About Arlene Schulman Expertise As a professional director, dramaturg, acting coach and actor for over 25 years in the NYC/NJ area, I can help with questions on acting technique, character development, audition and rehearsal techniques, dealing with directors and stage managers, what directors are looking for, and other aspects of the acting and directing professions.
Experience A professional director, dramaturg, acting coach and actor for over 25 years in the NYC/NJ area, I have directed in professional, university and amateur theatre and have directed and acted in dramas, comedies, musicals, Shakespeare as well as collaborating closely with playwrights in the development of original plays and musicals.
Organizations SSDC associate member Advisory Board - Isle of Shoals Productions Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America associate member Shakespeare Association of America The Shakespesare Institute -
MA "Shakespeare & Theatre" candidate, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Question I was curious as to how many emotions there are considered to be today that are distinct from one another? And also how is it determined that they are distinct from one another? Does everyone experience all of them, some of the time, or some of them, some people never experience? I'll be honest. I suitered this question for a psychogist, but am seriously interested to know how actors produce the visual effect of having the experience of an emotion that they might not actually be feeling, or know how it feels, etc. How does all that stuff work? Thanks for your time. :)
Answer Hi James,
I have no idea how many specific different emotions there are, and I doubt that anyone - at least in theatre - has every tried to figure that out. I'm sure some psychologist somewhere has tried to catagorized them, and I'm sure that broad catagories can be established - happiness, sadness, fear, hope, hopelessness, anger, frustration, jealousy and more. But those would be very broad catagories since there would be different gradations and nuances between them that would create many difference nameable or unnameable shades of emotion between them.
James, good actors don't even try to "produce the visual effect" of any particular emotion. Good actors don't "act out" emotions, or counterfeit them, or pretend to have a particular emotion in order to "show" the auditience. Real acting is not about "looking" happy, sad, angry, etc. or pretending to be or looking like you are. It's about learning how to ACTUALLY EXPERIENCE those emotions just as you would yourself, except you do it as the character within the circumstances of the play.
That's one of the reasons why the art and craft of acting is so much harder than it seems to be. Learning to understand and access those emotions WITHIN YOURSELF, and then control them by using your voice and body to express and use them within the context of the character, his circumstances and the play, is one of the main things that takes actors years of intensive training to learn.
