BioArt Training: The First Building Block of a Newly Powerful Theatre

A Practitioner’s Remarks: About Mirror Neurons and the Scientific and Artistic Implications of the Discovery

by Madeleine Barchevska

This article is a call for scientific measurement of the brain of a BioArt Trained subject before and after the 6H training module.

It is also a call for theatre practitioners to be trained as BioArt entrainers.

Science, fortunately, is finally catching up with Art. The identification of mirror neurons in the brain is a cause for celebration. Art, philosophy, poetry and religion have been working with this concept for thousands of years, yet the day science does catch up, we must acknowledge the call to evolution and take action. In the 4th century B.C. Chuang Tzu, the Taoist philosopher said, “The mind of the perfect man is like a mirror. It does not lean forward or backward in its response to things. It responds to things but conceals nothing of its own. Therefore it is able to deal with things without injury to its reality.” This is very much the “neutral state of being” that my mentor, Clyde Vinson, brought to his actors, and which has been the focus of almost 20 years of my own work.

The following is a quote describing a very real problem in theatre arts today: “If Jessica Lange had to do it all over again, she wouldn’t. ‘When you look at actors and actresses now, you’re not seeing the thrilling talent. You are not seeing the work,’ Lange told the New York Daily News. ‘Back then, the business attracted integrity, it attracted artists, and I don’t think it does anymore. I wouldn’t start today.’ The two-time Academy Award winner for “Tootsie” and “Blue Sky, ” said, ‘I know I’ve talked about stopping before, but I’m getting closer to it. I really don’t want to have remorse or regret about what I missed in terms of daily life.'”(1) My colleagues and I are interested in dealing with this problem and giving some insight and ability also to non-actors, in order to improve their own quality of life and also their demands and capacity for ever more powerful live theatre.

Brief Context

I founded my not for profit company, BioArt Theatre Laboratories, in New York City in 1988. This was with the blessing of my principal mentor, Clyde M.Vinson, who was one of the most powerful entrainers I have ever met. “Entrainment can be defined as two linked vibrating systems with similar but not identical frequencies. They will gradually tend to come closer together in frequency until they are the same (resonant). That is, one frequency (usually the fastest) entrains the other bringing it up to the same speed. When this happens, and the two are in resonance, energy can begin to pass back and forth between them. For instance, if there are two pendulums hanging from a wire, and one is swinging at 7 cycles per second and the other at 6.5 cycles per second, gradually the latter will speed up until they are both at 7 cps. Then an interesting thing happens : one of the pendulums begins to swing more strongly (though still at the same frequency) and the other less strongly until one is still and the other has all the power of both. Then the process reverses itself, and so on, as the energy of vibration is passed back and forth between the two resonant pendulums.” (Payne, 1987) (2) Memorable teachers, public speakers, as well as actors are using the principles of entrainment.

My life had changed two years earlier, in 1986, when I took a course at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts called “Performance and Biology” taught by an enthusiastic professor from France, Jean-Marie Pradier, whom I believe has made a presentation himself in this symposium. When I read his course syllabus, bells went off in my brain, as I had been waiting for this connection between, firstly, my studies and my creative ideas and secondly, my performing experience.

Prior to this revelation, I had had an extensive career as a singer, playing 200 nights per year and traveling to colleges in the U.S., and doing two tours for the U.S. Pentagon : one in Greenland, Iceland, and Canada, and the other in the Philippines, Thailand, Okinawa and Japan. Then I had become the lead actress for John Jesurun, filmmaker, playwright, and MacArthur Grant recipient. The theatrical work we did together was considered avant garde and I collaborated with performing artists like John Kelly, Frank Maya, and Valerie Charles.!!Later Steve Busciemi joined Jesurun’s project, but by that time I had already moved on to greater challenges acting and directing with the Lakota Theatre Company, where I played Hecuba in The Trojan Women and other equally difficult roles, and eventually directed Chekov’s The Three Sisters.

At that time, I wrote a thesis on Strindberg’s The Stronger, and directed the play so as to make it mobile. Using music performance as a model, my premise was that the actors should be able to render the entire aesthetic context of the play through their physical presence. In my thesis I called this approach “aesthetic pragmatism.” On six consecutive evenings we performed the play in six different locations : an art gallery, a restaurant, and four large New York apartments. Pre-dating Wallace Shawn’s similar experiments, my idea, on the one hand, was to work with Grotowski’s “Poor Theatre” concept as well as Strindberg’s “intimate theatre” concept while, on the other hand, offering actors more autonomy professionally. The quality factor and the “signals” from the actors were very rich, very full and complete, and this, too, fit into the motivation given by “performance and biology”, that the “actor’s” living presence in front of the living public was an act of “fertilization” (Grotowski, 1968).

