The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition

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Anne Bogart is Artistic Director of the SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is the recipient of two OBIE Awards and a Bessie Award, and is an associate professor at Columbia University. Her recent works include Alice’s Adventures; Bobrauschenbergamerica; Small Lives, Big Dreams; Marathon Dancing; and The Baltimore Waltz.

The seed of the entire work of The Six Viewpoints is found in the simple act of standing in space. From this perspective the artist is invited to read and be educated by the lexicon of daily experience. The information of space, the experience of time, the familiarity of shapes, the qualities and rules of kinetics in movement, the ways of logic, how stories are formed, the states of being and emotional exchanges that constitute the process of communication between living creatures ... Working directly with these materials the artist begins to learn of performance through the essential languages as an independent intelligence (Overlie). [8] While Viewpoints can certainly help you improve as an individual actor, it is, at its core, a group effort. Viewpoints can be used to build a closer ensemble, make adjustments to characters and scenes, establish a physical vocabulary for the world of the play, or discover unexpected choices. Some ensembles use Viewpoints-focused group improvisation to explore themes, characters, settings, or relationships. Kinesthetic Response:How performers respond to movement from other people, objects, or design elements. Gesture: a) Behavioral gesture: realistic gesture belonging to the physical world as we observe it every day. b) Expressive gesture: abstract or symbolic gesture expressing an inner state or emotion; it is not intended as a public or "realistic" gesture. Ellen Lauren, founding member and co-artistic director at SITI Company, says Viewpoints helps her ensemble members step outside themselves and view a theatrical moment from all angles.Mitchell said her Viewpoints students are often surprised by what occurs when they stop trying to make the “right” choice and start trusting the ensemble. “Coincidences happen onstage without you even knowing how. When actors give over to that, they don’t have to be in control all the time,” she said. In 1987, Bogart met director Tina Landau while working at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. The two collaborated extensively during the next decade, expanding Overlie’s original six Viewpoints to nine Physical Viewpoints and five Vocal Viewpoints. This is the method Bogart brought to SITI when she co-founded the company with director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. The Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that grew out of the postmodern dance world. It was first articulated by choreographer Mary Overlie, who broke down the two dominant issues performers deal with--space and time--into six categories. Since that time, directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau have expanded her notions and adapted them for actors to function together spontaneously and intuitively and to generate bold, theatrical work.

Sometimes, our reliance on technology detracts from our power of observation. Find time each week to unplug and notice the composition of the world around you. How are the people and objects around you arranged? Where is the empty space? What rhythms do you notice? What draws your eyes, ears, nose, and hands? What emotions do these observations create? Primarily intended for the many theatre artists who, in the last several years, have become intrigued with Viewpoints yet have had no single source to refer to in their investigations. It can also be used by anyone with a general interest in collaboration and the creative process, whether in art, business or daily life. The Bridge is a sequence of nine laboratories that function as philosophical and pedagogical frameworks in which to engage with the Materials. The Bridge presents the origins of the Viewpoints' approach to art and introduces into practice the philosophical concepts that are used to disintegrate and then reintegrate performance. [10]

Duration: How long an event occurs over time; how long a person or a group maintains a particular movement, tempo, gesture, etc. before it changes. In the book, the authors outline the basics of the Viewpoints training they both espouse, as well as specific methods for applying their expanded practice to both rehearsals and production. For Bogart and Landau, the Viewpoints represent not only a physical technique but also a philosophical, spiritual, and aesthetic approach to many aspects of their work. Bogart references her work with the SITI company, and Landau with the Steppenwolf Theater Company.