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Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that provides a vocabulary for thinking about and acting upon movement and gesture. Originally developed in the 1970s by choreographer Mary Overlie, Viewpoints theory was adapted for stage acting by directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau.
Overlie's Six Viewpoints (space, story, time, emotion, movement, and shape) are a more logical way to examine movement and work better for analysis. Bogart's Viewpoints work better in a practical way for creating movement. It is telling that Bogart threw out emotion and story, since these issues so dominate the thinking of most actors, there was little need to isolate them as Viewpoints. In Bogart's Viewpoint work, actors are invited to work with isolated issues that are outside of the narrative mindset assumed in most acting training.
(Space)
Architecture - The physical environment, the space, and whatever belongs to it or constitutes it, including permanent and non-permanent features.Spatial Relationship - Distance between objects on stage; one body in relation to another, to a group, or to the architecture. Topography - The movement over landscape, floor pattern, design.
(Shape)
Shape - The contour or outline of bodies in space; the shape of the body by itself, in relation to other bodies, or in relation to architecture; think of lines, curves, angles, arches all stationary or in motion. Gesture - a) Behavioral gesture: realistic gesture belonging to the physical world as we observe it everyday. b) Expressive gesture: abstract or symbolic gesture expressing an inner state or emotion; it is not intended as a public or "realistic" gesture.
(Time)
Tempo - How fast or slow something happens on stage. Duration - How long an event occurs over time; how long a person or a group maintains a particular movement, tempo, gesture, etc. before it changes. Kinesthetic Response - A spontaneous reaction to a motion that occurs outside of oneself. An instinctive response to an external stimulus. Repetition - a) Internal: repeating a movement done with one's own body, and b) External: repeating a movement occurring outside one's body.
(Emotion)
Smile or frown.
(Movement)
Movement of your body, different ways of moving - for example, jerky versus smooth/flowy versus very slowly or fast. The movement of different parts of your body.
(Story)
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Integration/Isolation
All of the different elements influence each other and work together, and can "cause" a change in a different element. For example, the shape of your body may carry a certain emotion with it as well - something in the space of your environment may make a story out of what you are doing - etc.
The actors must focus first on the isolation of each separate viewpoint element on its own, before integrating and working them all together. It's often that a performer finds one of the elements comes naturally, and perhaps uses that one element they really understand to access the other elements, which they must work to become more familiar with.
References:
Bogart, Anne. 2001. A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre. London: Routledge. ISBN 0 415 23832 3.
Bogart, Anne. 2007. And Then, You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World. London: Routledge. ISBN 0 415 41142 4.
Bogart, Anne and Tina Landau. 2005. The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. New York: Theatre Communications Group. ISBN 1-55936-241-3.
Dixon, Michael Bigelow and Joel A. Smith, eds. 1995. Anne Bogart:Viewpoints. Career Development Ser. Lyme, NH: Smith and Kraus. ISBN 1 880399 94 6.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewpoints
