Anne Bogart & Tina Landau. The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. Theatre Communications Group, 2005.
A systematic articulation of Viewpoints as both training technique and rehearsal method. Adapts and expands Mary Overlie's original Six Viewpoints (Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement, Story — developed in the 1970s at the Experimental Theater Wing, NYU) into nine physical Viewpoints organized into two categories, plus Vocal Viewpoints.
The Nine Physical Viewpoints:
Viewpoints of Time:
- Tempo — the speed at which movement occurs
- Duration — how long a movement or sequence continues
- Kinesthetic Response — the impulse to move in reaction to something outside you (another's movement, a sound, a shift)
- Repetition — repeating movement within your own body or echoing movement from others
Viewpoints of Space:
- Shape — the contour of the body in space (lines, curves, angles)
- Gesture — behavioral (everyday, realistic) or expressive (abstract, symbolic) movement
- Architecture — the physical environment — floors, walls, objects — and how bodies relate to solid mass
- Spatial Relationship — the distance between bodies on stage and how that distance shifts
- Topography — the floor pattern, the map of movement through the space
Vocal Viewpoints: Pitch, Dynamic (volume), Acceleration/Deceleration, Silence, Timbre.
Lineage: Overlie's Six Viewpoints (SSTEMS) originated in postmodern dance, influenced by Merce Cunningham and the Judson Dance Theater. Bogart encountered Overlie at NYU in the 1970s and began applying the framework to actor training. Bogart and Landau's expansion from six to nine reflects the shift from dance to theater: actors needed finer-grained spatial vocabulary. Overlie published her own account in Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice (2016).
Referenced by atoms: physicality, presence, be-present, space-work, ensemble