Ruth Zaporah

View Spark segment on Ruth Zaporah. Original air date: June 2003. (Running Time: 3:23)

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Ruth Zaporah's technique may have seemed radical when she began performing it in the 1970s, but today her style is well established and internationally practiced. Zaporah's improvisational acting technique is known as "Action Theater," and it encourages freedom of movement, language and mind in improvisation. Spark drops in on one of her classes to see Zaporah and her students at work.

Zaporah's students range from those who are entering the professional performance world as actors or dancers to those who simply have hopes of theatrical stardom. She takes the adage of "stage presence" to a new level by demanding that her students stay present in the moment by abandoning past, future, and current thoughts and give themselves up to improvisation.