An Actor Began This

Imagine that you are an actor having trouble with your voice. You consult all the voice and speech teachers and medical people you know, and still the trouble persists. Then imagine that an important theater invites you to perform your one-person show on its stage ... in two weeks. What do you do?

What Australian actor F. Matthias (F.M.) Alexander (1869–1955) did was to consult his doctor. The doctor told him not to speak until the performance two weeks later. F.M. did as he was told and began his evening of solo Shakespeare in full voice. Sometime during the performance, he lost his voice and apparently 'croaked' his way to the finish.

He returned to his doctor, who couldn't explain what had happened. Alexander asked, 'Is it not fair, then, to conclude that it was something I was doing that evening in using my voice that was the cause of the trouble?' (Alexander 1984: 8). After all, he had had his voice at the beginning of the performance, just not at the end. The doctor agreed, yet wasn't able to give Alexander any more guidance.

Although this was bad news for Alexander, it would become good news for us, as it sent him on a journey of discovery that resulted in what we now call the Alexander Technique. Fairly early in this extended exploration (which is thought to have taken seven to nine years), Alexander's voice improved. However, he continued to investigate, as it became evident that his work offered more than voice improvement. While he was discovering more effectiveness in his own behaviors, his friends noticed how he was changing and wanted him to share what he was doing. And so he experimented with teaching others what he was himself learning.

Alexander's initial experiments revolved around the act of communicating. He wanted a process he could use on his own while acting. He had little use for a passive technique that could be done to him, nor anything utilized separately from his acting process. He needed something that would work in action. This quality of the Alexander Technique – that it can be used while you are in action or activity – sets it apart from many other psychophysical techniques, particularly for those of us who are professional communicators.

What does it do for performers?

Michel Saint-Denis is the acting teacher probably responsible for the inclusion of the Alexander Technique in many acting training courses. He designed the programs at RADA, Juilliard and the Comédie-Française. In his book Training for the Theatre, he says:

'The Alexander Technique, invented by F. Matthias Alexander and described in his book The Use of the Self, is a method by which the student can free himself of postural bad habits and become aware of the meeting point of his body and mind. At the same time the Technique corrects the alignment of his body and his coordination in general.

(Saint-Denis 1982: 105)

Performers have been advocates for the Alexander Technique throughout its history. Anecdotes about its effectiveness come from all the performing arts. When a physician who was also a professional musician came to my studio in pain from how he was playing, his first words were 'I don't believe in all this hooey hooey stuff, but my musician friends say that this works, so show me'. Some months later, he reported that he had said to a fellow surgeon who complained of back pain during a long surgery, 'I told you to study the Alexander Technique. My back doesn't hurt'.

In an interview with Jean-Louis Rodrigue, Trisha Brown said, 'The Alexander Technique helps to integrate the individual dancer plus all the systems that he or she has been exposed to' (quoted in Rodrigue 1986: 5). Evangeline Benedetti, former cellist of the New York Philharmonic, said in an article for Direction magazine, 'The Alexander Technique has become an integral part of my playing and performing. My playing has become easier, my movements more graceful, the ability to express myself musically has become more immediate and supple' (Benedetti 1991: 305). Performers know that something about this process works!

My personal story

In graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis, my first experience of the multifaceted usefulness of the Alexander Technique occurred when I played Cordelia in a university production of King Lear, with Morris Carnovsky as Lear. Carnovsky was one of the original members of the Group Theatre, had played Lear all over the world and was an alumnus of Washington University. Given this amazing opportunity, I worked diligently to prepare for the role. Performing with Carnovsky was as powerful an experience as I had imagined, and I was proud of my work and grateful for having played Cordelia.

A few months after the show closed,...