Imagination as one of the key elements in the formation of a future actor psychotechnics
Authors: Kryvosheieva O.V. 
Published: August 2020

Background. One of the most important questions in the acting profession is how to educate the psychophysical apparatus of the actor, what it consists of, what exercises will be useful and will be able to develop the necessary psychophysical qualities. Therefore, the theatrical teachers often turn to the sciences, which study the human, to be able to rely not only on the personal experience and on theoretical works of famous theatrical figures. Therefore, K. Stanislavsky creating theory of art turned to experimental psychology, the theory of conditioned reflexes by I. Pavlov. K. Stanislavsky sought to substantiate scientifically his system, to analyze creativity based on “brain physiology”, to study objectively higher nervous (mental) activity. One of the basic elements of the actor’s psychophysics is imagination, which remains by far one of the least studied. Moreover, the first studies of the “imagination” in such science as neuroscience began only in the second half of the XX century. Today, it is important to pay attention to the discoveries that take place in the related sciences in order to be able to understand deeper how a particular exercise affects the psychophysics of a future actor. There is a small amount of contemporary work devoted to the theoretical substantiation of the development of the psychophysical qualities of the actor. Among them the writings by famous theater educators Uta Hagen (“Play as Life”) and Ivana Chubbuk (“Chubbuk’s Actor Technique”) are, which consider the concept “imagination” in relation to other elements of actor psychotechnics, as one of the tools and ways of creating the role. The American actor and a teacher Gavin Levy has created an interesting book “275 Acting Games: Connected” presenting various exercises connected with developing of imagination. Professor of Acting at the University of California Bella Merlin in her work “Acting: Theory and Practice” proposes to develop imagination through a variety of games and improvisation also. Attempts to comprehensive study of actor training, the impact of exercise on the imagination and psychophysics of the actor as a whole are described in the works of M. Alexandrovskaya, S. Gippius, N. Rozhdestvenskaya, V. Petrov, and L. Gracheva, whose experimental results was used in this study, The objective of this paper is to consider the concept of “imagination” in the complex and interaction with other elements of actor psychophysics, using the latest scientific discoveries about human. A complex methodology was used in the work: analysis and synthesis methods that allow to explore a category such as “imagination”, separately and in conjunction with the elements of actor psychophysics; methods of systematization and generalization – to determine the key theoretical provisions of the study in the context of understanding the pedagogical experience of modern domestic and foreign theater schools; method of historical and cultural analysis – in the course of consideration of works on the theory of theater. Results. The concept of “imagination” in acting training is used quite often, but there is no specific answer to the question – whether imagination trains or not. Professor of Russian State Institute of Performing Arts Larissa Gracheva conducted an experiment to help answer this question. Students were asked to recall and relive in their imagination the acute emotional situation that was in the life of each participant in the experiment. A total of 30 student actors and 20 economics and theater students were involved. This experiment affirms the influence of special acting exercises on developing the imagination, because 95 % of participant-actors demonstrated body physical reactions. This concept is considered the paper in conjunction with other elements of actor psychotechnics, such as “visions” (after K. Stanislavskiy), affective and emotional memory, reaching truthful expressiveness on stage and muscular freedom. The chain of interaction between these elements is proposed and their interdependence is justified. The experiment answered the question of how imagination is dependent on “visions” and affective memory, what kind of exercises the future actors can train their imagination. Links has been established between imagination and muscular freedom. Recent discoveries of neuroscience have been used to answer the question of what is going on with the brain, when human being imagines something. Overall, the paper summarizes the current state of knowledge of the selected topic by discussing the findings presented in recent research papers that create an understanding of the theme for the reader. Conclusions. Training of “awakening the imagination” is a complex psychophysical process that can be developed only in combination with other elements of actor psychotechnics. Such complex approach will allow the actor to shape a completely harmonious personality. Imagination is based on visions that form and emerge from each person’s long-term memory. For each actor, these internal images will be unique. This proves that the use of imagination (substitution effect and affective memory) is quite personal and unique process. This approach causes an impression of truth of drama action and induces a strong emotional response. In turn, emotional reaction is first a muscular reaction of the body. Therefore, in acting training it is important to make exercises so as to harmoniously develop the psyche and physics of the actor using in plastic exercises imagination and vice versa, the physics reactions for the developing of imagery thinking.