Creativity: the Actor in Performance focuses on what it takes to be a creative performer. Many stage-actors succeed in rehearsals, yet under-perform where it counts—in performance. But, as actors know, performance is a thing unto itself—something is going to have to happen out there beyond anything that happened in rehearsals. This book provides actors, their teachers and directors with insights into the creativity of the actor in performance. An historical account of the emergence and development of one of the most generative concepts of our times – creativity - provides a theoretical backdrop to a critical discussion of the creativity of acting - a discussion that includes analyses of Denis Diderot, George Henry Lewes, William Archer, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Michael Chekhov, Michel Saint-Denis, Zeami and Eugenio Barba. Creativity: the actor in performance concludes by offering a detailed rationale for performance-oriented actor training, offering examples of workshop exercises (CREATICS) which focus on developing four main competencies crucial for successful and creative performances: situation awareness, audience awareness, divided consciousness and presence.

Creativity: the Actor in Performance focuses on what it takes to be a creative performer. Many stage-actors succeed in rehearsals, yet under-perform where it counts—in performance. But, as actors know, performance is a thing unto itself—something is going to have to happen out there beyond anything that happened in rehearsals. This book provides actors, their teachers and directors with insights into the creativity of the actor in performance. An historical account of the emergence and development of one of the most generative concepts of our times – creativity - provides a theoretical backdrop to a critical discussion of the creativity of acting - a discussion that includes analyses of Denis Diderot, George Henry Lewes, William Archer, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Michael Chekhov, Michel Saint-Denis, Zeami and Eugenio Barba. Creativity: the actor in performance concludes by offering a detailed rationale for performance-oriented actor training, offering examples of workshop exercises (CREATICS) which focus on developing four main competencies crucial for successful and creative performances: situation awareness, audience awareness, divided consciousness and presence.

People who don’t know theatre may think the only creative artist in the field is the playwright--with actors, directors, and designers mere “interpreters” of the dramatist’s vision. Historically, however, creative mastery and power have passed through different hands. Sometimes, the playwright did the staging. In other periods, leading actors demanded plays be changed to fatten their roles. The late 19th and 20th centuries saw “the rise of the director,” in which director and playwright struggled for creative dominance. But no matter where the balance of power rested, good theatre artists of all kinds have created powerful experiences for their audience. The purpose of this volume is to bridge the interdisciplinary abyss between the study of creativity in theatre/drama and in other fields. Sharing theories, research findings, and pedagogical practices, the authors and I hope to stimulate discussion among creativity and theatre scholar/teachers, as well as multidisciplinary research. Theatre educators know from experience that performance classes enhance student creativity. This volume is the first to bring together perspectives from multiple disciplines on how drama pedagogy facilitates learning creativity. Drawing on current findings in cognitive science, as well as drama teachers’ lived experience, the contributors analyze how acting techniques train the imagination, allow students to explore alternate identities, and discover the confidence to take risks. The goal is to stimulate further multidisciplinary investigation of theatre education and creativity, with the intention of benefitting both fields.

Acting on stage is a mode of performing an action, in the context of which the bodily aspects implicitly at work in acting reveal their own significance and power. This event can actualize a wound incarnated in human beings, because the actor acts and does not act at the same time and hence the concept of being 'the doer' unmasks itself as being illusionary. One could call it a kind of 'symbolic death' (Mueller), an 'anthropological mutation' (Agamben)--an event of great interest because of its highly ethical call.The book "Actors and the Art of Performance. Under Exposure" opens with a cascade of contradictory motives for becoming an actor. But, if theatre is no longer understood as a theatre of representation, then what takes place on stage is a transformation at play with truth, in which ethics are realized by the aesthetic. Insofar the book summarizes the attempt to explore and map guidelines of acting as being under the perspective of be-coming. That may sound fairly harmless in theory, but it feels anything but harmless when you experience it on your own body. For example, for being physical under exposure actors have to learn that there exists no fundamental dualism between mind and matter. Furthermore, actors are espoused to a dynamic shifting ground in the name of creativity. They have to carry the burden that the self is no sovereign identity as we generally suppose, but rather a threshold of permanent be-coming. One could call it the outstanding gift of acting. In the German language, gift means "poison", in German ears the word has the double meaning of poison and present, thus expressing the fact that a gift is disturbing and blessing at the same time. Loaded with fear and joy as the crucial point of acting, which attacks and attracts actors and spectators most. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