It became important to me to work on upgrading the quality of theatre in general by making stronger and more flexible actors, more open actors. Clyde Vinson, armed with first-hand knowledge of Viola Spolin’s work, as well as the Feldenkreis, Linklatter, Rolfing, Psychosynthesis/Assagioli and Alexander techniques, worked with the premise that ‘the open actor filters the text.” This premise is invaluable for understanding actors and how to train them in both behavioral aesthetics and the biological act of fertilization, of stimulating neuronal growth in the brains of the live audience. Here, I worked with the Brechtian concept of the theatre’s responsibility to educate the public, but in my theatre, the public was educated in how to grow, how to purely learn, if you will, how to more and more work instinctively with the whole brain. Antonin Artaud’s concept of the actor as an emotional athlete is also important. By filtering the emotional content of the text, which exists in the writing itself, actors can respond instinctively and powerfully and completely aesthetically, without falling into “emotionalism”. Their sense of proportion can become exquisite, “natural plus”, with just enough heightening to achieve a tastefully impressive theatricality.

The creation of what has become the six-hour BioArt Workshop is for me the creation of the now missing initiation, the training experience which is the fundamental piece of the puzzle; it is the missing first building block in modern occidental actor training. Thus it can be said that since industrialization, our official theatrical mirroring has been inconsistently rooted in the essential neutral state-of- being which shows us ourselves as being fully alive and receptive to life.

The biological foundation of performance / The real scoop

Anthropologists tell us that some of the first human gatherings were held after the hunt when the tribe would assemble to hear the hunter’s story. The hunter and his story are most often assumed to be the reason for the gathering. After all, we all want to hear the exciting story from the great hunter. Well, biologists now tell us that the hunter’s story is actually just an alibi or justification for the gathering. The real scoop is that when the tribe gathers in a safe place and has a common focus, the actual reason for sitting next to each other is to share pheremones, those hormones which bolster the immune system and cause growth in the brain. The health of the tribe therefore is the true motive for the live presence of the hunter to appear before other living members of the tribe. As culture developed, orators and actors were given the stories to tell to the assembled group. Always, the underlying reason for any group or audience gathering is the pheremonal increase and necessary biological sharing.

We believe that actors need to be informed of their true role and educated deliberately to maximize their biological effectiveness and we also believe that classroom teachers share in this primary role of augmenting the general health and brain acuity of those assembled before them. In the concentrated BioArt workshop experience, divided into three hours one evening and three hours the next morning, participants are entrained into a state of being which is open and receptive and aesthetically appropriate for their individual instrument. They learn to filter a text. They learn to “lead the breathing” and receive the gaze of the others. It is possible to achieve this indelible and repeatable lesson in only six hours due to the fact that I use masks as a tool.

Mask

By covering the face, participants can tune into their nervous systems in order both to magnify sensations and to slow down the perception of time. What has become known as “The BioArt Workshop” has been given to over 2000 initiates in the U.S/France/and Central Europe. These groups consist of approximately nine actors or non-actors and are sometimes a mix of both. The workshop is itself a “tool.” Over the years, it has been modified to meet ever-changing societal and cultural needs. Actors, non-actors, teachers, therapists, and nowadays even corporate executives find nourishment and satisfaction in this work. Professor Pradier made the suggestion to me almost 20 years ago that I should also move into the training of corporate executives. In today’s world, I believe that every professional person needs to know how to orchestrate public perception and I may also go a bit further to say that what I call “the skill of taking gaze”, meaning the ability to be a neutral receptive presence in society, allows others to benefit biologically and anthropologically from our presence. This is one way of providing a level of ethical fulfillment of each individual’s hunger for greater meaning; it’s a way to a more effective participation in culture and society.

A new approach to presence and a new perspective on theatre

From a biological perspective, drama/theatre is different from any other art form practiced by the human species. All drama/theatre throughout the world can be perceived as a direct biological process. This process, which requires considerable skill, is perception-based and functions through the human central nervous system (3). In his introduction to Lionel Tiger’s Optimism: The Biology of Hope, Frederick Turner cites “dramatic performance and the brain itself” as the only two human “features” that “transcend the barriers of cultural differences” (Tiger, 1995). I see dramatic performance and brain function as related; in fact, as resonant, and part of the same system. Thus, BioArt training is the bridge between art and science, and as such its impact can now be measured due to the discovery of mirror neurons.

The Skill of Taking Gaze

Theatre is a perceptual artform. By ‘perception’, I refer to an organic sense of realizing, identifying and discerning, as opposed to ‘observation’, which is intellectually based, directive and analytic. We not only perceive professional actors, but actors can intensify their impact on us through training their nervous systems to receive impulses from the nervous systems of their viewers, that is, in their collective perceptual capacity.

This biological perspective enhances the role of the actor. An actor’s sound and movement on the stage are only one facet of his/her function. Through the willingness and capacity to receive and literally absorb the gaze of the public through their own nervous systems, actors can perform an integrative function for those present. The actor who is biologically aware cycles the attention of the audience through him/herself. In essence, the actor captivates the attention of the audience and guides it through channels of physical awareness that the actor instinctively senses are biologically generative (4) for the public. We now know that professional stage actors who become well-known possess an instinctive comprehension of the fact that there is a sequence to perceptual reaction in humans and that they have practiced it. It is a skill; it can be practiced. Actors need an exceptionally strong and adaptable nervous system to achieve this level of affective presence.

All other human performing behaviors can be analyzed from this same biological perspective, including the performance of teachers, politicians, clergy and business presenters. It is a matter of the capacity and willingness to fulfill this biological function that determines the successful outcome of the undertaking. We all have brains and the capability, in varying degrees, to engage theatrical energy in the performance of our work. By training human beings of all ages in the biological foundation of drama/theatre, we can strengthen their ability to tune-in to the ‘rhythm of circumstances,’ giving them the power to admit or change that rhythm, even to resist it.

The Brain, Hormones, Breathing, and Will

As Neil Postman said, advances in technology lead us to believe that “technological innovation is the same thing as human progress” (McCaslin, 1996). In fact, the cortex of the human brain has developed at an alarming rate. We are weakened, however, if our activity is primarily cortical. It takes 10 cortical brain cells to duplicate the strength of one cell in the older brain stem. The older brain is richer, the younger cortical brain needs to be integrated through the older brain’s quality (5). Theatre training from a biological perspective performs this integrative function.

Hormonal secretions in the body can facilitate our capacity to respond or can block response. Children and adults alike are often paralyzed when first confronted with the task of taking gaze. Every teacher of public speaking carries an image of a student in this fearful state. An adrenalin surge, or in some cases, a continual adrenalin-induced ‘state’ (such as stage fright) is paralyzing and painful. On the contrary, free and open play, performing arts and sports performance give us a surge of endorphins, which, in turn, invigorate the performance by engaging us more fully in the event. We need to know how to switch from adrenalin to endorphin, to change from a ‘state’to a ‘state-ofbeing,’ in ourselves and in our audience, at will.

Breathing through a neutral ‘affectable’ state-of-being can become the most important level of achievement in creating theatre in its biological plenitude.

“Work on developing a strong and skillful will (not to be confused with repressive Victorian willpower) is an often overlooked aspect of the actor’s technique and craft” (Vinson, 1983) (6).

Our Sequential Nature

Human beings are vertebrate animals. The order of perception in all vertebrates, including humans, is sequential. It’s helpful to recognize in ourselves the sequence common to all vertebrates, since non-recognition of this fact can limit our power to perceive and to be perceived. It is also possible, through theatre and the work required of an actor, to restore the biological order of perception, which may have been altered or lost through the stress of living. As much as the arts are concerned with increasing our capacity for feeling, we must recognize that all our capacities are inextricably linked to our biological heritage as vertebrates. It is now possible not only to restore ourselves but also to teach the restoration process.

