Rudolf Steiner’s Art of Acting: an introduction

This paper offers an introduction to Rudolf Steiner’s Art of Acting. It notes that although Steiner is well known as a pedagogue across a wide range of fields and is developing a reputation as an artist in his own right, his indications for acting have not been fully taken up. This paper will argue that this is part of an overall pattern in which Steiner has either been secularized, or framed within a late nineteenth century occult revival.To redress this contextualizing, it is essential to re-examine Steiner’s Goethean project. This allows the core aesthetic aspect of Steiner’s contemplative approach to actor training to be uncovered. Thereby building a case for Steiner’s inclusion among modernist thinkers on acting.