Alizia Pisk, or Litz Pisk, (1909 – 1997) was a movement teacher and movement director who worked in

British theatre Theatre of United Kingdom plays an important part in British culture, and the countries that constitute the UK have had a vibrant tradition of theatre since the Renaissance with roots going back to the Roman occupation. Beginnings Theatre w ...

Biography

Pisk was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on 22 October 1909 and died in Cornwall on 6 January 1997. She moved to Britain in 1933 and acquired British citizenship in 1937. In London, she taught actor movement at

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central Lond ...

, the Old Vic Theatre School and at

Royal Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

, where she was Head of Movement from 1964 to 1970. Having come from a fine art background, she also taught drawing to art students. Between 1951 and 1955 Pisk taught classes on movement, movement and drawing, natural form and life drawing at Bath Academy of Art at Corsham Court. Towards the end of the 1950s Pisk embarked on a movement direction collaboration with director Michael Elliot. Elliot and Pisk first worked together on the movement of a television version of '' The Women Of Troy'' by

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

. This collaboration continued with the ’59 Theatre Company and by 1961 Pisk and Elliot were also working on Shakespeare’s ''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wil ...

'' for the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

, with a performance of Rosalind by

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress. In her career spanning over six decades, she has garnered List of awards and nominations received by Vanessa Redgrave, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony A ...

. Elliot was part of a group of theatre artists who formed the Old Vic Company for a year from 1962 to 1963 and Pisk became the in-house Director of Movement for the company. Pisk was to work again with Vanessa Redgrave in 1968 on the film ''

Isadora Isidora or Isadora is a female given name of Greek origin, derived from Ἰσίδωρος, ''Isídōros'' (a compound of Ἶσις, ''Ísis'', and δῶρον, ''dōron'': "gift of he goddessIsis"). The male equivalent is Isidore. The name surviv ...

'', directed by

Karel Reisz Karel Reisz (21 July 1926 – 25 November 2002) was a Czech-born British filmmaker and film critic, one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in British cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. Two of the best-known films he directed are '' Satur ...

. Periodically she would also exhibit her own drawings. After her retirement she published a book on actor movement, ''The Actor and His Body''. She moved to St Ives in Cornwall in 1970.Litz PISK , Cornwall Artists Index
Retrieved 2019-04-25.

Publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pisk, Litz British theatre people Drama teachers 1909 births 1997 deaths Artists from Vienna Austrian emigrants to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom People from St Ives, Cornwall