Vertebrate Perception

There are five classical yet elementary stages in the sequence of perception in vertebrates that culminate in a physical action (7). The sequence of perception is as follows:

1. neutral state-of-being
2. alert (reticular activation; i.e., the casting out of a visual net)
3. perception and processing of signals
4. emotional reaction (neural-endocrinal reaction)
5. action (motor action)

It has been my experience that in industrialized societies, people of all ages can become trapped between step three, the perception and processing of signals, and step four, an emotional, hormone- induced reaction. The ensuing state of stress produces a continual return to the perception and processing of signals, so that the perception cycle diminishes into a ‘see-saw’ limited between two steps. When trapped in this predicament, our subsequent physical actions are often re-active and become inadvertent compromises of what might have fully been a true action or choice. The function of the nervous system and the level of cultural impact suffer in the realms of communication and relationship. This is a problem for all human beings, especially actors, for their biological role depends upon their impact and capacity to create generative physical actions that are biologically stimulating to the public. By giving this training to nonactors, we “raise the bar” regarding performance levels both on and off the stage.

Rather than a limitation, the sequential order of perception is our birthright. Children, for example, when they cannot return to the neutral state-of-being, the capacity to be open, affect-able and aware, suffer from stress and reactive behavior patterns. The same is true for adults. It is also possible to examine the nature of illness, behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, hyperactivity and other learner-centered problems from the perspective of  vertebrate sequentiality and our ability to respect it.

A New Curricular Role For Drama/Theatre

I would personally like to see this fundamental six-hour training become available for classroom teachers and their students. The biological perspective moves drama/theatre into its own specific category and enhances its position in the curriculum. It is helpful to think of the entire human species with its collective nervous system as the context for drama/theatre. From a biological point of view, any performing human being has the potential to act as a restorer, provided he or she is willing to invest in learning the neutral state-of being, and is willing to be perceived in this biological role by the viewers. Although intensities and impact differ between professional actors and those I call “civilian actors,” the process remains the same.

Performing From An Aware Biological Context

Now let us frame the affectable, ever-present biological context. Due to the results of industrialization and over-corticalization, we are no longer able to fully ascertain that each of us has our own sequential perceptual range intact. Therefore, we must first work to restore it physically in ourselves before evoking it for others, hence the clarifying, re-orienting six-hour workshop. Although this work requires little in the way of physical exertion, it is physical. The goal of the restoration of sequentiality substantiates the need for pacing. The sense of pacing may seem slow at first, until we adapt to the experience of restoration of our own perceptive faculties. It is highly productive to concentrate on evoking the experience of the neutral state-of-being. Note that most performing arts training in western industrialized societies begins from the alert position (step two in the sequence), for example, first position ballet, classical singing, classical musicianship, rather than from a neutral state-of-being (step one).

In order to achieve restored perception, we will again use the sequence, but this time we will add a human dimension to the ‘vertebrate sequence’ in order to recognize the implications of each step. The level ‘0’ has been added for perspective, in order to perceive the entire sequence as a whole. I call this practice “Self Reception.” The “actor” achieves a psychological state of selfacceptance rather than the “idea” of self-acceptance. As the famed drama educator Dorothy Heathcote called it, “dropping to the universal.” (8)

• 0) BioArt point of departure /self-reception/willingness
• 1) neutral (state-of-being affect-able)
• 2) alert (reticular activation)-western point of departure in performance training
• 3) perception and processing of signals -often anxiety Note: in postindustrial societies, humans get stuck alternating between 3 & 4
• 4) emotional reaction (neural-endocrinal reaction) -often emotionalism
• 5) action (motor action) -all too often a re-action rather than a clear choice

Far from being a negative number, zero is an intensifier by 10. In adding the zero level to the sequence of perception, we are also adding the dimension of the human will, the “freedom to choose determinant.” (9) Developing a skillful will is a very important level of achievement for both professional actors and professionals in all walks of life.

Unity

The role of the entrainer is to maintain and fulfill the unspoken demand for unity. This takes more of a sense of orchestration than an analytical sense of direction. It requires the capacity for holding the total pattern of a group presence in one’s perception as a singular living thing. It is the more indirect route of evoking order, rather than ‘making’ order by manipulating what can be observed visually. Suzanne Langer describes this compositional skill beautifully in Feeling and Form (Langer, 1953), when she refers to “the commanding form.”

The human nervous system is a unity. One aspect of working within this perspective which consistently surprises me is that it remains effective for both adults and children alike, provided that groups are close enough in developmental age range. Throughout the most recent multicultural development of this work over the past 14 years, the total age range of the students has been from five to 77 years of age. The physical presence of the entrainer in its adaptive responsiveness and the capacity of the entrainer’s nervous system to contain the presence of the group remain the decisive factors in this work.

