Cultural transmission of actor training techniques : a research project

Abstract

Cultural Transmission of Actor Training Techniques (CTATT) is a research project that studies how actor training practices are transmitted across cultures, and in this process appropriated and transformed. It studies both historical and contemporary instances of actor training transmission, with particular attention given to how modern approaches like Stanislavsky’s system and Meyerhold’s biomechanics are adopted in contemporary training. The project is based at the Department of Theatre Studies (University of Malta) and was officially launched in April 2018. In this essay project director Stefan Aquilina contextualises the research within broader discourses about cultural transmission, and discusses the first event – a series of workshops on Stanislavsky’s magic ‘if’ with different European practitioners – organised within the project’s remit.