[Truncated abstract] In the last sixty years, "creativity" has emerged as a buzzword, "hot" topic, and scholarly subject. In light of this unprecedented interest, this thesis aims to address the paucity of rigorous academic and professional enquiry in the West into what constitutes the creativity of stage acting. The argument is made that there are two distinct contexts in which actors are called upon to be creative: rehearsal and performance. This distinction is seldom made. Post-Stanislavsky there is an overwhelming focus on the creative processes of actors in rehearsal where (in the hegemonic Western acting style of psychological realism) they collaborate with directors to create characters. The assumption is made that being creative in this arena will automatically translate into successful performances. However, in performance, actors are primarily responsible for creating much more than characters, and this expanded creativity requires techniques, strategies and skills which differ from those practised in rehearsals. The enterprise of this dissertation is to establish the theoretical framework for an actor training which maximises the actor's creativity for and in theatrical performance. It is in three parts. Part One ("Creativity") provides the necessary background and identifies the issues. Chapter One ("The emergence of the concept") traces the history of creativity as a concept and perceived value. Chapter Two ("The psychology of creativity") investigates how psychology has dominated creativity research, setting the parameters for how creativity is defined. It argues that psychology has been overwhelmingly preoccupied with establishing the locus of creativity in either the creative individual (his/her personality traits or mental processes) or in the creative product. Chapter Three ("Entr"acte") attempts to fill this perceived gap in psychology's research and theories, focussing on its obvious omission of the creative act. '...' Chapter Seven ("Creativity and contemporary mainstream actor training") surveys mainstream conservatory schools in the West (Australia, England, the United States) and identifies a major shortcoming: while all the schools in question are production-oriented in their training, they are not performance-oriented. This is a crucial distinction, and one that has significant implications for how the creativity of acting is perceived. Addressing the current gaps in Western mainstream actor training, Chapter Eight establishes the theoretical framework for a performance-oriented training ("Towards a performance-oriented actor training"). It argues that performance requires different skills, strategies and techniques. These are then outlined: approaches designed to, firstly, enhance the actor's full-situation awareness through an increased capacity for divided consciousness and, secondly, to equip actors with the ability to engage an audience through timing and presence. The thesis concludes ("Performing Creativity") that the creativity of stage acting is much broader than character creation and the collaboration of actors and directors in rehearsals. Actors create in performances and, more radically, create performances. Such an expanded conception of the actor's creativity has not only the potential to enrich acting practice and its training, but also to inform creativity research in general.

Creativity and the Performing Artist: Behind the Mask synthesizes and integrates research in the field of creativity and the performing arts. Within the performing arts there are multiple specific domains of expertise, with domain-specific demands. This book examines the psychological nature of creativity in the performing arts. The book is organized into five sections. Section I discusses different forms of performing arts, the domains and talents of performers, and the experience of creativity within performing artists. Section II explores the neurobiology of physiology of creativity and flow. Section III covers the developmental trajectory of performing artists, including early attachment, parenting, play theories, personality, motivation, and training. Section IV examines emotional regulation and psychopathology in performing artists. Section V closes with issues of burnout, injury, and rehabilitation in performing artists. Discusses domain specificity within the performing arts Encompasses dance, theatre, music, and comedy performance art Reviews the biology behind performance, from thinking to movement Identifies how an artist develops over time, from childhood through adult training Summarizes the effect of personality, mood, and psychopathology on performance Explores career concerns of performing artists, from injury to burn out