The Pulse Approach

Physical Improvisation for Theatre-Makers and Directors

By: Tanya Gerstle, Mary Luckhurst (Foreword by)

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Paperback | 30 April 2026

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240 Pages

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24.4 x 16.9 x 1.7

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How can we effectively apply improvisation to train an ensemble of actors?

Where is the method to create physically dynamic staging for text-based contemporary and classical plays?

And how can a trainer and a director utilise improvisation to devise new work?

The Pulse Approach answers these questions and more, captured here for the first time in a workbook to the practice.

Pulse is an improvisational performance strategy that can be used by actors and directors to develop original text-based performance material and rehearse dramatic scripts. Director Tanya Gerstle has been developing the approach since 1989 and has used it to stage more than 25 theatre productions.

Through step-by-step instructions for the student and practitioner; troubleshooting advice; case studies of productions directed using the Pulse Approach; and interviews with practitioners involved, this book is the first practical guide to this innovative methodology, which has its roots in the Australian actor-training scene.

The Pulse Approach fuses improvisation and text-based theatre, too often disconnected, to offer up a methodology and rigorous practice for improvisation as a holistic process of development in classical and contemporary plays. It can be used to train any ensemble of actors in any context - inexperienced, professional, young, old and culturally and linguistically diverse.

A companion website will include a video documentary of practitioners using Pulse in their work with the author.

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