needs 'to be more closely scrutinized in the training studio' (Boston 200).The foundational texts of theatre practitioners such as Cicely Berry, Patsy Rodenburg, Peter Hall and Kristin Linklater are over thirty years old. Whilst their contribution to theatre practice remains significant, the psycho-physical impact of breath on both actor and audience remains sufficiently silenced by the limited scope of existing discourse.Theatre director, Richard Eyre, asserts that 'the life of [Shakespeare's] plays are in the language' (Eyre176); such linguistic centrism has concealed breath's vital role in the inspiration, articulation and transmission of thought and emotion in performance. My interdisciplinary research will ignite fresh dialogue between the art and science of acting; broadening existing discourse by bringing Shakespeare studies, theatre practice and respiratory physiology into dynamic discourse.My research seeks to examine the diverse ways in which breath impacts an actor's psycho-physical understanding of character. I aim to uncover how patterns of inhalation and exhalation can stimulate physical sensations in the actor's body that correspond directly with the textual evidence of a character's emotional state. I aim to prove that creative respiration - the control of inhalation and exhalation as an artistic choice - is key to sustaining an audience's receptive connection to Shakespeare in performance, both intellectually and emotionally.Unexamined respiratory habits splinter the textual comprehension of Shakespeare's work for actor and audience. My proposed research will highlight how an act of respiration surreptitiously permeates the line between actor and character; allowing simultaneous connection with the real and the imagined present and enabling an authentic embodiment of Shakespeare's language today. Without this research, breath's potency as a creative tool will remain unexplored and my hypothesis - that the conscious manipulation of breath patterns onstage directly affects and informs an audience's emotional response - will remain unanswered.This research is a unique examination of breath in twenty-first century Shakespearean performance practice; it combines historical scholarship with practice-led research and the latest in respiratory and vocal physiology. Throughout my research I will enrich the contemporary relevance of my findings by observing the professional rehearsal room and interviewing established theatre practitioners. As my research period progresses, I will gather and record respiratory data within a live performance setting to ensure there is scientific credence to my findings.I hope my research will make a striking, original contribution to the field of performance practice; resonating with actors in training, with the professional rehearsal room and with the wider academic field of contemporary theatre practice.