Entrainer’s Materials And Procedures

The material and economic requirements of the workshop are modest. The level of receptive presence required of the entrainer is the most important element for success. Introductory group training can be described as ‘homeopathic,’ as it is a brief, effective dose of new experience . Practice after the workshop can occur at any time, and refinement comes through practice and selected further training. I say ‘selected,’ because after the first training experience on the adult level, the participants undergo a change in perspective. Children become more confident. Adults feel an enrichment and an expansiveness.

Required : a large open space without tables; large enough so that participants can sit either on chairs or on the floor. In addition, your own nervous system must be geared to softly anticipating and absorbing any possible intrusions or interruptions. Again, zero intensifies by 10. Prepare yourself to absorb 10 times the usual noise, disturbance, unexpected or uncharacteristic occurrences. The reason for this deep preliminary preparation in the nervous system of the teacher ensures that the group energy can then be held by him/her. The training takes place at theatrical energy levels rather than at the level of social interaction. This is important. The entrainer’s ability to absorb the “social” interventions at any moment guarantees the integrity of the group process and the opening of new territories of perception, even in the more emotional or shy students.

As stated earlier, the prop I consistently use for the initial six-hour training is the mask. There is a ritual-like procedure for “taking mask” (10), which makes it a very effective tool in perceiving just how our individual nervous systems are functioning. Contrary to what one might believe, the use of a mask is a humanizing element, designed to allow social energy to drop away while still giving support to a participant who can “save face” while his/her nervous system quickly adapts. The mask magnifies sensations, the awareness of respiration, and enriches our perception of time. Simply put, we can think of the mask as serving a similar function as training wheels on a bicycle, because at this point in training, we do need a margin for error. The best mask for this purpose is a full, neutral one. Every participant needs the experiential luxury of privacy that the mask provides. The entrainer, however, does not wear a mask. This fact adds reassurance and support, and establishes our goal as attaining the neutral-state-of-being without a prop. All our subsequent mask work fortifies each individual participant within the context of the group.

The principal position in this approach is the standing posture. To be able to stand in neutral mode is the goal. Although this may seem easy, it is one of the most difficult positions in all of theatre training to achieve. To stand and accept the public’s gaze in an open neutral posture is challenging. Correctly handled by the entrainer, it can also be a liberating experience.

The Leader Of The Breathing

In this biological approach, I like to think of the entrainer, first and foremost, as the leader of the breathing. This position of ‘response’-‘ability’ also corresponds to the zero position I spoke of earlier. The entrainer works through perceptual rather than observational intelligence to create and sustain the finest open context of quality acceptance for the presence of each participant. Since all breathing is entrained, the entrainer’s neutral state-of-being is of unquestionable import to the learning.

Global Unity Exercise

Every movement made in the workshop should be considered voluntary. A mark or small area is indicated on the floor. Entrainers can intensify or dedramatize the experience by placing this mark, which I refer to as ‘the global hot spot,’ either in the center of a circle of students sitting on the floor, or in front of a line of students sitting on chairs, with a variable distance between the ‘hot spot’ and the viewers. This ‘spot’ is the place where, theatrically, every one of the seven billion people of the world can see you. You exist for everyone when you stand on this spot. You represent everyone. It is a very solemn moment for a participant to decide to stand there and to be viewed standing for this purpose.

This exercise can be liberating and thrilling, and even young children want to do it. The exercise, correctly carried out, can be a restorative rite-of-passage as well as the source for drama . In this context, there is no element of competition. The framing of the work by the entrainer is of critical importance. Entrainers soon tune-in to the joy of watching the decision to stand, for this is the transformative moment and the participant needs the willed support of the entrainer. We use the same foundational experience to nourish and orient actors and non-actors alike.

Moving Into Speech

Speech can blossom forth in the same way. The initial pacing is slow. Quickness in responding by a participant is often more of a shutting down of the affectable state than an opening of same. The pre-verbal level of the work seems to reverse the natural progression in child development where standing is preceded by speech. Here however we are following a restorative track and it is far more efficient to begin in silence and then to allow words to develop at a later point in the training. It has been my experience that participants can often use speech to shield themselves from sensing, and so we build the non-verbal foundation first.

Participants need to have confidence that their own nervous systems hold the key to self-growth and to new levels of education. Although we ‘take gaze,’ we do so in the spirit of listening. Participants who listen intently to their own nervous systems and settle their energy are doing very important work. The time spent in this way is an opening for all concerned and is a direct investment in the human species.

