Awakening the Actor’s Emotional Expressivity: A Work Demonstration

ABSTRACT Following Stanislavski who argues that emotions are wild animals that can only be lured, rather than accessed directly,1 this presentation offers some suggestions for such an indirect accessing of acted emotion. Aiming to share the findings of a 6-year-long PhD research on acted emotion with the wider community of theatre practitioners and academics, the researcher will share some of the key triggers or entry points to accessing emotion. More specifically, the triggers of breath, musicality, centre-spine, fatigue, resistance, and togetherness will be explored. Inspired—among others—by the work of the Japanese theatre practitioner Tadashi Suzuki, Evangelatou will lead the students through a physically demanding exercise to invite fatigue into the process. She will then work in tandem with the students throughout the exercise to encourage the appearance of emotion through the interaction with the other (the trainer, the fellow student, the explored material). The musicality of the language will also be explored (through the exploration of both tempo-rhythm and melody). This demonstration draws inspiration from a wide range of theatre practitioners, searching for the similarities and shared principles in the practice of diverse, perhaps even contradicting at times practices. Some of the practitioners this research borrows from are: Konstantin Stanislavski, Jerzy Grotowski, Tadashi Suzuki, and Song of the Goat. Notes 1. Constantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares, trans. Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood (New York: Routledge, 1989), 191

Rhythm and Musicality as Tools for Accessing Acted Emotion

Barba and Savarese start the section on Rhythm in their Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology with a Plato quote: ‘‘Rhythm is an emotion released in ordered movements.’’1 David Wiles unpacks the Plato quote further: ‘‘Rhythm is movement. Plato described rhythm as ‘ordered movement’ […] Try to imagine yourself listening to a rhythm and standing quite motionless. Because rhythm is motion, it is always linked to e-motion or feeling.’’2 This link between movement and rhythm that Wiles observes, only to connect it to ‘e-motion’ lies at the centre of this presentation, which explores the connection between rhythm, musicality, and emotion. If we can’t help but move when listening to music, perhaps we also can’t help but be moved by it? Drawing from music psychology, theatre theory, and the researcher’s teaching practice, this presentation will investigate links between rhythm and acted emotion. Video footage documenting Evangelatou’s practice-based research will be used to highlight such links. Notes 1. Plato as quoted by Barba and Savarese in Eugenio Barba and Nicola Savarese, A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of the Performer, trans. Richard Fowler (London; New York: Routledge, 1995), 211. 2. David Wiles, Theatre and Time (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 15-16

On Actor Training and Pedagogy: Enhancing Students’ Learning Though Encouraging the Accessing of the Flow State

Dr Aphrodite Evangelatou recently completed her practice-based PhD research which investigates potential pathways for the student-actor to access emotion safely and with ease. In this paper she will discuss some key findings from the research, focusing on the question of pedagogy. In addition to identifying particular ‘lures’ for emotional activation, such as working with musicality and breath, her research indicates that the pedagogue’s role is crucial for the activation of emotion. Challenging the politics of power in classroom and/or rehearsal and the hierarchical relationship between teacher and student, the discussion will highlight the importance of qualities such as warmth and care, as well as their role in actively encouraging the creation of a positive and safe learning environment, where the trainer can function as an enabler of emotion. The paper will also discuss the importance of pleasure in the training process - particularly in relation to the activation of so-called negative emotions- and propose ways to achieve this through examining Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow

Awakening the Actor’s Emotional Expressivity: A Work Demonstration

Following Stanislavski who argues that emotions are wild animals that can only be lured, rather than accessed directly,1 this presentation offers some suggestions for such an indirect accessing of acted emotion. Aiming to share the findings of a 6-year-long PhD research on acted emotion with the wider community of theatre practitioners and academics, the researcher will share some of the key triggers or entry points to accessing emotion. More specifically, the triggers of breath, musicality, centre-spine, fatigue, resistance, and togetherness will be explored. Inspired—among others—by the work of the Japanese theatre practitioner Tadashi Suzuki, Evangelatou will lead the students through a physically demanding exercise to invite fatigue into the process. She will then work in tandem with the students throughout the exercise to encourage the appearance of emotion through the interaction with the other (the trainer, the fellow student, the explored material). The musicality of the language will also be explored (through the exploration of both tempo-rhythm and melody). This demonstration draws inspiration from a wide range of theatre practitioners, searching for the similarities and shared principles in the practice of diverse, perhaps even contradicting at times practices. Some of the practitioners this research borrows from are: Konstantin Stanislavski, Jerzy Grotowski, Tadashi Suzuki, and Song of the Goat. Notes 1. Constantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares, trans. Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood (New York: Routledge, 1989), 191

The Pleasure of Performing Grief: A Study on the Connections between Erotic Pleasure and Sadness in Performance

