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Andrei Droznin's Physical Actor Training

What are the methods used by Russian theatre director and pedagogue Andrei Droznin? How does Droznin’s theory and practice relate to precursors in his tradition? And how can multimedia technologies be used to present and investigate movement-based approaches to actor training in an appropriately embodied fashion?

Conceived and curated by Allain, Andrei Droznin’s Physical Actor Training presents filmed examples of Andrei Droznin’s approach to physical training along with two of his texts, translated from Russian by Allain and Natasha Fedorova, one of the main teachers working in the Droznin tradition. The work provides insights into Droznin’s system of training, which he has developed to combat the increasing ‘desomaticisation’ of the body, as he describes it. The booklet accompanying the DVD is prefaced by a contextualizing 3200 word analysis by Allain, exploring the issue of craft in contemporary actor training, Droznin’s background and approach in relation to Russian theatre, and the DVD’s purpose.

The film was made by Allain (with the assistance of Peter Hulton) over five days at the University of Kent with student performers. Droznin is the most important movement teacher in Russia today. This is the first publication that has attempted to document and analyse his methods. It reveals how Droznin’s initial education as an engineer shaped his biomechanical approach, showing how his work connects to and extends Vsevelod Meyerhold and Jerzy Grotowski’s own investigations. The film uses devices such as floating quotations from Droznin’s texts over the filmed exercises as well as a recorded commentary by Fedorova. The publication was funded by the Leverhulme Trust as part of a network grant between the University of Kent and the Moscow Art Theatre School, which also involved collaboration on a symposium with the RSC, In the Body, from which an interview with Allain and photographs are included on the DVD.