I first came across soundpainting when there was a workshop I was involved with at Vassar College. There is a "soundpainter" and the "players". The soundpainter gestures to the players to create a basic structured improvisation. Soundpainting has over 1200 gestures that can be used to change or create a scene in direction from the soundpainter. Some of the gestures include: sit, die, jump, crawl, slow motion, repeat, listen, fade together or away, spacial relationships, being an animal, among hundred others. This also isn't a silent art form. Gestures can include laughing, screaming, singing, poems, and monolgues. So if you are a player, you must be prepared with some pieces of text even though they may not be used at all... improvisation. I definitely think it can benefit an actor as primary tools for training, devisement, rehearsal, and performance. Soundpainting is used all over the country and there are many companies whose focus is in soundpainting. I know two of the professors at http://brooklynsoundpaintingcompany.com/2011/about/ and they are both so focused in creating and playing with this form; it truly is an awesome experience for the audience, players, and the soundpainter.
Some history (1984) about soundpainting is that Walter Hamilton, an orchestra conductor, once needed to communicate with the orchestra in the middle of one of his compositions. Obviously he was unable to communicate with them for that show, but as rehearsals and shows went on, everyone responded well to this new form that he was trying to create. He finally, after many years, "developed Soundpainting into a comprehensive sign language for creating live composition from structured, jazz-based improvisation" which is now used to creat GREAT theatre.
http://www.soundpainting.com/history.html
YOU DON'T NEED TO LEARN SIGN LANUAGE TO LEARN SOUNDPAINTING! and its fun.
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