The Actor's Emotions: Conscious Activation of Subconscious Creativity

In the context of the modern trends in the development of world theater pedagogy, using interdisciplinary research methods, this book is dedicated to the nature of emotional memory in the light of scientific discoveries made in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in physiology and psychology and its application in the modern acting training described in the System of the early Stanislavsky and the Strasberg Method. The main body focuses on Strasberg's Method and reexamines his theater philosophy and practice in the context of these scientific findings. The documents used for the analysis are Strasberg's A Dream of Passion and other authors' books based on transcriptions of tape-recorded lectures and exercises conducted by him over several decades. The analysis focuses on specific means and techniques that Strasberg used for actors to find, arouse, manage, and express emotions during their training, rehearsal, and performance. Strasberg's success in applying emotional memory is primarily due to his educated pedagogical intuition. In his Method, he simultaneously used five different approaches to move from the actor's conscious preparation to subconscious creativity. Each one of these techniques alone could lead to Strasberg's desired result: arousal and expression of the necessary emotion. He managed to combine them, achieving success in unaffectedly capturing feelings and emotions. This combination of techniques could be applied today to allow trained actors to evoke the necessary emotion using their emotional memory and cause it to express itself organically.

The book intends to bring clarity to some controversial reactions to Strasberg's Method. It offers suggestions for a systematic approach, not only in the educational programs of acting and directing but also in the work of professional actors and directors. It contributes to the development of modern theater theory with the analysis of emotions, emotional memory, and the memory of sensations as bases of all creative processes.