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Zero Zone Praxis as Conscious Creative Cultivation
Abstract
Zero Zone praxis (ZZ) can increase a performer’s craft and personal life quality, thereby satisfying the need for personal enhancement—a need that recent writings about performing arts and executive coaching have identified. ZZ is designed to improve the ability to avoid the detrimental effects of stage fright that often rest on the actor-director dyad, via expanding consciousness and focus guiding. ZZ includes external and internal psychosomatic actor training and intellectual appreciation of consciousness as derived from yoga philosophy and practice and from coaching. This essay is a discussion of the need to develop an elevated internal state of the performer, to unlock the blockages in the performer and in a spectator’s reception. I introduce here a critical review of scholars’ findings and my personal, practical experiences of forty years in Stanislavskian and physical theatre-making, self-cultivation coaching, and yoga.
The current provocation explores what could be behind Konstantin Stanislavski’s claim that his teaching is neither a method nor a system, as it is unfinished. Alongside the complex of techniques and the worldwide influence it has on contemporary performing art, was there a special area that the master perceived incomplete? Could this be connected to authoritarian theatre-making (which has been recently acknowledged in the field), where the relationship in the actor-director dyad remains hierarchical and evokes a continuous conflict (as a manifestation of stage fright) between them? I argue that on Stanislavski’s personal path as an actor from stage fright to self-confidence, alongside the practical exercises which he designed according to Yoga, he also perceived the importance of Vedic philosophy itself to the performing arts. Via application of Stanislavskian craft, one can experience the absolute truth and higher consciousness, which could replace the internal and external confrontation with fruitful creative outcomes in a rehearsal studio – if practiced perfectly. Unfortunately, the methodology to support the philosophical (ethical) side of the system remained undeveloped by him when he passed away. Zero Zone unique psychosomatic praxis is designed according to Yogic Abhyasa and Vairagya principles to enhance the exchange between actor and director in the creative process to reach the higher aims, described already by Stanislavski. The current paper supports writings on the spiritual aspect of the Stanislavskian system, self-cultivation practices in performing arts and executive coaching.
KEYWORDS: Performing arts; actor-director dyad; Vedic philosophy and Yoga practice; self-cultivation coaching.
Many of today’s students are experiencing higher levels of stress and anxiety in school. The need for competitive grades, the desire to be seen as perfect in a digital society, and parental pressures are only some of the reasons that students are experiencing more stress. This increased stress has lead to an overworked mind for many youth, dubbed a ‘monkey mind’ in which they cannot calm or control their thoughts. This article examines possible causes of a ‘monkey mind’ and explores the beginning of how students may learn to calm and control their ‘monkey mind’ through mindfulness training. Several examples of mindfulness training in different classroom scenarios are introduced, and the relationships between our connections to everything around us are explored. The article serves to provide a starting point for educators who may feel at a loss for how to help their students manage their stress and anxiety levels.
The objective of the current study was to explore what factors might impact the psychological wellbeing of adult, Australian professional actors. Twenty South Australian actors were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling. Ten were male and 10 female, ranging in age from 22 to 66 years old, with self-reported professional experience ranging from 1 to 50 years. The participants were interviewed in-depth about their experiences of being an actor, with a particular focus on wellbeing, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis, with numerous checks in place for methodological rigour. Two broad categories of themes were established; environmental and personal factors. Environmental factors included power, lifestyle, fringe-dwelling, engagement, the tribe, and taking care of yourself. Personal factors included pursuit, strengths, the calling, precariousness and looking within. Themes were considered in terms of contemporary wellbeing theory, along with clinical implications relating to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM5). Findings included: actors experience a range of threats to wellbeing, such as problems with autonomy, lack of environmental mastery, complex interpersonal relationships and high self-criticism. Factors facilitating wellbeing include ongoing personal growth and a sense of purpose. The findings also suggest that actors are vulnerable to depression, generalised anxiety symptoms, vicarious trauma, and perfectionism.
Students of acting and their teachers profoundly form each other and are formed by each other, through their embodied interactions, within the institutional processes of actor training. Yet this embodied formation requires appropriate and sustainable ethical training practices.
Such practices are lacking as evidenced by both the potential for and actual accounts of misuse of power by teachers over students in a highly intimate and vulnerable context of learning, exploration and risk-taking. Ethical values of respect, merit and integrity; justice and beneficence need
to be considered in discussions and policy development of teaching and learning practices in acting schools. Ethical and sustainable practices built in training will flow through to ethical and sustainable practices in actor employment.
Background:
Anecdotal evidence and media reports suggest that actors and other performing artists experience high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. However, no empirical study has examined the psychological well-being of this professional group.
Objective:
The Australian Actors' Wellbeing Study (AWS) was conducted to examine the general wellbeing of Australian actors and performing artists. The present paper, reporting on data from the AWS, focuses on two aspects of respondents' psychological well-being: life satisfaction and the experience of negative affect.
Methods:
An online survey including several questionnaires was distributed to the Equity Foundation membership representing Australian actors. We report results from the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) and examine their associations with respondents' sociodemographic and occupational background, including their relationship status and any relationship stress, income from performing, and time taken away from performing.
Results:
A sample of 782 Australian actors responded to the survey, with 582 participants completing the DASS and 568 the SWLS. Participants reported lower levels of life satisfaction and higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress than found in the Australian general population. Being in a relationship was associated with better psychological well-being; however, work stress often impacted negatively on relationships. Income had little association with psychological well-being, unless the respondent felt under financial stress. Respondents who took extended periods of time away from performing reported less life satisfaction and more depression than others.
Conclusion:
Australian actors may be at a high risk for poor psychological health. Further research is necessary to establish causality among the variables we examined and to investigate protective factors that may increase well-being in the context of the performing arts industry.
This article explores a specific aspect of Stanislavski’s methods of training actors to examine the potential benefits for helping clients in the cultivation of new perceptions through empathy, which may, in turn, help toward psychic healing. Stanislavski’s methods of training actors, which is rooted in understanding the human condition, are the underpinnings for most modern acting theories. This discussion builds an additional bridge between acting theory and counseling theory to investigate additional therapeutic benefits of acting in a clinical setting. This article adds to the conversation of the possibility of expanding applications of drama therapy based on specific aspects of acting theories.
Objective:
Actors constitute an at-risk population based on the physical burden demanded from their profession, different health behaviors, and poor economic and health insurance status. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to search for evidence of the health and fitness of theater actors.
Methods:
Pubmed, EBSCO (CINAHL and SPORTdiscus), the database of the Performing Arts Medicine Association, the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, and Medical Problems of Performing Artists were searched. Included studies had data extracted and were scored for methodological quality.
Results:
The search identified 18 studies, examining actors at different career stages, including secondary school (n=2), university (n=3), and professional (n=13). Eight studies received a low methodological quality score (50% or less). Most studies reported cigarette smoking among 10-26% of their samples and regular alcohol use in 25-40%. However, among professionals, prevalence and risk of harm from levels of alcohol consumption were much higher. Marijuana consumption was reported by 11-25% of respondents, while use of other drugs ranged from 7-23%. Most respondents suffered 1-2 injuries each year, with one study indicating that 72% of injuries occurred during class or rehearsal.
Conclusions:
This systematic literature review highlights a large gap in the research about actors' health. The high rates of substance use and injuries among actors indicate not only a large health burden but a hindrance to their ability to perform, which may negatively impact their livelihood.
The article discusses the relationship between acting, dramaturgy and ethics. This discussion is founded on the historical account of the psychophysical actor training of Jouko Turkka at the Theatre Academy Helsinki in the 1980s. This training entailed an entanglement of the technical, the dramaturgical and the ethical aspects of acting. The article attempts to disentangle this intertwinement on the basis of contemporary dramaturgical and actor’s dramaturgical theories, and finally outlines a dramaturgy of the actor as a medium of ethics and ethical enquiry.
To date, there is a strong link between creativity and mental illness; however, it may be a more curvilinear pathway, with mild-to-moderate psychopathology related to creativity but not severe psychopathology. Common factors between creativity and psychopathology may coexist, including genetic roots, but that does not mean that creativity equals psychopathology. The stereotype that creative people are “mad geniuses” is endorsed by many, including the general population, mentally ill patients, as well as creative healthy artists. It could be argued that performers reside at the border between stability and instability. Embracing their talent and cultivating skills to realize their talent situates performers in arenas that often hover between madness and sanity. They must tolerate physiological and psychological tension as they give life to works that express the extremes of our humanity.
The nature and history of Buddhism are traced briefly. Meditation is discussed and related to behavior modification practice. Finally, the commonalities of Buddhism and behavior modification are the basis for a synthesis of the two.
A production of Hamlet. An actor enters. He begins to speak: “To be, or not to be – that is the question.” Now a doubling is occurring. The audience sees Hamlet contemplating oblivion. Simultaneously, they see an actor playing Hamlet and are more or less aware of their immersion in a fiction. Throughout history, this duality has prompted theorists both within and outside the theatre to consider the nature of actors’ minds when they perform. From the earliest discourses on performance, the notion of multiple potential levels of consciousness has been advanced and explored. The question has been resolved by incorporating the actor’s duality: divided consciousness is seen as desirable and arguably necessary in performance. Though couched in a panoply of terms, discourse on divided consciousness has tended to focus on theoretical constructs (actor versus character) or performed effects (emotional identification versus representation) rather than practical execution. Can divided consciousness be considered in a different way: as a result of the mechanics by which performances are made and executed? If this consideration is possible, what might it reveal about the nature and consequences of divided consciousness?
This article considers the question from the perspective of flow (the psychological state associated with “being in the zone”). By using flow theory to analyze performance practice, a different picture of divided consciousness emerges. Specifically, in identification-oriented performance practice, divided consciousness may be seen as a schism between two flow dimensions: clear goals and immediate feedback. It emerges as a result of simultaneously seeking two conditions. First, actor-character merger, the assumption that a role in performance results from a joining of the actor and the character he is portraying. Second, the creation of and adherence to a “pre-agreed-upon” performance structure, which is here defined as any planned performance output, regardless of its form or content, whose purpose is to communicate a specific and preselected meaning to an audience. The implications of this understanding prompt several questions: is divided consciousness desirable for actors? If not, can it be successfully minimized through the deployment of alternate rehearsal and performance techniques? Starting from a contextual overview of flow theory, performance structure, and divided consciousness, these questions will be considered in turn.
Flow has been described as “a state of consciousness where one becomes totally absorbed in what one is doing to the exclusion of all other thoughts and emotions,” and “a harmonious experience where mind and body are working together effortlessly, leaving the person feeling that something special has just occurred.” Positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first identified the flow state and subsequently developed and refined flow theory. Flow consists of nine dimensions: (1) A balance of challenges and skills; (2) the establishment of clear goals; (3) the presence of immediate feedback; (4) the merging of action and awareness; (5) participants’ sense of control; (6) the exclusion of distractions from consciousness; (7) the elimination of self-consciousness; (8) a distortion of participants’ sense of time; (9) the experience being as “autotelic” or enjoyable in itself.
Flow has been studied in numerous contexts including daily experience, athletics, professional dance, work and leisure environments, and family life. The application of flow theory in multiple contexts is possible because it is neither an artificial construct, nor the discovery of a new psychological state. Csikszentmihalyi acknowledges that “to call it a ‘discovery’ is perhaps misleading, for people have been aware of [flow] since the dawn of time.” Studies have also shown that flow experiences are not limited to specific cultural contexts, but are instead a universally recognized feature of human life.
Flow’s universality facilitates the application of flow theory in theatrical contexts. Its incidence in training actors has been studied by Jeffery J. Martin and Keir Cutler, who concluded that flow experiences were neither common nor rare for their sample group: respondents experienced flow approximately four times per year on average. Similarly, John Gruzlier, Atsako Inoue, Roger Smart, Anthony Steed, and Tony Steffert conducted an experiment in which actors were provided neurofeedback training. In analyzing their results, Gruzlier et al. found a correlation between the subjects’ reported incidences of flow and the quality of their performances as judged by experts.
Though a relatively new...
How actors are adequately prepared for their lifetime of work can be a vexed issue. However what is emerging in the field is data that suggests more can be done to prepare those entering the acting profession and to support actors throughout their career development. This article argues that teaching staff, support staff and industry partners might usefully enter into conscious dialogue with each other about ensuring a healthier interplay between students' developmental needs, course expectations and workplace culture. Otherwise, students can be caught in a dilemma between accessing personal and interpersonal support as well as being professional and industry-ready.
Theatre Topics 9.2 (1999) 157-179
In "A Crucible for Actors: Questions of Directorial Ethics," which appeared in the first issue of Theatre Topics, Suzanne Burgoyne posed the question of what impact acting may have on student performers' personal lives. The article resulted from her own experience directing The Crucible, in which she observed what she called "psychological fall-out" from the show, including actors' reported nightmares. Since nothing in her training had warned her that acting might result in student emotional distress -- much less prepared her to deal with it -- she began researching the impact of acting on performers. She found that, though some theatre educators seemed aware of the issue, little research had been done. Indeed, Richard Schechner contends that theatre scholars have traditionally focused their attention on the production itself and that "aftermath," which he defines as "the long-term consequences or follow through," is the least studied aspect of performance (19).
Seeking a research methodology that would allow her to begin to understand and document the impact of acting, Burgoyne contacted Karen Poulin, a psychologist with expertise in a qualitative methodology known as grounded theory. Burgoyne and Poulin brought together backgrounds in theatre and counseling psychology to collaborate on a study. Burgoyne joined Poulin's research group to learn grounded theory; Poulin took an acting class and served as a consultant on several productions.
Our review of the (scanty) literature dealing with the impact of acting revealed that a voice conspicuously underrepresented was that of the university student actor. In our study, we decided to allow this voice to be heard. In this article, we present the theory emerging from our study, in which we conducted and analyzed in-depth interviews with fifteen student actors. The theory suggests that the blurring of boundaries between actor and character may be a significant condition for impact, and that the actor's ability to control that blurring may influence whether an acting experience leads to growth or emotional distress. Since some inside-out approaches to acting encourage the actor to use her own personal experience in building a character, thus facilitating boundary blurring, this theory has major implications for theatre pedagogy.
While some of our interviewees have learned through experience that boundary blurring may become problematic, none of them reported having been taught boundary management. Liz, a doctoral student who has studied in several theatre programs, felt that "the psychological aspects of acting" are not addressed systematically in actor training:
Awareness of boundary blurring appears to be a first step for students to develop strategies for boundary management. Although teachers may understand that acting can have psychological side-effects, our interviews reveal that young actors may be unaware of that possibility until they have an emotionally distressing experience. On the basis of the theory emerging from this study, we suggest that the theatre profession address boundary management as an aspect of acting pedagogy.
A brief explanation of our methodology, known as grounded dimensional analysis (a form of grounded theory), is first necessary to show how we have developed the theory we propose here. Like other qualitative approaches to social science research, grounded theory is used to investigate subjective experience, as opposed to quantitative approaches, which investigate more objective matters. The goal of dimensional analysis is to generate theory about a complex phenomenon from the point of view of the participants. Prior to beginning the study, the researchers record their own assumptions about the topic in order to avoid imposing those assumptions on the data. After conducting interviews...
Grotowski's use of yoga for theatrical purposes is well-known not only through the exercises that travelled across the Atlantic and infiltrated American actor training, but also because he finally dismissed yoga as inappropriate for acting and actor training purposes. This article traces the sources of Grotowski's encounter with yoga and examines them through the lens of scholarship on Modern Yoga. It thus attempts to shed light on the way Grotowski used the discipline and examines the caution he voiced in regard to yoga's incompatibility with acting.
Trained 200 psychiatric patients in the techniques of meditation of Patanjali, an Indian philosopher. Data indicate symptomatic improvement as the number of meditation sessions increased. Patanjali's techniques and their therapeutic applications are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)