Deborah Leiser-Moore is a performance-maker, director and lecturer whose bold, physical theatre explores contemporary culture and social issues. Trained in leading Asian and European performance practices, she has taught, presented and toured internationally across the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Her recent works include Blood Wedding, unHOWsed and Medea: Kaddish For The Children, and she is currently developing a new work in her Shakespeare’s Recalcitrant Daughters series.
She has been an ArtsHub member since 2021.
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Deborah Leiser-Moore: video transcript
I’m Deborah Leiser-Moore.
I’m a theatre-maker and director and lecturer in performance.
For me, everything is text. The body is the main form of communication – physicality, how we are in the space. So to me, it’s core to any actor training.
In most countries around the world, in Europe, you start like … the disciplines are about starting from the body, being physically trained. Because if you’re not physically trained, then you can’t speak as a performer.
ArtsHub:Â Meet the Members: Pamela Kleemann-Passi, visual artist
When I make work myself or perform, direct or teach, we start from the body and we look at the presence of the performer in the space. How can the performer just be standing there and be interesting to watch?
It’s about trying to find the internal sensibility. Look at the core, look at relationship to the ground. Everything comes from the body – the voice, the breath. To me, that’s text.
I mean, Pina Bausch obviously was a genius at that. But every gesture you make will say something.
Every single moment of the physical language tells the true story, because we can lie when we say things, but the body doesn’t lie.
Deborah Leiser-Moore: commitment is key
Commitment, rigour. You cannot do this work if you don’t work hard and are committed to it – rigour in terms of your mind and what you want to do, but also your body, your voice. You’ve got to keep working. There’s no end point.
ArtsHub: Meet the Members: Ross Page, founder of the Made in the West Film Festival
That’s actually what I love about it. It’s not like, ‘OK, now I’ve learned this’. Some people think, ‘Oh, I’ve done my three-year course and I’ve learned and that’s it’. To me, that’s the beginning. It’s what I love about it. What I’ve learned is, it’s just an ongoing … till I’ve reached 100 years old.
Richard Schechner, who I have worked with in New York, if you know Richard Schechner … I think he’s going to be 92 this year and he’s still writing, still making work. There’s actually a big Schechner festival which I’ll probably be part of next year in America. So, you know – inspiration.
Deborah Leiser-Moore: follow your passion
All these greats – keep working, just keep working, follow your passion. Don’t think you have to do something in a certain way. Without being indulgent, you know, follow your own creative inspiration.
And that’s what I have always done.
Deborah Leiser-Moore: the importance of ArtsHub
I think ArtsHub is a wonderful resource. It’s a community for artists, you know, across the board.
So that we know what’s going on. We know what opportunities there are, we can read what other artists are doing. And I think it’s a very, very important resource.
ArtsHub: Meet the Members: Alonso Pineda, theatre director
And I have actually, over the years, got a lot out of all of these things, whether it be, you know, even job opportunities, looking what’s out there or who’s doing what … but really great articles and reviews.
I think it’s very important to our Australian, sort of creative arts environment.
