Lecture: Emotions and Acting

Language: English

Emotions are central to theatrical events. Artists strive to arouse them in the audience, and the audience in turn expects to feel them throughout the performance. Since antiquity, they have been the universal currency of the theatre: we all have emotions. But do we actually understand what emotions are? And is there something peculiar about the actor’s emotion, on and off the stage? In this talk, two researchers, from the fields of social psychology and theatre history, will discuss what emotions are, what it means to express our emotions, and how we can understand other people’s emotions, all the while exploring how the practice of acting might influence these processes.