Norman Taylor Part III

The wonderful Norman Taylor (teacher at École Jacques Lecoq for over 20 years) returned to Manchester for a masterclass on movement hosted by Performers Playground.

(The cover photo for this blog shows the 'sun rising' - try lifting three fingers slowly from behind your outstretched elbow. When the sun rises, the sky glows brighter but the orb does not do glide up gradually - at a certain point it 'jumps' above the horizon)

From the 31st of May 2026 at Performer's College (The Dancehouse) Oxford Road, Manchester.

The following sentences are based on publicity and they are true: we explored the movement fundamentals that go before and beneath the text. We saw how movement can give structure and game to text to create dynamic and impactful theatre and acting onstage. We learned to train our "artist's eye" to see the world around me and transpose what I see into my work.

This blog traces the texts through the movements that came up. My notebook is full of the many things that Norman shared in the workshop, but it's impossible to share everything. Here are some scraps:

Embodiment of Text

In working with these texts, the aim is not to illustrate text or to create a 'score' sequence of movement. Instead, the process involves outlining a movement derived from an observation of movement in everyday life, then establishing THE movement, that is a repeatable analysis or sequence of movement, based on fundamentals: spine undulations (forward and reverse), pushing/pulling, dilation/retraction. This can then be reduced from what seems more like dance or gymnastics so that you begin exploring the connection to affect (pre-linguistic mood/feeling/vibe). You are looking for essential expressive gestures, signs that do not 'mean' something as a singular representation.

Application of Movement Techniques

During the workshop, I focused on two texts.

a) Menander's "Old Cantankerous" character from Dyskolos (316 BC), translated by Norma Miller (1987): This extract provided a rich ground for exploring character dynamics through physicality.

b) Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5 (1605) ("Tomorrow and tomorrow"): This iconic speech allowed for an exploration of existential themes through movement and presence.

I have made a rough document of the movements below:

a) Extract from Dyskolos

This text is an opportunity to explore relationship between character/persona (not sure what's appropriate here). In this sequence a fairly simple set of clown gags can be read as a 'frustrating' series of mistakes. I barely knew the text by heart so I was led by the clowning technique and introduced fragments - the essentials/the tone of of the text which could be summarised as:

"I am a man who has never been happy; I have never seen a day of joy in my life. I am always in a bad mood, and I want to be left alone. But when I see others happy, I cannot help but feel a twinge of envy."

I used the frustration of being caught out by unexpected and unwanted visitors" (the audience), as a stimulus for the problem of picking up a J-Cloth and explaining where I was at with this text. i.e. if you hadn't interrupted me I could get onand learn the text.

Movement Exercise: J-Cloths Challenge

[see photo for moves 1,2,3...]

Trying to hold 3 J-cloths

KNEMON

Well, wasn't Perseus the lucky one, twice over too!

Using the extended fingers of both hands.

First, he could fly...

You will inevitably drop one.

so he never had to meet any of those who walked the earth.

1. Pick it up, letting go of another one, and

And then he had this marvellous device with which he used to turn anyone who annoyed him into stone.

(image below) Bending to pick that one up, stepping forward so feet are aligned, and in the process kicking it forward again

I wish I had it now [looking at audience]. There'd be no shortage of stone statues all round here.  

Repeat.

...You are actually walking onto my garden now. 

Finally pick all three up, scrunch them in one hand.

I don't even work this allotment. I've abandoned it because of the traffic,

Holding cloths in a bunch, throw the arm forward, straight aiming for a target you can "see"

Now you're following me up to the top fields.  

2. As the hand on the bent arm leaves the shoulder, drop the handkerchief behind the shoulder, but keep looking forward.

Do you and your friends think this is a public walkway?

3. Double take.

Pull up a bench why don't you. Build yourselves a clubhouse!

b) Macbeth Movement Sequence

MACBETH sits centre stage. Rise from the seat, breathing deliberately: almost rasping, the breaths are like the final breaths of a dying person: drop the jaw with each breath. The breath gets weaker, shallower, with each intake. Then freeze, jaw open. Start again. Open an eye to the audience and quickly close it, aware of the false 'ending' as a kind of joke. Freeze.

(i.e. Create silence. here are only two things that are impossible on stage - silence and stillness. They can be 'created' by gesture.* A pause means you are listening to the silence, as are the audience)

MACBETH Wherefore was that cry?

Options - run off and say it from behind a screen/pillar/curtain, or take a step forward then throw the foot of my bent right leg over and around the knee of the straight left leg, thereby spinning

(This is sculpting time and space)

(echoing other voices) "The Queen, my lord, is dead."

Then spin back. Breaking tension, revealing theatricality, hiding the technique again, having exposed it. In Norman's example we imitate a feelgood movie about an early 20th century migrant. "Goodbye Napoli! (spins) Hello New York!"

MACBETH takes in this news, reverse undulation: the head pulls back, looks down the chest , the head travels down and forwards.

She should have died hereafter.

Rotate finger, indicating time flowing forwards

There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

Raising arms and stretching out. Dilating like an expanding daisy.

Retracting the arms, syllable by syllable until I am a coiled ball.

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

Look up, comically - aware of the literal style of movement and too heavy 'significance'. AI suggests doing this move: "As he describes life as "a walking shadow," he mimics a shadowy figure, illustrating the emptiness he feels" Haha. Do this. Then break. This is a parody of literal mime.

To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death.

(shouting).

Out, out brief candle!

The hero throws a stone with a straight arm. He follows it with his eye. When does he speak? When the stone "lands". This involves a "Return from Space"

By now I may need three personae. This is what Norman did with performer Susanna Amato. He asked her to make a regular circuit between three positions on stage indicating three attitudes. She made a stark change in attitude in each position. The first persona manipulated the gestures and position of the second persona. The second reflected an inner conflict/working out by repeating set gestures. The third persona had a secure base, and a calm the voice.

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Throughout the workshop and over 4 days, I often fell silent. There was so much to absorb of what Norman was saying. We played from literal representation of feeling, including what it feels like to wade into the sea... to the search for a 'poetic' essence, that we, individually curate, or create.

I had opportunities to make offers, and sometimes Norman (as is his style) 'picked on' me. He uses observation on the hoof to draw attention, to raise curiosity, to 'discover new ideas', act out his own surprise and sense of discovery - still alive after 50 years analysing movement.

*Tadashi Suzuki does in his version of King Lear (1993; 2026) - the NURSE who accompanies the OLD MAN reads a book and at key points erupts in to loud laughter. The laughter is a meta-theatrical punctuation. The NURSE laughs at the story s/he is reading. Or is she laughing at the OLD MAN in the story? The NURSE mirrors the FOOL who attends LEAR/OLD MAN. In Suzuki's version the NURSE also has their own 'dumb' attendant, a further silent NURSE.