Abstract

The subject of this study is the experience of acting. The separation of artistic act and artwork results here not in a psychoanalytical analysis of the artwork via artist, but rather in a focus on the artistic act from the perspective of the actor. This dissertation is a theoretical work, not an empirical study. The research is drawn from a broad base of theoretical and practical texts on acting, a set of interviews with professional and student actors on the subject of the experience of acting, and an investigation into relevant phenomenological theory, particularly that of Edmund Husserl. The crucial aspect of the writing involves applied phenomenological theory and the development of an extension to or a condition of that theory to cover the suprasensory experiences of the actor. ;The opening chapters establish the applicable phenomenological method as drawn from the writings of Edmond Husserl and translated into practical application to acting theory. In Chapter Two I discuss specifically Husserlian phenomenology as it relates to this analysis. By way of introductory application I then discuss the actor's perceptions of production and character early in rehearsals. Chapter Three proceeds with the actor into the performance period of production and will explore the actor's altered perceptions at this level. The next chapter discusses the actor's perceptions of self-as-character and of other characters during performance. This chapter offers some of the most specific actor impressions. Chapter Five represents a brief investigation into the aesthetic mode of perception described by so many actors. The closing chapter considers the questions raised by this study, particularly those concerning actor training and the future of stage acting. The bibliography includes phenomenological works and acting theory texts, as well as actor biographies and collected actor interviews. The appendices include edited selective interviews and the questionnaire on acting used in researching the acting process. ;The focus on the actor's mental state in performance and the actor's assessment of her perceptions in this state produce a kind of catalogue of perceptual modes experienced in performance and not experienced in mundane activity. These levels of experience fall generally into three categories: practical cognition of action and environment, a kind of heightened performance mode of perception, and an abstracted mode of perception, in which the actor seems to exist within a simultaneously perceived and created aesthetic object. The exploration of these modes of perception and the process responsible for the actor's altered mental behaviour become the key issues in this dissertation.