“Physical theatre is a genre of theatrical performance that pursues storytelling through primarily physical means. Several performance traditions all describe themselves as “physical theatre”, but the unifying aspect is a reliance on physical motion of the performers rather than or combined with text to convey the story. In basic sense, you talk through hand gestures, body language, thought track and many more physical features.” (Wikipedia)
General Information
BBC Bitesize revision page which has a very good overview of Physical Theatre and how to create it using a variety of forms, conventions and styles.
Victoria and Albert Museum website piece about Physical and Visual Theatre.
A guide to Physical Theatre and Frantic Assembly published by Frantic Assembly.
Useful Prezi on the origins of Physical Theatre, how it became as it is today and what were the major influences on the genre.
Physical Theatre Conventions
BBC Bitesize section on Movement, Mime and Gesture
Useful Prezi on the different key techniques and convention used by all practitioners to create Physical Theatre.
Physical Theatre Companies and Practitioners
Blog post about the 13 most influential world physical theatre companies
PUSH – They have an interesting FAQ page which includes an interesting essay called A Case For Physical Theatre.
Blog Post about Steven Berkoffs’ Total Theatre
Teaching Resources
Frantic Assembly have a wide selection of resource packs that can be plundered for ideas.
My own scheme of work on Physical Theatre available on TES.
Videos
DV8 Showreel
PUSH Theatre Promotional Video
Frantic Assembly Showreel
Student Handout
At the start of every unit that involves I like to give them a handout with all these links on them so they can do some of their own research. It’s best to email them it so that they can use the links properly.
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