Athlete of Emotion - Examining the Perdekamp Emotional Method

<p>The Perdekamp Emotional Method (PEM) is an emerging psychophysiological acting system that claims to allow actors ‘safe, reliable and repeatable access’ to emotion, with no recourse to their own psychology, imagination or personal experience. Developed in Germany over the last thirty years, the process regards the emotions as innate, biological movement patterns, hard-coded in human beings, that can be invoked consciously through a specific combination of physiological triggers. In light of recent international studies that point to significant psychological unwellness throughout the acting profession, there is an ethical imperative for drama schools to investigate such techniques, and evaluate their legitimacy against more commonly utilised approaches to achieving believable emotion, such as the Emotion Memory techniques of Konstantin Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, which have courted criticism for being both inefficient and, at worst, harmful. While Austrian research has been carried out to establish the scientific legitimacy of PEM, nothing has been written about it in English, and it is only just beginning to be introduced to performance training institutions around the world. This thesis investigates PEM's claims in order to contribute critically to the depth and understanding of this system, and to evaluate the potential value of introducing PEM into the conservatoire model of a tertiary Drama School, using practical experiments and teaching observations at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School as a case study. Its research results are evaluated through a combination of a historical review of acting approaches to producing emotion, interviews with PEM creator Stephen Perdekamp and Master Instructor Sarah Victoria about the pedagogy of PEM and its theoretical underpinnings (and evaluating this against current neuroscience theories concerning emotion), observations of and interviews with students learning PEM through workshop instruction, and practical experiments of applying PEM to screen work with student performers through a period from March 2017 to November 2018.</p>

Athlete of Emotion - Examining the Perdekamp Emotional Method

<p>The Perdekamp Emotional Method (PEM) is an emerging psychophysiological acting system that claims to allow actors ‘safe, reliable and repeatable access’ to emotion, with no recourse to their own psychology, imagination or personal experience. Developed in Germany over the last thirty years, the process regards the emotions as innate, biological movement patterns, hard-coded in human beings, that can be invoked consciously through a specific combination of physiological triggers. In light of recent international studies that point to significant psychological unwellness throughout the acting profession, there is an ethical imperative for drama schools to investigate such techniques, and evaluate their legitimacy against more commonly utilised approaches to achieving believable emotion, such as the Emotion Memory techniques of Konstantin Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, which have courted criticism for being both inefficient and, at worst, harmful. While Austrian research has been carried out to establish the scientific legitimacy of PEM, nothing has been written about it in English, and it is only just beginning to be introduced to performance training institutions around the world. This thesis investigates PEM's claims in order to contribute critically to the depth and understanding of this system, and to evaluate the potential value of introducing PEM into the conservatoire model of a tertiary Drama School, using practical experiments and teaching observations at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School as a case study. Its research results are evaluated through a combination of a historical review of acting approaches to producing emotion, interviews with PEM creator Stephen Perdekamp and Master Instructor Sarah Victoria about the pedagogy of PEM and its theoretical underpinnings (and evaluating this against current neuroscience theories concerning emotion), observations of and interviews with students learning PEM through workshop instruction, and practical experiments of applying PEM to screen work with student performers through a period from March 2017 to November 2018.</p>

One Conscience or More: Is the Actor more than one at a Time?

"This paper approaches an important theme in the study of actors work: the multiplication of the consciousness, from the perspective of the actor’s training correlated to psychology and neuroscience. We will refer to some of the best known works used in the training of the actor or which have as object of study the art of the actor, namely K. Stanislavsky - An Actor Prepares; Michael Chekhov - To the Actor: On the technique of acting, Lee Strasberg - Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Jerzy Grotowski - Towards a Poor Theatre, Bertolt Brecht - Brecht on Theatre, Denis Diderot - Paradox of the Actor. Conversations on The Natural Son on one hand, and Antonio Damasio’s studies on the self, on the other hand, noting that theories about the cognitive functions of the human brain provide a valuable perspective on the art of the actor, especially by how it applies to the conscious and subconscious of the actor on stage. What happens to the actor while performing? How does the actor process different stimuli to build a character, and then an entire artistic act? What are the roles of the mind and body in the creative process? These are just a few questions that I will try to find answers to, while examining the actor’s multiplication of consciousness. Keywords: consciousness, actor, character, emotions, images, brain."