This paper argues there is a link between grief and pleasure and explores it with the tools of theatre. In Constant Prince, Ryszard Cieslak, the famous Laboratory Theatre actor, was reliving the memory of love making, when performing what was perceived to be suffering. This is not as paradoxical as it may sound, since scientific research has proved that erotic pleasure and unpleasant emotions can have similar physiological arousals.1 The paper suggests a different way of approaching grief in performance, shedding light to a third alternative to the polarity ‘emotional hang-over’2 as opposed to catharsis: the experience of performing an unpleasant emotion itself can be pleasurable. A practical theatrical experiment, conducted by the researcher will also be presented and discussed: the exploration of a combination of the Alba Emoting breathing patterns of Erotic Pleasure and Sadness to help an actor perform the second messenger speech from Euripides’ Bacchae. Notes 1. Daniel Gerard Dillon ‘‘Voluntary Emotion Regulation: Physiological Correlates and Mnemonic Consequences’’ (Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, 2006), p. 27. 2. Term used by Suzana Bloch, creator of the Alba Emoting technique

Role of oestradiol on function of lymphocytes from normal donors and patients with common variable immunodeficiency

The present work has compared the functional effects of oestradiol on the function of lymphocytes from normal individuals and patients with the primary immunodeficiency disease, common variable immunodeficiency. In order to obtain a comprehensive assessment about the role of oestradiol on normal lymphoid cell populations, lymphocytes were separated from human peripheral blood, spleen and tonsils. The responses of lymphocytes to oestradiol were shown to be dependent on the tissue source with most variability observed with blood. This variability may be linked to the different serum hormonal levels of male and female donors and the different hormonal status between female donors. Principally, significant stimulatory effects were found on immunoglobulin production but under some conditions oestradiol was also inhibitory. The action of oestradiol on immunoglobulin production is shown to be T cell dependent, to require intact T cells and to be modulated by different ratios of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. In addition, direct T cell responses were enhanced by oestradiol, i.e. mitogen-driven DNA synthesis. Lymphocytes from patients with common variable immunodeficiency were shown to be defective in their responses to oestradiol in this T cell-B cell system. The most probable mechanism for the action of oestradiol on immunoglobulin production by B cells is by modulating genes in T cells and/or accessory cells which are involved in the cytokine network important for T cell-B cell interaction. Data from the present project suggest that oestradiol modulates lymphocyte activation antigens, cytokine genes (at the mRNA level) and is also able to down-regulate its own receptor. However, further studies will be needed to extend the current knowledge of the complex mechanism of oestradiol action on the immune system

Konstantin Stanislavski and Michael Chekhov: tracing the two practitioners’ “lures” for emotional activation

Konstantin Stanislavski points out that emotions are like wild animals that can only be lured rather than approached directly; he urges his students not to try to force emotions to arrive, as feelings are independent of the will and cannot be manipulated. Like a whisperer, the actor should lure emotions, gently invite them in, approach them indirectly, instead of “going after” them and scaring them away. During his extensive and revolutionary research on the actor’s craft, the Russian pioneer discovered various such indirect “lures” for emotional activation. This article reviews the tangible points of entry to the unruly feelings as identified by Stanislavski, as well as those explored by his pupil, Michael Chekhov. The two practitioners’ approach to emotion is examined here, with emphasis on two key publications respectively: Stanislavski’s An Actor’s Work and Chekhov’s To the Actor. The article discusses the lures of concentration, imagination, “well-founded, apt and productive” actions, emotion memory, tempo-rhythm, empathy (fellow-feeling), external stimuli such as lighting and props, and the actor’s focus on that which is specific, tangible, and detailed. The review of Stanislavski’s lures is followed by a discussion of Michael Chekhov’s insights on artistically-induced emotion and the pathways he identified for stirring the performer’s inner life, emphasizing the exploration of qualities of movement, objective atmospheres, and the actor’s embodied imagination

Awakening the Actor’s Emotional Expressivity: A Psychophysical Approach

This thesis examines the nature of performed emotion from the perspective of the actor trainer. The research begins from a simple yet significant question: how can the trainer encourage the student-actor’s inner awakening? It proceeds to explore potential entry points to emotion and discusses key parameters that relate to its activation, such as the relational nature of acted emotion and the pleasure derived from experiencing it. At the centre of this research lies actor training. However, current scientific discoveries have also been considered to further understand the nature of emotion on stage and in life. The approach is psychophysical, using the actor’s body as a point of entry, inviting the inner through the outer, and in so doing, challenging the outdated perception of body and psyche as two discrete entities. The theatre practitioners that have informed the vocabulary, the exercises, and the way of thinking for this practice-based research are: Konstantin Stanislavski, Michael Chekhov, Jerzy Grotowski, Gardzienice, Song of the Goat, Odin Teatret, Tadashi Suzuki, and Theodoros Terzopoulos. Alba Emoting, a technique specifically developed to induce emotions has also been addressed. Specific aspects of the aforementioned techniques have been chosen and further explored in acting classes where emotion is placed at the core of the training. This has resulted in a pedagogical approach that seeks to awaken the actor’s inner life, as well as encouraging them to access high levels of energy, concentration, and presence