The Expertise of Professional Actors: A review of recent research

Abstract

This review summarizes recent research into the mental processes of professional actors. A number of studies employing various paradigms have provided converging evidence that actors regard their jobs as doing "for real" whatever the playscript calls upon the character to do (e.g. threatening someone, attering someone, ridiculing someone, etc.). The role acquisition process appears to take place in two distinct stages. First, the actors extract from the script the underlying intentions of the characters, a procedure that often calls for extensive analysis, because the intentions in well-written plays are rarely explicit or obvious. The deep processing involved calls upon such learning factors as perspective taking, problem solving, elaboration, causal attribution, distinctiveness, and overlearning. Following the analytical phase, actors rehearse and perform their roles by using an approach the authors call "active experiencing" which involves activation of those cognitive-emotive-motor processes inherent in all genuine human transactions. This article also reviews studies that speci cally examined the nature of actors' on-stage emotions, the contributions of actors' physical movements to performance, and certain aspects of professional acting expertise that may lead the way to increased understanding of human cognition.

Learning dialogue with and without movement

“…In the first phase of this work, actors analyze the script to determine the intentions of the characters, using those intentions to discover how the characters would talk and move within the dramatic situation (T. Noice & H. Noice, 1997b). Generally, the director then gives a blocking overview for the scene (i.e., where the actors enter, where the bulk of the scene is played, relative positioning to make relationships clear, etc.).…”

Becoming and Being an Opera Singer: Health, Personality, and Skills

“…Extant inquiries on artistic or musical performance have rarely depicted artistic abilities as a form of professional expertise (see however Noice & Noice, 2002). The conceptualization of the skill acquisition process during higher education was an attempt to create a descriptive model of actual behaviour and outcome variables from the student's point of view (Study III).…”

Transforming identity through participation in music and theatre: exploring narratives of people with mental health problems

“…Participants described an extended picture of themselves, incorporating a change of identity, from their previous stigmatized identity as being mentally ill to a more positive, reconstructed identity. In the two-phase process of portraying the characters (Noice & Noice, 2002), they each experienced a journey of self-discovery. They were able to use themselves as tools when they explored the script, determined the intentions of the characters and rehearsed and performed their roles.…”