Phenomenololgy acting cont.

I believe the best way to understand and implement this theory is to investigate the scriptures to get a better understanding of what this means through a Christian perspective. The basic idea behind Phenomenological acting theory centers on self, and identity. As said in the above paragraph the actors self and identity is wrapped up in the actor’s own individual experience. I typically start my classes out by saying that God has created us. You are unique there has never been anyone like you and never will be.  If, as the phnemonolisys contend that truth only come out of our experience then our experience with the God of truth brings out a fuller understanding of Character. Also, Our experiences can be used to influence and help of connect to the charters dialogue whether or not we fully understand what the charter has gone through. For example, I do this exercise which ‘I call transference in which the students bring in an object that has great sentimental value to them. They then bring in the object and tell the story behind it: why this earns something to them, how did they get this object, how this object affects them. Once every student performed this piece the students then pull out there monologue, from a play), which they have been working on for a week and perform the monologue, but now with the image of the object or experience of the object in mind.  This exercise enables students to turn their own God given uniqueness and experiences into another character. Lots of students bring in their own religious artifacts or objects in which talk about their relationship with Christ and then use that relationship and memory of their conversion to pull them through a page of text with their monologue. The product of this exercise is amazing students connect with their piece with stronger emotions and understand the relationship better after using this technique.

Another idea expressed by the phenomenologists that I use in my Christian worldview is the idea of understanding your true self and the true self of the character. While the prior contend that the idea of self is not consent on what one thinks, speaks or determined by human nature but is a negotiated between society and hegemonic political views on the person’s race, and gender (Eastope 67); however, I would argue that the concept of self was long before Cartesian history based upon the ideas of King Solomon which he wrote in Proverbs, “ For as he thinks within himself, so he is”. With the ideas of Solomon in mind it becomes paramount for the students to understand who they are not just based on what others say they are but how they see themselves, and how God sees themselves. In order for me to use this method in the class, I try to get my students to se how God views them. I tell them to search in the scriptures to se what the Bible has to say about them.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *