My Character Wouldn't Do That

Acting, Cognitive Science and the Optimal Performance Brain

Donna Soto-Morettini

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781350230347
• eBook ISBN: 9781350230378
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Mezzi di comunicazione e arti performative
• Subtopic: Teatro

Starting from the idea that the main hindrance to a great acting performance is self-consciousness on the part of the performer, My Character Wouldn't do That examines the ways in which some of our traditional and contemporary approaches to acting put us into a 'mind space' that can encourage self-consciousness. Examining evidence from a range of contemporary cognitive sciences, the book approaches acting and actor training in an entirely different way. Based on the latest research into brain activity and human behaviour, the book covers areas that standard acting texts do (character, emotion, memory, imagination, making active choices) but reconceives each of these elements through the lens of that contemporary research. The book is the first to look closely at what contemporary research tells us about:
· personality/character and how environment shapes us
· how memory works and how actors can work with (rather than against) their memory in preparing for performance
· why actors must use different kinds of brain states and imagination in the various stages of preparation, rehearsal, and performance
· how actors can frame active choices in a way that refocuses the source of thought and action
· why actors should distinguish the stages of preparation and the kinds of thinking / imagination that works at each stage

Index

4-E cognition here–here, here

affective memory here

A Midsummer Night’s Dream here

A Scandal in Bohemia here

action, verb action here–here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here–here, here–here, here, here–here, here, here–here, here, here–here, here, here–here, here, here

Adler, Stella here. here

affect labelling here

Anderson, J. R. here

Anna Karenina here

arousal here, here

associative here, here

associative retrieval here–here, here, here

attention here, here–here, here–here, here–here, here–here, here–here, here–here, here–here, here, here–here

automatic here, here–here, here, here, here, here, here

automaticity here, here, here, here

background emotion here–here, here–here, here

bad acting here, here–here

Barrett, Lisa Feldman here

Benedetti, Jean here

Bogart, Anne here

Boleslavsky, Richard here

Bradsahaw, G. L. here

Carver, Charles here

Castaway here

centering here

Chalmers, David here

Chater, Nick here

Chekhov, Michael

Clark, Andy here

Cleopatra here–here

cognitive dissonance here

cognitive load here, here

Cole, Toby here

context-dependent here–here, here

convergent thinking here, here–here

Coward, Noel he...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• The actor’s brain
• Memory
• Character
• Imagination and attention
• Emotion
• Performance anxiety
• Resources
• Selected bibliography
• Index
• Imprint