Practicing Archetype: Solo Performer Training as Critical Pedagogy

Practicing Archetype addresses performer training, specifically the self-pedagogy of actors who train solo, on their own, as an independent learning process, an opportunity for embodied research, and a form of critical pedagogy. Joining the current critical and inclusive turn in performer training, the author reconfigures the psychophysical ‘work on self’ trope as ‘encounters with the self' and turns to the genre of solo performance, including examples of solo activism from recent years, for a deeper understanding into how the self always already implicates and relates to others. The space that opens in the dialogue between performer training and solo performance is negotiated around three key themes: presence, identity, and action. Using a methodology grounded in archetypal psychology alongside liberation psychology and decolonial feminist thought, and engaging the mythological figures Echo, Odysseus, and Sisyphus, the author reviews specific archetypal images that appear in key performer training texts and revisits well-known practices through the insights drawn from solo performance. Offering audio-guided exercises traditionally used in performer training as embodied forms of inquiry into the relationships between the individual and the various collectives surrounding her, the volume proposes that solo performer training can be mobilised for multiple interrelated objectives – creative, artistic, or professional development; critical, reflective, liberatory pedagogy; and spiritual, archetypal, imaginative encounters. The book speaks to all who are engaged in performer training – students and teachers, soloists and ensembles – as well as those with an interest in embodied forms of critical pedagogy or decolonial approaches to archetype.