Action Theater:

The Improvisation of Presence

by Ruth Zaporah

In Action Theater you will experience what it is like to study with Ruth Zaporah, inspired teacher, and exhilarating, witty, and insightful per­former. This captivating examination of the mind, heart, and body of improvisation reveals the magic that has drawn people from around the world to study with this master of the form.

—Anna Halprin, dancer and author of Moving Towards Life:Five Decades of Transformative Dance

I have never forgotten the impact of Ruth Zaporah in performance. How wonderful that she is sharing her art beyond her students, to enrich us with her knowledge, insights, method, and experience.

—Rachel Rosenthal, performance soloist Ruth Zaporah is a light in my life. We all improvise our lives, But Ruth knows how to enter a stage without any preconceived plan and then astonish and delight an audience, as if pulling magic out of air. She also knows how to inspire others to conjure up moment to moment magic, and here she shares ideas that have made her such a beloved performer and teacher.

—Remy Charlip, writer, dancer, choreographer

This book is a great new source of simple and joyful exercises in discov­ering the boundless opportunities of living in a human body.

—Reb Anderson, former Abbot, Senior Dharma Teacher,

San Francisco Zen Center

Action Theater: The Improvisation of Presence

Copyright © 1995 by Ruth Zaporah. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the pub­lisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by North Atlantic Books P.O. Box 12327 Berkeley, CA 94712

Cover photograph by Frank Werblin

Cover and book design by Paula Morrison

Typeset by Catherine Campaigne

Printed in the United States of America by Malloy Lithographing

Action Theater: The Improvisation of Presence is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and crosscultural perspective link­ing various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of the arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Zaporah, Ruth, 1936-

Action theater : the improvisation of presence / Ruth Zaporah.

Contents

Acknowledgements 4

Foreword 5

Introduction 7

Day One 9

Form/Content 9

Day Two 13

The Body's Voice 13

Day Three 17

A Way to Proceed:Body, Imagination, Memory 17

Day Four 23

Composition 23

Day Five 29

Inner/Outer 29

Day Six 35

Pretend to Pretend 35

Day Seven 41

The Body of Language 41

Day Eight 47

Transformation 47

Day Nine 52

Imagination 52

Day Ten 58

The Watcher and the Watched 58

Day Eleven 63

Response 63

Day Twelve 68

A Scene 68

Day Thirteen 73

Action as Sign 73

Day Fourteen 78

Beyond Self/Big Awareness 78

Day Fifteen 84

Freedom 84

Day Sixteen 89

Relationship 89

Day Seventeen 95

Practice 95

Day Eighteen 100

Stalk 100

Day Nineteen 106

People and Props 106

Day Twenty 111

Dream On 111

Afterword 115