Q: Which book changed your life? A: The one the teacher put under my head during the Alexander Technique sessions at RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]. I grew an inch and a half. (Taken from “Questions & Answers”, The Guardian, May 7 2015)
“Alexander Technique really helped my posture and focus during my stint as Othello with Northern Broadsides theatre company. Imagine how excited I was when arrived at the National Theatre for Comedy of Errors and found I could have Alexander taught to me once a week, I was chuffed to little meatballs.”(Taken from the BBC Radio show ‘Front Row’)
What I learnt was beautiful, it was an art… It was about being still and relaxed in order to be able to 100 percent listen to someone, to be in the present.Hugh Jackman (“Inside the Actors Studio” Season 10 Episode 11)
I was born with no natural aptitude. I wasn’t pretty. I moved with no grace at all. I auditioned for the London Academy of Musical and Dramatic Arts but was not accepted. When I was finally admitted to Central School of Speech and Drama and showed up at my first movement class with my hump back and wearing a leotard, the movement teacher said, “Oh God.” He sent me to the head of the school who then sent me to…
Alexander Technique was born of acting. Alexander himself was an actor in Melbourne, Australia in the 1890s when he began losing his voice, an affliction known at the time as Clergyman’s Throat. He regained his voice thanks to the discoveries he made, and he went on to teach his methods to many people, including numerous actors, over the next sixty years. One of his most famous students was Sir Henry Irving, forgotten to many of us today. In his day…