ARTING About...? Montgomery Woods State National Reserve: Old Growth Redwoods.

  by Robin Scott Peters

In 1995 Mendocino College hired me, your humble artist, to direct the production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  The 20th Century Russian master theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold was a major influence in my approach to theater.  His working theory of Biomechanics intrigue me because it unlocked the slavish connection between having to "feel" what your character was "experiencing."  I rejected "Method" acting.  Biomechanics gave me a "method" to character development through physicalization.  It does not matter if an actor feels anything.  What matters is if the AUDIENCE feels. Biomechanics engaged the art of physical communication.