The Alchemical Actor

Jane Gilmer, Ph.D. (2000), Murdoch University, Western Australia, works freelance specialising in training actors, and writing, including ‘Michael Chekhov’s Imagination of the Creative Word and the question of its integration into his future theatre’ (Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 2013). Her current solo performance is Prospero’s Tempest: A meditation in Action.

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Imagining Alchemical Theatre

Prelude: Performing the Great Work



1 Artaud’s Alchemical Theatre: Earth and the Nigredo

 1 Double

 2 Cruelty

 3 Poetics

 4 Symbols

 5 Theatre Languages

 6 Myths

 7 Gnosticism

 8 Sacred Dramas of Eleusis

 9 Gesture i

 10 Actor and Director



2 Alchemical Imaginatio: Water and the Albedo

 1 Prima Materia

 2 Philosopher’s Stone

 3 Individuation

 4 Mysterium Conunctionis

 5 Four Elements

 6 Alchemical Stages

  6.1 Calcination

  6.2 Dissolution

  6.3 Separation

  6.4 Coniunction

  6.5 Fermentation

  6.6 Distillation

  6.7 Coagulation



 7 Three Forces

  7.1 Salt

  7.2 Sulphur

  7.3 Mercury

  8 Star Body

  9 Planets and Metals



3 Alchemical Actor: Air and the Citrino

 1 Elemental Mandala

 2 Laboratory

 3 Artists of Fire

 4 Practice

 5 Gesture ii

 6 Alchemy is Meditation

 7 Creative Imagination

 8 Dreams

 9 Consciousness

 10 Creative Word

 11 Mandala Stage

 12 Heart Thinking

 13 Initiation Drama



4 Alchemical Magnum Opus: Fire and the Rubedo

 1 Prospero’s Tempest



5 Dance of the Elements: Quintessence



Epilogue: Performing the Great Work



The Emerald Tablet

Bibliography

Index