Location: Department of Education, University of York

I propose to do three things in this seminar. First I will briefly present the unprecedented quantity of writing about acting that appeared in England in the 1700s as a rich, but neglected, source of material for contemporary practitioners and teachers. Second, I will argue that unlocking the potential of these eighteenth-century sources requires a particular kind of collaboration between academics and theatre professionals, one which is focussed on a playful and experimental expansion of rehearsal practices and other kinds of artistic process. Thirdly and finally, I will suggest how such creative collaboration across disciplines, professions and periods might serve as the basis of exercises for those learning and teaching the art of acting today.