A Devil pokes the Actor: Frankly Acting 2 - Paperback

by Peter Berkahn (Illustrator), John Nobbs (Author)

This is the second book about actor training by John Nobbs. The first, Frankly Acting, outlined the early development of the Frank Suzuki Performance Aesthetics (FSPA), as a western variant and translation of the classic Suzuki Actor Training Method (SATM). This devil's logbook is a series of 25 provocations that poke further and deeper into the alchemical triggers and mechanisms that inform the one true actor training system originally devised by Tadashi Suzuki. Interspersed throughout the 25 provocations are revelations by some of the many actors that have used the FSPA to develop their acting spirit. Tadashi Suzuki, the inventor of the SATM, has stated that he believes that the training is not just for the actor's craft, but that it should be a creative tool for making theatre performances . The FSPA follows on the traces of that purpose, and this book outlines its importance as the creative onestop shop of Ozfrank Theatre Matrix. It includes examples, with colour photographs, that illustrate how Ozfrank director Jacqui Carroll uses the FSPA to impel her productions.

Author Biography

John was born in London in 1952 into an Australian scientific family and raised in Adelaide, Australia. John has worked in the Australian theatre and dance fields for nearly 40 years as a modern dancer, choreographer, dance teacher and designer and more recently as an actor, writer and designer with Ozfrank Theatre Matrix. He is the developer, with Jacqui Carroll, of Frank Suzuki Performance Aesthetics, which is a variant of the Suzuki Actor Training Method. John began his association with renowned Japanese theatre director, Tadashi Suzuki in 1991, and is the only Australian actor invited to be a guest artist with the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), John has performed with SCOT in Japan, Europe and North America from 1994 to 1999. John was appointed an Official International Trainer of the Suzuki Actor Training Method by Suzuki, and, with Jacqui Carroll, has been training young actors in the method in Asia, Europe and Japan since 1999. In 2009 John was invited to be an inaugural member of the International Suzuki Group, which has been assembled to oversee his legacy. John has written a book Frankly Acting, which is the history of the evolution of the FSPA, and is currently developing a DVD training package.