James Palm
My thesis is an investigation of David Mamet’s acting technique; Practical Aesthetics. My main premise is that academics, critics, practitioners and Mamet himself have failed to correctly locate Practical Aesthetics in the history of acting: Mamet requires the actor approach acting in Sartrean good faith; I conclude that the result of practicing the technique results in an orthodox aesthetic logic of good faith.
Profile
As an actor James has worked at The Old Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe, The Young Vic, BAC, The Gate, Channel 4, BBC, Thames Television, ITV1 and Independent Radio.
Between 2000 and 2006 James was co-artistic director, actor and writer for the award winning theatre company ‘Sob Ltd’.
As a writer James was finalised for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Trust Award in 2003 and 2005.
In March 2008 and February 2009 James visited New York, researching actor training methods at the Lee Strasberg Studio, Stella Adler Studio, Meisner Studio, Chekhov Studio, Atlantic Theatre School and The Classical Studio at New York University. He is due to return to New York this year to continue this work.
In 2006 James was awarded the Elise Fogerty Bursary for Doctoral Research.
James received an AHRC award to complete MA research in 2000.
Taught, lectured and directed at The Arts Ed and the Universities of Reading, Hull and Greenwich.
Publications
2010 Acting Shallow: The Central School of Speech and Drama
2009 Why do commandos lisp at night? Embodying the diagnostics of Practical Aesthetics, TaPRA, University of Plymouth
2008 Bad practice or bad-faith? The paradox of imagination and self-deception in actor training, Central School of Speech & Drama
2007 The paradox of acting, Central School of Speech & Drama
2006 Where do they come from and why? Why do students enter actor training and where do they come from?, Central School of Speech & Drama
Productions
2010 The Gilded Rail, Old Vic Tunnels - Actor
2010 The Dark Carnival, Old Vic Tunnels – Actor
2010 Waiting, Albany Theatre – Director
2009 The Permanent Way by David Hare: Hextable - Director
2008 4.48 Psychosis, by Sarah Kane Hextable – Director
2007 The Paradox of Acting: The Central School of Speech and Drama – Director/Performer
