Radiohole portraying "Indulgence" - Illustration by Jesse Hawley

A New Practical Guide to Rhetorical Gesture and Action is part book project, and part gallery show that uses the form of Henry Siddons’ 1807 guide for young actors to document a spectrum of performers, performance groups, actors and storytellers working in contemporary experimental theater in New York today.

Illustrations by Jesse Hawley of actors reinterpreting gestures from the original are accompanied by text by Normandy Sherwood philosophizing on the gesture and its possible meanings, in a poetic subversion of the original’s pedagogical style.

The completed volume will consist of 36 illustrations with accompanying texts, a scholarly introduction by James P. Stanley contextualizing this documentary project in the history of acting and actors’ guides, as well as essays, interviews and commentary by fellow artists and scholars.

Published in 2017 by 53rd State Press.