Exploring Sensory Memories

Lee Strasberg and other acting teachers developed sense memory exercises that teach an artistic re-enactment method to explore the interplay of sensory perception and emotional memory. Apparently, secondary sensory stimuli often trigger flashbacks for traumatised people. From my experience as an actress, I learned that the sense memory method is a controlled triggering of emotional memory that functions in the same way. Many anthropologists consider sensory experiences and emotions a relevant topic, but how can we teach students to deal with these phenomena? After looking at sense memory exercises against the backdrop of neuroscientific findings, I will consider why and how we should introduce them when teaching anthropology. Keywords: memory, senses, neuroscience, teaching method, re-enactment, qualitative methodology

Group Theatre (1931–41)

Founded in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strasberg, the Group Theatre was conceived as a company dedicated to staging socially relevant plays, with a permanent ensemble of actors trained in a new, shared technique. Its legacy can be located in the contributions it made to modern American drama, particularly through the works of member-playwright Clifford Odets, and through its practice of the Stanislavsky System, which revolutionized American acting, developing into a psychologically realistic approach widely known as "the Method."

The Breath of a Poem

Today, we may know confessional poetry as a set of texts that are printed in books, but in its time it was also a performance genre. This chapter demonstrates how the performance of poems—in the privacy of the poet’s study, at public poetry readings, and in the studios of recorded literature companies—shaped this genre, determined its tactics, and influenced its style. An extended comparison of Robert Lowell and Allen Ginsberg shows that breath was a key medium for confessional poets, and a study of Anne Sexton’s career—both on the page and at the podium—shows how she “breathed back” dead poems in live performance. Throughout, this chapter focuses on the feelings of embarrassment confessional poetry raised, and the uses to which poets could put such feelings. It also highlights contemporary trends in “performance” and their impact on confessional poets—e.g., Anne Sexton’s debt to the acting theories of Konstantin Stanislavsky and to Method acting as theorized by American director Lee Strasberg.

James Dean

James Dean (b. 1931–d. 1955), along with the actors Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando, ushered onto the American silver screen a type of acting often called the “Method,” which was inspired by the teachings of the Russian director Constantin Stanislavsky. Although a great deal of debate exists over what the Method actually is, it can generally be described as “reacting” rather than “acting,” in order to create a more naturalistic and internally derived style. To what extent Dean absorbed the Method through classes he took with James Whitmore in California and Lee Strasberg in New York, or whether his style of acting was simply “natural,” is a matter of debate. What is indisputable is that his name and reputation are connected to this technique that had a tremendous influence on the New York stage via the Actors Studio before coming in front of Hollywood cameras. Although Dean starred in only three films—East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1956)—he is still considered one of the major influences on contemporary acting with actors from his own generation (Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and Dennis Hopper) to the next generation (Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro) and the following generation (Sean Penn, River Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Johnny Depp) being inevitably compared to him. Many biographies, journalism, and documentaries have accumulated over the years since Dean’s death, in forms often exploitive and sensational, dealing with his sexuality and psychology. Much vigorous scholarship on the true worth of his acting skills and his place in the cultural landscape of his time and in the 21st century can still be done. Unlike Clift and Brando, Dean did not spend much time refining his craft on the stage and did much of his initial work on television. What makes Dean unique is his position as a cultural icon, largely the result of his tragic death in a car accident on 30 September 1955. His image is recognized throughout the world as a signifier readily filled by several types of, often contradictory, iconography: teenager, rebel, all-American, cowboy, biker, punk, homosexual, among others. Born in Marion, Indiana, and later raised in Fairmount, Indiana, by his aunt and uncle after his mother died when he was nine, Dean achieved in his short lifetime what he claimed was most important to him—immortality.