Psychology and the Theatre: A Qualitative Experiment in Actor Training

109 Pages·2016·0.63 MB·English

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Theses and Dissertations Graduate School
2006
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Megan Rebecca Brown
Virginia Commonwealth University
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School of the Arts
Virginia Commonwealth University

This is to certify that the thesis prepared by Megan R. Brown entitled PSYCHOLOGY
AND THE THEATRE: A QUALITATIVE EXPERIMENT IN ACTOR TRAINING has
been approved by her committee as satisfactory completion of the thesis requirement for
the degree of Master of Fine Arts

Janet B. Rodgers, Thesis Director, Department of Theatre, School of the Arts

_______________________________________________________________________

Dr. Aaron D. Anderson, Committee Member, Department of Theatre, School of the Arts

J. Lorri Lindberg, Committee Member, Department of Theatre, School of the Arts

_______________________________________________________________________

Dr. Noreen C. Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Theatre, School of the Arts

David S. Leong, Chair, Department of Theatre, School of the Arts

Dr. Richard E. Toscan, Dean, School of the Arts

Dr. F. Douglas Boudinot, Dean of the School of Graduate Studies

Date
© Megan R. Brown, 2006
All Rights Reserved
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE THEATRE:
A QUALITATIVE EXPERIMENT IN ACTOR TRAINING
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Fine Arts (Theatre Pedagogy) at Virginia Commonwealth University.

by

MEGAN R. BROWN
B.A., Peace College, 2003

Director: Janet B. Rodgers
Associate Professor
School of the Arts

Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia
May, 2004
ii
Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the wonderful students in my Psychology and the
Theatre Course – Angie Shipley, J.R. Johnson, Rissie Havrilla, Jaye Finley, Trey Hartt,
Alison Haraznak, Emily Bastow, and Gerron Atkinson – without whose support,
integrity, and dedication this thesis would have been little fun and much more difficult to
accomplish. I thank you all for agreeing to be my subjects and for letting me learn from
your work.
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Table of Contents
Page
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................ii
Chapter
1 Introduction........................................................................................................1
Selection of Material.....................................................................................2
Format of the Class........................................................................................3
Outcome........................................................................................................5
2 Material..............................................................................................................7
Using the Material.........................................................................................9
Introductory Material..................................................................................10
Sensation, Perception, and Memory............................................................13
Learning.......................................................................................................17
Motivation and Emotion..............................................................................22
Development...............................................................................................37
Freud and Psychoanalytic Approaches to Personality................................46
Alfred Adler (Individual Psychology).........................................................56
Love and Social Cognition..........................................................................63
Psychological Disorders..............................................................................66
3 Reflections.......................................................................................................74
iv
Need for Prerequisites.................................................................................74
Approaches to Applying the Material.........................................................77
Feedback......................................................................................................82
Time.............................................................................................................83
Conclusions.................................................................................................83
References..........................................................................................................................86
Appendices.........................................................................................................................87
A First Semester Syllabus....................................................................................87
B Second Semester Syllabus ..............................................................................93
Abstract

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE THEATRE
By Megan R. Brown, M.F.A. candidate
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Fine Arts (Theatre Pedagogy) at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006

Major Director: Janet B. Rodgers
Associate Professor, Department of Theatre

Psychology and theatre have a remarkable amount in common. In using the basic
concepts and theories of psychology, actors can develop more concrete, logical approaches
to characters. This thesis is a summation of the course I developed, “Psychology and the
Theatre,” which was an attempt to teach students introductory psychology and then
experiment with translating those concepts to character analysis and stage performance.
Students were taught eight units of psychology: Sensation, Perception, and Memory;
Learning; Motivation and Emotion; Development; Freud and Psychodynamic Approaches
to Personality; Adlerian Individual Psychology; Love and Social Cognition; and
v
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Psychological Disorders. Students were given reading quizzes and written tests on the
material from the psychology texts. In addition, students wrote journals and papers to help
work through potential uses of the material. They also performed contemporary scenes,
attempting to put the material into practice.
This course was an overall success; most students felt that this was a unique and
helpful set of tools they could use to analyze and perform characters. Students found uses
for each unit of the material, allowing more depth and logic to their character choices.
With further development, this material has the potential to enhance the techniques of
many actors.
INTRODUCTION
The genesis of the class I created, Psychology and the Theatre, was a combination
of my personal experiences with both actor training and training in psychology. I found
that, in general, most directors and acting teachers with whom I had studied were unable to
describe the concepts about emotion and behavior that they were teaching without
primarily using vague, ethereal language. I found it enormously difficult to execute the
work because I did not fully understand what was being taught. I did not find that any of
my teachers were satisfactorily describing any means for me to elicit genuine emotion as a
character. During the time I was in actor training, I was earning my B.A. in psychology. I
found that the depth of understanding I received from learning about human behavior from
more tangible sources with basis in scientific evidence enhanced the attempts at character
development on which I was working in the theatre. I have come to believe that many
students have difficulty grasping the language of many acting teachers and would benefit
greatly from two enhancements of that training: First, I believe that acting students should
study psychology as a way to gain a better general understanding of human thought,
emotion, and behavior, and secondly, I believe that acting teachers should work to create a
lexicon for teaching emotion that is based in concrete concepts rather than in vague
language.
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