Therapy and Actor Training

COMMENTS ONPROCESS THERAPY AND ACTOR TRAINING Robert Barton Introduction "We're doing theatre here, not therapy" is a statement regularly made in the classroom and rehearsal hall. In some instances, this may be an effective reminder to get back on track and out of indulgent digression. In others, it may reflect a refusal to deal with discomfort emerging directly from the process itself or a failure to acknowledge the personal growth component of actor training. When a student experiences intense and conspicuous trauma ("freaking out") as a result of an emotionally demanding activity or simply through a release that occurs during breathing or sounding exercises, what is the obligation of the teacher? What resources are available for assistance? What are the limits to which students should be asked to summon powerful emotions possibly beyond their own control? What conditions prove most conducive to healthy exploration, recovery, and support? These questions cannot be dismissed with a convenient disclaimer which separates art from healing. After their students experience emotional eruptions, acting teachers may be tempted to edit or modify challenging activities in order to avoid repetition. This reticence, taken to its logical extreme, can unfortunately result in acting curriculum as pabulum, rather than as the training ground for what Kristin Linklater has called our culture's "emotional warriors."1 Linklater's metaphor implies that the acting classroom might be regarded as a place where emotions are pushed beyond what students perceive to be their own limitations of expression, as each warrior prepares his or her instrument to do battle within the great dramatic texts. Yet teachers, many of whom have seen sadistic gurus who have toyed mercilessly with actors' psyches, naturally feel insufficiently trained to handle crises. Many share the fear of a student becoming irreparably harmed due to an activity of their devising or an insensitive handling of a crucial moment in class. Acting teachers seek conditions allowing them somehow both to challenge and support students in an atmosphere characterized by both safety and courage. 105 106 Robert Barton In preparation to participate in an ATHE conference session titled "Theatre and Therapy," I examined the programs offered by the following organizations: The Focused Therapy Group; Relationship Counseling Center; Transformative Healing Center; Transition Support Group; Men's Growth Network; Assessment Center; Life Skills, Inc.; Associated Counseling and Psychological Services; Artist's Counseling Services; Northwest Institute for Creative Therapies; Neuro-Linguistic Programming Institute of Oregon; and Wings Enterprises Personal Development Center. I interviewed and observed counselors, therapists, mediators, and facilitators who work with group activities where turbulent emotion occurs frequently. Many of these group therapies employ theatre-based activities; many elements present in the acting class appear in intensified form in the therapeutic setting, and the group leader must constantly deal with individual crises and potentially distracting outbursts. It struck me as a reasonable assumption that acting teachers might, in turn, benefit from the experience and knowledge of constantly challenged therapists. I employed two criteria in sifting through the wide range of information offered: 1) Activities needed to represent some consensus and not be tied to the unique configuration or limitations of a particular form of therapy. When as many as three separate professionals suggested a particular process, I considered it for inclusion. 2) All suggestions needed to be techniques or assignments a teacher could implement without requiring specific certification. While further study would undoubtedly assist application, the activities would nevertheless need to be those which a trained teacher who was not necessarily a trained therapist could consider in good conscience. Initial contact with the therapeutic community revealed that professional healers feel a reticence to be quoted regarding their process. The conditions for my interviews guaranteed the individual therapists anonymity. While generous in sharing information, most did not wish to be associated publicly with a particular activity, either because it would tend to make potential clients anticipate a form of treatment or because it would suggest limitations of choice in a field which requires intuitive, improvised decisions at least as frequently as does theatrical improvisation. I filtered conversations with therapists through my own sensibilities as an acting teacher in forming the list of suggestions included in this essay. The activities offered below are...