Emotion and Performance Processes: From a Korean Buddhist Perspective

Abstract

The intention of this thesis is to reconsider and redefine how emotion in acting is understood and practiced. This thesis addresses the problematic notion of the separation of emotion and action in performance practice. It begins by pointing out how inherent in this separation are the dualistic and hierarchical understanding of body and mind and subjectivity and objectivity, from which stems the unnecessary issue in and around ‘acting emotion’. From the perspectives of the Buddhist understanding of Mind and Heidegger’s ontology of Being, the complex nature of thought, action, emotion and self is examined and reconsidered. Through the three practical projects I examine, from the perspectives of the director and/or the actor, my process of utilising ‘simple’ task-based actions as a means of creating appropriate condition(s) that may allow the actors to directly enter into an ‘emotional’ state of being doing. The first project –ing; playing (no)self focuses on playing emotion in the context of a devised performance; the second project, (Playing) The Maids focuses on playing emotion in the context of ‘character acting’; and the third project Mother Project; playing a ‘foreign’ emotion focuses on a particular Korean emotion, han. This thesis is accompanied by three DVDs, which contain clips of selected scenes of the performances as well as full-length recordings of the performances.