The Acting Blog

Assistance with Repetition

The Repetition Exercise is one of my favourite parts of actor training and in my classes we spend a considerable amount of time attaining high skill levels in this exercise at all levels of the ACS training syllabus.  I’ve been reading a lot about emotions this weekend, and whilst we do not try to fake emotions, we do try to be able to determine the behaviour and emotions of our partners.  I’m sorry, this is probably not much fun for anyone that isn’t already taking classes or doing repetition elsewhere, but it’s fairly essential reading for my students.

The trouble is that among experts there is very little consensus on the actual basic emotions that the human being feels and therefore exhibits:

The Stoics believed there only a few basic emotions:  Pleasure or Delight, Distress or Fear. (Can you tell when your partner is in one of these four basic states?)

In 1972, a now famous psychologist called Paul Ekman (he pioneered the reading of micro-expressions and emotions and a character based on him is in the TV show Lie to Me) came up with his own list of the basic emotions namely: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness and Surprise.

Now these are useful, but they don’t quite complete the full range of basic emotions, so in 1999 Ekman revised his list and came up with:

Amusement, Anger, Contempt, Contentment, Disgust, Embarrassment, Excitement, Fear, Guilt, Pride in Achievement, Relief, Sadness/Distress, Satisfaction, Sensory Pleasure and Shame.

This is very helpful for those of us staring at someone’s face (don’t forget it’s their body language and their tone too, this is just ONE facet of Repetition)

So Jesse Prinz was dissatisfied with these and came up with some of his own, Prinz is a philosopher, working in the field of emotions and the philosophy of psychology.  Here’s Jesse Prinz’s list:

Frustration, Panic, Anxiety, Physical Disgust, Distress, Self-Consciousness, Satisfaction, Stimulation and Attachment.

Now again, not all of these work for repetition, but they’re good to consider.

Now the reason that I’m highlighting these for you, is to get you to become better and more specific at naming what you see.  Think of it in terms of the stoics, then in terms of Ekman in ’72 and Ekman in 99, then widen your thoughts on emotion to Prinz in 2004.

To You, The Best!

Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2010

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