Interaction in acting training and its different manifestations in novice and professional actors

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the characteristics of interactions during acting training and the underlying intrapersonal changes evoked by a training process that emphasizes paying attention to a partner (the Meisner technique). This was operationalized by conducting a post-hoc analysis and categorizing the utterances made by novice and professional actors during acting training based on video and audio recordings. In Study 1, novice participants tended to change their way of communication as the course progressed, decreasing the number of utterances that simply described the partner’s behavior and increasing those that speculated about the partner’s inner state. We then used a different focus placed on the interaction, as implied by the different kinds of utterances used, to describe the divergences between novice and professional actors regarding their interaction characteristics. In Study 2, results showed that while professional actors devoted themselves more to the connection with their partner and demonstrated more balanced communication, novice actors relied on general inference to speculate about others’ affective states. By comparing the characteristics of the utterances between novice and professional actors as they played different roles or made switches (i.e., changing from passive to active utterance in communication), this study suggests that an important impact of acting training on social abilities relates to its potential to increase the levels of involvement in on-going interactions.

Actor Training as a Component of Work on the Role

“…Зарубіжні дослідники звертають увагу на взаємодію в акторській підготовці та її різні прояви в акторів початківців і професійних (Sun, Okada, 2023), на акторські методи, призначені для навчання акторів, як розуміти та грати роль (Gallagher S., Gallagher J., 2019), . Розкриваються авторські підходи до підготовки та саме проведення акторського тренінгу в дослідженнях відомих театральних фахівців: Єжи Гротовського (Jerzy Grotowski, 2021) Чимало студентів театральних навчальних закладів, професійних акторів чи аматорів не пов'язують тренінг з акторської майстерності з безпосередньо акторською грою.…”

The Impact of Interactive Acting Learning as an Alternative to Digital Acting Teaching in Malaysian Art School: A Comprehensive Review

“…They embodied agents (animated on-screen characters acting as tutors) could afford simulated social interactions in computer-based learning [21]. A new perspective to elucidate the construction of interaction in acting, and emphasizes the significance of involvement in interaction when applying acting approaches to general training with the aim of improving social understanding [22].…”

“…In the meantime, Sun and Okada [23] have created an interactive acting training programme. The course started with an introduction to Meisner technique and naturalistic acting, followed by the course's main portion, where students could practise repetition, card or puzzle exercises, and other training techniques.…”