The Pulse Approach

<p><i><b>How can we effectively apply improvisation to train an ensemble of actors? <br><br></b></i><i><b>Where is the method to create physically dynamic staging for text-based contemporary and classical plays?</b></i><br><i><b><br>And how can a trainer and a director utilise improvisation to devise new work? </b></i><br><br><b>The Pulse Approach answers these questions and more, captured here for the first time in a workbook to the practice. </b><br><br>Pulse is an improvisational performance strategy that can be used by actors and directors to develop original text-based performance material and rehearse dramatic scripts. Director Tanya Gerstle has been developing the approach since 1989 and has used it to stage more than 25 theatre productions. <br><br>Through step-by-step instructions for the student and practitioner; troubleshooting advice; case studies of productions directed using the <b>Pulse Approach</b>; and interviews with practitioners involved, this book is the first practical guide to this innovative methodology, which has its roots in the Australian actor-training scene.<br><br>The <b>Pulse Approach</b> fuses improvisation and text-based theatre, too often disconnected, to offer up a methodology and rigorous practice for improvisation as a holistic process of development in classical and contemporary plays. It can be used to train any ensemble of actors in any context - inexperienced, professional, young, old and culturally and linguistically diverse.<br><br>A companion website will include a video documentary of practitioners using Pulse in their work with the author.</p>