Editing Rudolf Steiner (section)

=== Performing arts ===
{{See also|Eurythmy}}
Steiner wrote four [[mystery plays]] between 1909 and 1913: ''The Portal of Initiation'', ''The Souls' Probation'', ''The Guardian of the Threshold'' and ''The Soul's Awakening'', modeled on the esoteric dramas of [[Edouard Schuré]], [[Maurice Maeterlinck]], and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]].<ref>[[Ehrenfried Pfeiffer]] 'On Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Dramas, Four Lectures Given in Spring Valley, 1948' {{ISBN|0-936132-93-0}}</ref> Steiner's plays continue to be performed by anthroposophical groups in various countries, most notably (in the original German) in Dornach, Switzerland and (in English translation) in Spring Valley, New York and in Stroud and Stourbridge in the U.K.

In collaboration with Marie von Sivers, Steiner also founded a new approach to acting, storytelling, and the recitation of poetry. His last public lecture course, given in 1924, was on speech and drama. The Russian actor, director, and acting coach [[Michael Chekhov]] based significant aspects of his method of acting on Steiner's work.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anderson, Neil |date=June 2011 |title=On Rudolf Steiner's Impact on the Training of the Actor |url=http://ojs-prod.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/LA/article/viewFile/5054/5759 |journal=Literature & Aesthetics |volume=21 |number=1}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>Richard Solomon, [http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/solomonr2002.pdf Michael Chekhov and His Approach to Acting in Contemporary Performance Training] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803154254/http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/solomonr2002.pdf |date=3 August 2016 }}, MA thesis University of Maine, 2002</ref>

Together with [[Marie von Sivers]], Rudolf Steiner also developed the art of [[eurythmy]], sometimes referred to as "visible speech and song". According to the principles of eurythmy, there are archetypal movements or gestures that correspond to every aspect of speech – the sounds (or [[phonemes]]), the rhythms, and the grammatical function – to every "soul quality" – joy, despair, tenderness, etc. – and to every aspect of music – tones, intervals, rhythms, and harmonies.