Utilizing the Stanislavski System and Core Acting Skills to Teach Actors in Arts Entrepreneurship Courses

With insight into key pedagogical approaches of theatre training, an understanding of research regarding common psychological characteristics of actors and awareness of identified parallels between arts entrepreneurship and acting course content, arts entrepreneurship instructors can, in their classrooms, increase the likelihood of relating to acting students and subsequently, leverage their students’ inherent and developed skills. Research-based psychological characteristics of actors are offered, as are suggestions to appeal to actors’ general sensibilities (and how they may wish to be engaged). The Stanislavski System is the most popular approach to actor training; its critical structural components are discussed in addition to various offshoots of the original technique. Unique features of acting training such as encouraging imagination, reflection, openness to experience, emotional connections, pursuit of goals and the importance of soft skills are emphasized.