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 by encouraging actors to look at others' lives—

their triumphs and their struggles—empathy can be cultivated. 

Through this way of seeing, I've witnessed actors move beyond egocentrism toward a deeper attention to others. It is an experiential shift, not a theoretical one.

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

Ego can be one of the actor's greatest opponents and one the strongest obstacles to empathy and creativity.

Learning to move beyond one's ego, rather than simply accumulating skills, is therefore an essential part of actor training.

Moving beyond our ego requires us to examine the masks we wear and the parts of ourselves we habitually conceal.

These masks are shaped by a complex interplay of individual. social, and psychological factors. 

For the actor, habitual ways of presenting oneself can limit the freedom to enter fully into the circumstances and experiences of another character.

 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 theatre  in ancient Greece, Ginette Paris, a French born psychologist, explored the significance of these masks and the possibilities that emerge when we move beyond them.

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 at Delphi and is associated with the ancient Delphic tradition. 

As actors, we need to ask: Which Self?

Aristotle, in his treatise entitled, Poetics, suggests that when an audience witnesses the struggles and sufferings of a character the experience evokes 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 suggests that it is through this emotional engagement that the audience experiences a release or a purging of intense emotions. Great actors take the audience with them on this journey, drawing them out of their immediate concerns and into the circumstances and experiences of another human being.

For a time, the boundaries between actor, character, story, and audience become less fixed.

This is the transformative power of acting and storytelling.