Teaching Philosophy

Actors are crafted storytellers. 

Actors use their craft to express the complexities of what we call the human condition. 

However, an actor needs much more than craft. An actor needs empathy. 

I have found that it can be difficult to teach empathy. 

But I have also found that through encouraging actors to look at others’ lives, their triumphs and their struggles, empathy can be cultivated. 

Through this new way of seeing, I’ve witnessed actors make that courageous leap from egocentrism to altruism. It is an embodied experiential leap, not a theoretical leap. 

When this happens, an actor’s work is forever changed.

Ego is our greatest opponent and strongest block to empathy and creativity. 

Therefore, an elimination of ego blocks before an accumulation of acting skills, is necessary for all actor training.

An elimination of ego blocks requires that we take off the masks we wear for various reasons.

This decision to wear a mask, to hide parts of ourselves, is influenced by a complex interplay of individual, social and psychological factors. 

However, this hiding prevents authentic self-expression and hinders genuine connection with others.

 I believe it was Jerzy Grotowski, the prominent Polish theater director and theorist, who said:

“We must be who we are, remove our masks and meet each other in our unique

authenticity.”

Through her study of Dionysus theater in ancient Greece, Ginette Paris, a French born psychologist, explored the importance of removing these masks for psychological well-being. 

In her book entitled Pagan Grace, Paris writes that in our lives we often play the same role repeatedly. She believes that neurosis is the expression of this self-imposed limited repertoire. 

As actors, we explore other roles, other characters, and other parts of ourselves through the telling of other characters’ lives.

The well-known dictum, “Know Thyself”, is inscribed on The Temple of Apollo. 

It is attributed to the Greek priestess, Pythia, also known as The Oracle of Delphi. 

As actors, we need to ask Pythia: Which Self?

Aristotle, in his treatise entitled, Poetics, suggests that when an audience witnesses the struggles and sufferings of a character it evokes empathetic feelings of pity and fear. 

He uses the word catharsis to describe what occurs in the audience through the experience of watching a play or in our times, watching a film.

Aristotle believes that it is through this emotional engagement, that the audience experiences a release, a cleanse, a purging of intense emotions, which leaves them feeling psychologically renewed. Great actors take the audience with them on this feeling journey...getting them out of their heads and into their hearts...helping them to let go, if even for a moment, their everyday ego bound self. 

This letting go helps to blur the boundaries between the conscious and the unconscious.

This is the transformative power of acting and storytelling.