On Actor Training and Pedagogy: Enhancing Students’ Learning Though Encouraging the Accessing of the Flow State

Dr Aphrodite Evangelatou recently completed her practice-based PhD research which investigates potential pathways for the student-actor to access emotion safely and with ease. In this paper she will discuss some key findings from the research, focusing on the question of pedagogy. In addition to identifying particular ‘lures’ for emotional activation, such as working with musicality and breath, her research indicates that the pedagogue’s role is crucial for the activation of emotion. Challenging the politics of power in classroom and/or rehearsal and the hierarchical relationship between teacher and student, the discussion will highlight the importance of qualities such as warmth and care, as well as their role in actively encouraging the creation of a positive and safe learning environment, where the trainer can function as an enabler of emotion. The paper will also discuss the importance of pleasure in the training process - particularly in relation to the activation of so-called negative emotions- and propose ways to achieve this through examining Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow