Kathleen Baum

Movement specialist

Bio

Kathleen Baum is an actor, teacher, and director with a specialization in movement based approaches to acting and actor training. Her work is grounded in the symbiosis she finds between Meyerhold’s Theatrical Biomechanics and the Alexander Technique. Kathleen is one of a small number of theatre practitioners with extensive experience in the authentic Russian tradition of Biomechanics as a performer as well as in training. For ten years she studied and performed with Gennadi Bogdanov, Russiaʼs leading exponent of the living Meyerhold tradition. As performer, coach, choreographer, and teacher Kathleen has worked in a broad range of theatres and training programs in Melbourne, Sydney, Sao Paolo, Toronto, London, Berlin, as well as throughout the U.S.. Her original work has been seen at the OʼNeill, the Construction Company (New York), the Dragonʼs Egg Theatre, UConn, the University of Virginia, and in collaboration for The Building Company, based in Syracuse, NY. Currently Kathleen is on the faculty of the Syracuse University Drama Department. She has also been on the faculties of Emerson College and the Eugene O’Neill National Theater Institute. In 2011 Kathleen qualified as an AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.

Engagement Information

Professor Baum is visiting from Syracuse University to work with the undergraduate cast of The Wild Duck, our department's mainstage production this fall.  She was invited by Jody McAuliffe, the show's director, to introduce the cast to her unique movement-based approach to acting which centers on Theatrical Biomechanics and the Alexander Technique.  Baum and McAuliffe have both been featured as guest faculty at the Eugene O'Neill National Theater Institute and became aware of each other's work there. Theater Studies is grateful to the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation for providing the support that allows Professor Baum to be here.

 

Activity

Baum will lead four intensive three-hour workshops on Theatrical Biomechanics at the beginning of the rehearsal process for the cast of The Wild Duck. Training will focus on keeping the actors present in the moment, in their bodies, and fully aware of the space.