Overview

How can we effectively apply improvisation to train an ensemble of actors? Where is the method to create physically dynamic staging for text-based contemporary and classical plays? And how can a trainer and a director utilise improvisation to devise new work? The Pulse Approach answers these questions and more, captured here for the first time in a workbook to the practice. Pulse is an improvisational performance strategy that can be used by actors and directors to develop original text-based performance material and rehearse dramatic scripts. Director Tanya Gerstle has been developing the approach since 1989 and has used it to stage more than 25 theatre productions. Through step-by-step instructions for the student and practitioner; troubleshooting advice; case studies of productions directed using the Pulse Approach; and interviews with practitioners involved, this book is the first practical guide to this innovative methodology, which has its roots in the Australian actor-training scene. The Pulse Approach fuses improvisation and text-based theatre, too often disconnected, to offer up a methodology and rigorous practice for improvisation as a holistic process of development in classical and contemporary plays. It can be used to train any ensemble of actors in any context - inexperienced, professional, young, old and culturally and linguistically diverse. A companion website will include a video documentary of practitioners using Pulse in their work with the author.

Full Product Details

Author:   Tanya Gerstle ,  Professor Mary Luckhurst (University of York, York)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Methuen Drama
Dimensions:   Width: 16.80cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 24.20cm
Weight:   0.300kg
ISBN:  

9781350524545

ISBN 10:   1350524549
Pages:   216
Publication Date:   19 March 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Mary Luckhurst, University of York, UK 1. Introduction to the Pulse Approach 2. Pulse Training Workbook: An Approach to Ensemble Practice Introduction The Pulse Canvas Phase One: Developing Kinaesthetic awareness Phase Two: Making Connections Phase Three: Working Attitude Phase Four: Learning a Shared Language Phase Five: Expanding the Action Vocabulary Phase Six: The Pulse Sketch Phase Seven: Adding Sound to the Physical World Phase Eight: Speaking on the Canvas Performance Improvisation Case Study: Visions of Paradise (or you should have been here yesterday) 3. Directing Workbook: Working with Pulse on a Script Introduction Part One: Inner Life revealed Through Action Rehearsal Practice, Rehearsal Process, Rehearsal Concepts Part Two: Case Studies (The Mill on the Floss, Pericles Punished, Five Kinds of Silence, Stage Beauty and Manbeth: Macbeth Amplified) 4. In Conversation with Practitioners Introduction Pulse as a Framework Training Working with Pulse on a Script A ‘Living Practice’ Notes on Interviewees 5. Appendices Ensemble Practice Tasks Skill Focus Tasks Integrating Design Elements and Audience Alternative Applications Towards an Original Performance Text - Case Study: Invisible Stains Bibliography Index

Reviews

""A vital account of what has been a very influential approach for many of Australia's leading artists. This document is a historical record, as well as a contemporary workbook, for both actors and directors and an invaluable document for teachers."" --Andrea Moor, Queensland University of Technology, Aus ""Tanya Gerstle's Pulse Improvisation has been identified as offering a new way forward to improvisation for teachers and students in the UK and beyond. Gerstle's method offers strong structural and choreographic foundations with an emphasis on applied learning."" --Mary Luckhurst, University of York, UK

Author Information

Tanya Gerstle is Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where she was Head of Theatre and Acting during 15 years at its Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and integrated Pulse training methodology into the curriculum. She is an award-winning performance maker, theatre director, actor and teaching artist, and is founder and Artistic Director of OpticNerve Performance Group. She has taught the Pulse Approach throughout Australia and internationally, including at Penn State University, USA; University of York, UK; Caen University, France and to theatre companies in New Caledonia. She has contributed a chapter to Encountering Ensemble (Methuen Drama, 2013).

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