Doing the work: embodied cognition, ecological psychology, and screen actor training

Regarding acting and its training as a situated activity, best apprehended through an ecological, embodied focus on mutually constitutive interactions between the actor's mind, body, and performance environment, in this work we formally examine the development of undergraduate actors' performative skills – and requisite mental and physical resources – within an undergraduate pedagogical training program in screen acting. In meeting the actor's basic responsibility – the achievement of performative reality effects – successful actors must concretely demonstrate several core competencies based on situation-specific, task-oriented activities – demonstrable skills amenable to practical instruction and assessment within the classroom as well as to theoretical scrutiny from a pragmatic psychological perspective. Our interdisciplinary research program details the instruction and acquisition of a core set of aptitudes essential to the screen actor's successful engagement with the constraints and opportunities of a demanding, medium-specific production environment.