A Brief Background

Anne Bogart was born September 25, 1951 in Rhode Island. She began getting interested in theatre when she was a teenager and started to work backstage with the crew. In 1974, she earned her B.A. and Master of Arts degrees from New York University's Tisch School of Arts. One of Bogart's biggest accomplishments include founding the Saratoga International Theatre Institute. One of her major influences is theatre director Tadashi Suzuki who founded the Suzuki Company of Toga. Together both Suzuki and Bogart established a method of acting called the Suzuki Method of Actor Training and implemented the style into their training. Bogart is also accredited to writing The Viewpoints with Tina Landau which is considered a "practical guide" for training performers, building an ensemble, and creating movement. This book goes into depth of certain acting and improvisational techniques that rely primarily on movement and gesture. The major viewpoints consist of Space, Body, and Time. Bogart has been awarded two Obie Awards for Best Director and was given the Bessie Award for her work with in directing Rodger and Hammersteins' South Pacific. She is married to Rena Fogel and lives her life running the Graduate Directing Program at Columbia University.

Her Philosophy

"You cannot create results. You can only create conditions in which something might happen." -Anne Bogart

An Analysis of Anne Bogart's "A Director Prepares"

Anne Bogart is also known for work, "A Director Prepares." Written in 2001, the book consists of seven essays exploring art and the theatrical world. Bogart defines each of these areas as the potential and fundamental obstacles in art-making, fundamental in the acting process. In her work she states that, "Art is violent. To be decisive is violent. ...To place a chair at a partial angle on stage destroys every other possible choice, every other option."

Each of her essays are built on the obstacles including:

1.    Violence

2.    Memory

3.    Terror

4.    Eroticism

5.    Stereotype

6.    Embarrassment

7.    Resistance

In reading Bogart's work, I chose to examine the sixth essay, “Embarrassment.” Bogart begins talking about a creative leap to access hidden potential and that you must “leap into the void.” However there are no guarantees on if the leap was correct which could lead into embarrassment. She then states, “If your work doesn’t sufficiently embarrass you, then very likely no one will be touched by it.” It is important to understand that embarrassment does not hinder us, but is a teacher that actors need to utilize. She states that good actors will risk embarrassment and expose themselves in order to avoid natural human tendency.

Bogart, Anne. "Embarrassment." A Director Prepares. 1st ed. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge, 2001. 168. Print.

Historical Context: Time/Culture/Gender

Bogart's avant-garde training methods speak to the modern period as the SITI Company was created in 1992. Being fairly new, Bogart utilizes Japanese culture from Suzuki movement. The purpose of this method is to uncover the actor's innate expressive abilities. Bogart also implements American culture from her improvisational acting techniques, better known as The Viewpoints. Both styles rely on Stanislavski based training although the methods are continually being explored and revitalized. Although she doesn't primarily address gender and race in her works, she states that being women she deals with more self doubt in her position.

Fun Facts

• In 2004, Anne Bogart was featured on the acclaimed television show "Women in Theatre" where she discussed how performance studies continue to impact her work.
• Bogart received an Honorary Doctorate from Skidmore College in 2001.
• Bogart was born into a Navy Family that traveled frequently. The longest home she had lived in was Japan for 2.5 years.

Opinion

I find Anne Bogart's avant-garde directing style to be extremely interesting. When implementing her acting methods from A Director Prepares, she works with her actors by finding where they are most vulnerable, then unlocking their hidden potential. This inevitably makes her actors stronger and helps the actor grow as a performer. She states that one must "leap into the void" which I find to be fascinating. Bogart's SITI Company is unlike any other form of training, as it mixes The Suzuki Method, which contains rigorous physical and vocal discipline, while also incorporating "Viewpoints" that articulate the specificity of time and space. To some up her artistic aesthetic, she states that, "Theatre is mostly mimetic, meaning it is embodied. If you’re watching a play, your mirror neurons are actually going wild and doing the same thing as the actors are doing, and your action as an audience is to restrain yourself from doing.” This is what sets theatre a part from other art forms, and she that her goal is to transport these stories through time.

Anne Bogart on Storytelling (Podcast)

In this podcast, Bogart talks of the dangers of stories and the effect they can have on an audience. She states that in theatre, "the audience is acting with the actors." She then goes on to say that theatre is mimetic which sets it apart from all other art forms, such as film or television.

http://trbq.org/trbq-podcast-10-stories-are-dangerous/