Bridging Art and Science: This Training Is Different

Because the instrument of theatre is the human being, a biological approach to theatre training represents an organic learning process at a deeper level than that of plastic arts training. It is for this reason that entrainers must keep an empathic yet stable presence to better fulfill their role as guide. The entrainer is continually bringing him/her self back to what we term “zero,” thus maintaining the neutral state for the group. Once begun, these exercises are a modern rite-of-passage. Any interruption for “social” interaction would be disrespectful. When participants come to realize that this potential for presence exists in every moment, the effect produced is one of liberation. Since the neutral state- of-being is our goal, there is no dominance, only sharing; sometimes respectful waiting. Also, those participants burdened with the most obstacles can become the leaders of the process because they ultimately overcome the greatest personal pathos. It is a courageous moment when pathos is transformed into neutrality. It is what I call “the subtle shifting,” and truly in this work, a small change can be of more significance than a big change. The entrainer is always the primary learner. The impact of this training is that it gives participants the ability to create and cultivate a biological context of quality before moving into issues of content. The context created at will is economical, mobile, and of excellent quality both from the viewpoint of behavioral aesthetics and of human health. It can result in a restored biological instrument. Once the quality of meaningful presence has been achieved, content can then be added. The BioArt Workshop is a primary building block of training. It can greatly strengthen powers of performance and receptivity. With it we can build and enhance creative power and endurance both in a career context or in continuing personal development.

Notes

1. Reported in the International Herald Tribune (2001).
2. Entrainment is a phenomenon originating in physics. Relating to human beings and perceptual training, entrainment describes a process whereby teacher and students become resonant,!!harmonized at the teacher’s level as a result of the teacher’s discipline.
3. Referring to that part of the nervous system which supervises and coordinates activity. Correct, yet general, scientific terms can be extremely useful as evocative teaching tools in perceptual training. They satisfy the intellect while creating correct perceptual shifts in awareness.
4. Powerful in the sense of causing, originating, producing or creating.
5. Attributed to Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in the notes of Clyde M. Vinson, PhD. (Northwestern), 1981. Vinson, with whom I apprenticed in neutrality and perceptual training from 1976 until his death in1989, was training actors from what we have come to recognize as a biologically correct stance. When I began to study Performance and Biology with Jean-Marie Pradier in 1986 in a course at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Pradier also spoke of the older brain as determining the quality of the corticalization process.
6. According to Vinson’s notes, 1983, “Work on developing a strong and skillful will (not to be confused with repressive Victorian willpower) is an important but often overlooked aspect of the actor’s technique and craft. A strong and skillful will help one to direct and focus attention and to commit to a character and his intention and actions in a scene.”
7. Jean-Marie Pradier, from lecture notes, August, 1986 and later in “Towards a Biological Theory of the Body in Performance”.
8. Wagner’s book on Heathcote, listed below, is highly valuable.
9. Vinson taught the development of a skillful will through exercises developed from the works of Roberto Assagioli, especially The Act of Will.
10. Ritual here is descriptive of a sequential process designed to open the perceptive capacity and the inner experience. We can utilize sequence in restoring perceptual integrity.

Works Cited

• Assagioli, Roberto. The Act of Will. New York: Penguin Books, 1975.
• Cohen, Bonnie Bainbridge. “Body Mind Centering.” Lecture. Amherst, Massachusetts. (Specific date unknown), 1981.
• Grotowski, Jerzy. Towards a Poor Theatre. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968.
• Langer, Suzanne. Feeling and Form. New York: Scribner, 1953.
• Postman, Neil. Forward. Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond. By Nellie McCaslin. New York: Longman, 1996.
• Payne, Peter. Martial Arts: the spiritual dimension, London: Thames and Hudson, 1987.
• Pradier, Jean-Marie. “Towards a Biological Theory of the Body in Performance.” The New Theatre Quarterly 21, 1990: 86-98.
• Turner, Frederick. Introduction. Optimism: The Biology of Hope. By Lionel Tiger. New York: Kodansha, 1995.
• Vinson, Clyde. Notes. New York, New York. (Specific date unknown), 1983.
• Wagner, Betty Jane. Dorothy Heathcote: Drama As A Learning Medium. National Education Association, 1976.