讓身體開光──論薩睿立身心合一演技訓練法中的印度配方

When the Body Becomes All Eyes: A Critical Study of the Indian Formula in Phillip Zarrilli’s Psychophysical Acting Training Method

Phillip Zarrilli is world-famous for his training and acting method for psychophysical acting. As a theater artist and scholar, his career is closely related to India. From 1976 to 1977, he began to learn the traditional Indian dance drama Kathakali. Led by chance, he began to receive the training of the Indian martial arts called Kalaripayattu in 1977. From then on, he regularly returned to Kerala, India, for advanced training. Between 1977 and 1998, he spent a total of seven years in India to improve his martial arts skills. Zarrilli has multiple identities: he is a drama scholar, theater director, actor, actor trainer, and a true martial artist. What is the charm of yoga, Kathakali and Kalaripayattu that made Zarrilli plunge right into laborious training and write books about them? What kind of Indian energy, performance theory, or religious thinking had inspired Zarrilli to put emphasis on mindfulness and heightened consciousness? What role do mindfulness and heightened consciousness play in psychophysical acting? Does yoga really help transform a performer’s psychophysical state and consciousness? What knowledge of Ayurveda did Zarrilli use to support his embodied practice and research? And what kind of Kathakali and Kalaripayattu techniques did he employ to develop his psychophysical acting? The purpose of this paper is to explore the Indian formula of Zarrilli’s psychophysical acting training. The paper starts from tracing and explaining Zarrilli’s Indian origins, and discusses his learning process of Kathakali and Indian martial art Kalaripayattu. We also examine and study the Indian sources and knowledge that shape Zarrilli’s psychophysical acting skills and related theories. The paper then delves into the energetics of performance and the performative realm of“the body becomes all eyes.”Finally, the paper evaluates and criticizes Zarrilli’s various theories and practices, and focuses on addressing Zarrilli’s two theater productions—The 9 Fridas and The Beckett Project—and assessing the effectiveness of the psychophysical acting training method.