9/1/2023 0 Comments Emotion tube![]() The passions were the consequence of the operation of the external world and the stimuli that human beings experience moment-to-moment, day-to-day, on temperaments. ROACH: -than you do of a body with a pump-Yeah, oh no, it’s quite frightening. ![]() ROACH: Well, you’ve got to think of juices, vapors, and you’ve got to think of the body more like an aggregation of absorbent sponges leaking one into the other. So, what did they mean when they talked about the passions? ![]() Joseph Roach is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.īOGAEV: Let’s start with how people in Shakespeare’s time understood the passions, because their essential concept of how the body worked. We invited Joe into the studio to explain it all, in a podcast we call Suit the Action to the Word, the Word to the Action. That difference holds the key to understanding this history. When it comes to the question of scientific understanding of this subject, the principal word in that title is “Passion.” That’s a word we use today, but it meant something completely different in Shakespeare’s time and for decades after. This book is called The Player’s Passion. This was a question no theater historian had ever examined before, demonstrating the arc of our understanding of how and why the human body does what it does every day, and how that translates to the stage. While we were discussing what we might talk to him about, we picked up a book that he wrote back in the 1980s that is a remarkable exploration of the history I just mentioned: exactly how scientists and doctors, clergy and common sense have explained over the years how an actor can induce an emotional response in audience members, just by skillfully reciting words written by someone else. Last fall, right after he retired, he taught a seminar here at the Folger Institute and we wanted to have him on the podcast. Joseph Roach was a professor at the Yale School of Drama for 21 years. But it turns out, doctors and scientists have always thought they understood this phenomenon … even though, if you look across history, you’ll find that the firm assertions of medicine aren’t really firm at all. Modern science has a firm grasp on exactly what is happening. Of course, psychologists and psychiatrists could give you their ideas about how actors can make you angry or make you cry at the theater. I’m Michael Witmore, the Folger’s director. ![]() Why? Why do you feel like this? What is happening?įrom the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. You’re at the theater watching a play and the performance is making you really, really emotional. MICHAEL WITMORE: This happens all the time. Previous: Simon Mayo: Mad Blood Stirring | Next: Deborah Harkness: A Discovery of Witches We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Evan Marquart at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Ryan McEvoy at the Yale University Broadcast Center. This podcast episode, “Suit the Action to the Word, the Word to the Action,” was produced by Richard Paul. Listen to Shakespeare Unlimited on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Soundcloud, Stitcher or NPR One.įrom the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Visit our blog The Collation to read a series of posts from the twelve members of Roach’s 2018 “What Acting Is” seminar, examining textuality, temporality, mentality, and physicality in the actor’s performance. ![]() He recently joined us at the Folger Institute for a seminar titled “What Acting Is.” He is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. The Player’s Passion: Studies in the Science of Acting, one of a number of books by Roach, was originally published by the University of Delaware Press in 1985 and was reissued by the University of Michigan Press in 1993. Joseph Roach was the long-time Sterling Professor of Theater at Yale University. We talk with Joseph Roach about historical theories of acting that affected how our favorite playwrights wrote and even made their way into the most influential acting techniques of the 20th century. How do actors do what they do? How do they stir up emotions, both in themselves and in us as we watch them? Joseph Roach’s 1985 book The Player’s Passion: Studies in the Science of Acting examined how the actor’s art has been understood by scientists, philosophers, actors, and audiences through history: from Shakespeare’s 17th century, when actors emitted animal spirits through their eyes, to David Garrick’s 18th century, when pneumatic tubes transmitted emotion from the brain to the body. ![]()
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