What would Garrick do? Twenty-first-century theatre tuition with eighteenth-century material

James proposes to do three things in this seminar. First he 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, he 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, he 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.