The Deep Water Literary Festival hosts NACL Executive Artistic Director Brad Krumholz in conversation with Jason Tougaw about the contents of Brad’s recently published book, Why Do Actors Train? Embodiment for Theatre Makers and Thinkers. The talk will be followed by a short (non-compulsory) workshop focusing on how the book’s concepts impact not only the practical work of theatre artists but shed light on some of the ways we all encounter the natural world and the forces at play here. All are welcome to listen and/or participate.

For more information please visit the Deep Water Festival website

NOTE: This event is being held at the Narrowsburg Union in Narrowsburg, NY

More about the book:

‘Embodied cognition’ is a branch of contemporary philosophy which attempts to frame human understanding as fully embodied interaction with the environment. Engaging with ideas of contemporary significance from neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and philosophy, Why Do Actors Train? challenges the outmoded dualistic notions of body and mind that permeate common conceptions of how actors work. Theories of embodiment are drawn up to shed important light on the ways and reasons actors do what they do.

Through detailed, step-by-step analyses of specific actor-training exercises, Why Do Actors Train? examines the tools that actors use to bring life and meaning to the stage. This book provides theatre practitioners and scholars alike with a new lens to re-examine the craft of acting, offering a framework to understand the art form as one that is fundamentally grounded in embodied experience.

Why Do Actors Train? is currently available in hardback from Bloomsbury/Methuen.