The Rudolf Steiner Archive

More about the Course “Speech Formation and Dramatic Art” at the Goetheanum

[ 1 ] In the performing arts, the inner life of language must be reawakened. For language contains a part of the human essence.

[ 2 ] This part can be found when one seeks an understanding of the relationship between mimicry, gestures, and words. Gestures embody a revelation of human will imbued with feeling. The soul and spirit are present as images in gestures. Insofar as the soul and spirit allow feelings to flow into the imagery of gestures, human nature is revealed to the outside world in the power of the will. What we are dealing with here is a manifestation of human nature in such a way that the inner is carried to the outside.

[ 3 ] But human beings can perceive their own gestures, their own facial expressions, just as they create mental images of things and events in the outside world. The mental image of gestures then represents a kind of fulfillment of consciousness with the inner human essence.

[ 4 ] In ordinary life, the human organism does not complete this transfer of the will-driven gesture into the mental image. It stops it halfway. And where it stops it, language arises. Mimicry and gestures are embodied in words. The word itself is a gesture in another form.

[ 5 ] Those who develop the sound perception discussed in the previous section will become aware of how the gesture slips into the sound; and they can have a refined experience of the gesture in speech that touches the soul.

[ 6 ] If one wants to bring speech to artistic expression, then one must be able to carry within oneself the character of the word in this way, with the experience of mimicry and gesture.

[ 7 ] And only when the word emerges from the throat with the color of this experience can it become a stage word.

[ 1 ] In stage speech, the moving human being must be revealed audibly. Only then will a vivid connection between gesture, mimicry, and speech be presented to the eyes and ears of the audience. And the drama will be able to flow through the words and gestures of the actor.

[ 8 ] What happens in the human organism during ordinary speech in the deeply hidden regions of the unconscious: the transformation of facial expressions and gestures into the intonation of sound must be brought to the imaginative consciousness of the actor through artistic sensitivity, so that the imaginative conscious shaping of the word becomes what the human being otherwise does quite unconsciously in speech, and has even lost completely in more advanced languages in the colorlessness of word formation.

[ 9 ] In training actors, therefore, the embodiment of the soul experience must first be based on facial expressions and gestures. This will only be possible with some degree of perfection if the aspiring actor first practices the role in facial expressions and gestures alongside a reciter who takes care of the speech, and then adds the tinge of words to this “silent” but “eloquent” play.

[ 10 ] Then the soul, which entrusts itself willingly to the revelation of movement, will also be able to live on the waves of words. For in the excitement of gesture, the soul is experienced; and in the words born of gesture, this experience is brought into the semi-calm formation of sound.

[ 11 ] If the actor lives himself into this context of sound and gesture, the shaping of words becomes in him an artistic, imaginative instinct. This instinctive element must enter into the experience, otherwise the performance appears artificial. However, in order to be art, it must appear as something completely natural.

[ 12 ] One can only muster the will to grasp the art of the stage in this way if one can start from a spiritual view of human nature. For such a view will recognize the weaving of the spiritual and soul in the moving speech of human beings; and this can then provide the right basic mood for stage performance. Knowledge of human beings, the transformation of knowledge of human beings into the practical shaping of sound and gesture: this is the basis of the art of the stage. What is experienced inwardly with the whole human being, entrusting itself to gestures accompanied by sound, words accompanied by gestures: this is the art of acting.

[ 13 ] In the course on speech formation and dramatic art currently being held at the Goetheanum, what has just been said forms part of what is intended as inspiration. We want to stimulate the artistic aspect of the stage. For many years, Marie Steiner has trained the art of recitation and declamation in such a way that the artistic aspect of speech formation is elevated to a vivid experience. It is to her credit that anthroposophical work can unfold in this direction. She also initiated this course and contributes to it through her art of recitation. Under her inspiration, a large number of stage artists have gathered here at the Goetheanum who, under her guidance, wish to incorporate into the dramatic arts what anthroposophy has to offer.

Further guiding principles issued by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society.

[ 14 ] 94. With the ordinary life of mental images, which is mediated by the senses, the human being stands in the physical world. In order to take this into consciousness, karma must be silent in the life of mental images. As a mental image-forming being, the human being forgets his karma, so to speak.

[ 15 ] 95. Karma is at work in the manifestations of the will. But its effect remains in the unconscious. By raising what is unconsciously at work in the will to the level of imagination, karma is grasped. One feels one's destiny within oneself.

[ 16 ] 96. When inspiration and intuition enter the imagination, then, in addition to the impulses of the present, the results of previous earthly lives become perceptible in the workings of the will. Past lives prove to be effective in the present life.

(Continued in the next issue.)