PsychologyForActors.com

This is a workshop series where actors learn to apply psychological principles and techniques to improve their skills.

Actors  participate in exercises designed to help with approach to acting, character development and understanding others in the scene. There is an emphasis on the continuity between actor and scene as part of a larger whole, or gestalt.

The workshops are conducted by Jon Freda, Ph.D. in psychology with extensive consulting experience as well as acting and SAG Conservatory background (SAG, AEA , AFTRA),  and Kathryn Hahner, Ph.D. in psychology with extensive consultation, treatment and evaluation experience as well as stand-up and comedy improv background.

The workshops are held in New York City.

For more information email at actorpsych@gmail.com

 

PSYACTOR TIP #1^TM

In our recent workshop we worked on actor involvement in the scene by being aware of the whole pattern or gestalt of others interaction with us. One way to do this, after our preparatory work,  is to focus on a process called ACTIVE EXPERIENCING, where actors communicate the meaning of the story (whether through scripted and/or improvised lines),  by focusing on the moment-to-moment “give and take” with the other actor(s) dialogue with them; i.e., not thinking ahead of time or consciously substituting feelings overlaid onto the other. Researchers Helga and Tony Noice, in Current Directions in Psychological Science, studied line delivery by actors and found that good actors don’t think about lines but “take it off the other actor’s face.” Conveying and responding with meaning shows higher retention in actor’s lines. The implication being: use whatever acting school technique works best for us in preparation, leave it at the door, “feel the force”, and trust the experience of the gestalt on stage or on camera, to be authentic to the scene. The preparatory work will come through the interaction.  Our workshops use exercises developed to facilitate the process of ACTIVE EXPERIENCING.

 

In today’s industry of authentic acting style, it helps if the actor maintains a CONTINUITY OF LOOK in the scene. Psychologically, this means being engaged with our scene partner in a “stream of consciousness” attention span during the dialogue. William James is credited with this concept, and applied to acting, can refer to continuing the through line of our interaction with the other actor “off-line”, just as we when do when speaking “on-line”. Non-verbal indications as we do in every day conversations may be used to facilitate this process. We have developed exercises in our workshops to help actors practice maintaining a CONTINUITY OF LOOK.

PSYACTOR TIP #2^TM