Mcdonagh's Theory Of Empathy

I also find it interesting how the concept of empathy plays into acting. Alfreds mentions this notion as “emphatic imagination” (page 243), and writes that great actors can relate to almost any character despite given limited dialogue. I never thought about acting this way before, but I agree that empathy truly has to be associated with good performances. Every time we act on stage, we are relating to someone totally distinct from us, and therefore empathizing with somebody else. We always take a character’s world, circumstance, mental state, emotions, attitudes, suffering, neurosis, etc., into account when we try to portray him/her, therefore tapping into our ability to empathize. Since we all inherently possess different levels of empathy …show more content…
When I felt sad for him, I was able to put myself in his shoes. On the other hand, if all else being equal and what Alfreds writes is true, playing Michal would be much more arduous and nerve-wracking compared to playing Katurian. Given that Michal tortures and murders young children and is mentally-handicapped, we find it much harder to empathize with him, although we still lament the suffering he has been through. Similarly, it’s probably much more difficult for us to play/empathize with Tony in Boy Gets Girl than it is to play/empathize with Theresa, Howard, or Mercer. Characters who are overwhelmingly unique, bizarre, or depraved are much harder to empathize with, and therefore harder to depict as well. Back to my previous point on the balance between real and relevant, it’s nearly impossible to represent ourselves when assigned these …show more content…
I would often think about my next line while my scene partner was still speaking, and would barely pay attention to her tone or her movements. By not acting in the moment, I made it seem like I was in a different play from my partner, which rendered the performance bizarre for the audience. I was not even aware this was happening until it was pointed out; up until that point, I had not fully grasped the importance of reacting while performing. Another possibility was that I was simply not fully prepared to perform, and wasn’t confident that I had all my lines 100 percent memorized. After I began reacting, I felt more engaged with the scene, and was able to move naturally depending on what my partner was saying or doing. Despite knowing this, I still caught myself unfocusing and contemplating my next lines a few times while performing. I think it’s more of a bad habit that I still need to work on, although I can say that I have definitely improved. In the future, I will take note to be fully aware of the performance and stay intently engaged on my scene partner, which will hopefully allow me to perform in the