Thank you for generously supporting the future of our podcast!
Your donation funds our guests, sound engineer, and recording studio rental costs.
About
The Actor’s Mind is a new podcast that explores acting from a psychological perspective. We describe and discuss popular acting tools that are commonly used in actor training, rehearsals, and performances. Then we identify the parallel psychological processes that are likely in play when actors use these techniques. We discuss the success of these techniques from our own experience, as well as why they work given the evidence from psychology and neuroscience. Our guests are experts from the theater and science worlds: actors, directors, teachers, and psychological scientists, who add their expertise and experience to the conversation.
Read the episode descriptions below to see what we’re talking about in Season 1-4.
Hosts
Kateri McRae
Kateri McRae (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor in the University of Denver Department of Psychology, where she conducts research, teaches and does other fun things (like this podcast!). Her research is focused on emotion cognition interactions, often studying things like how we’re able to control our emotions (or how we’re not able to) using multiple methods like questionnaires, laboratory tasks, bodily physiology and brain imaging. She teaches graduate courses in fMRI methods and affective neuroscience, and undergraduate courses in emotion regulation, and the intersection of psychology and theater. She was a double major in Human Biology and Drama as an undergraduate, and throughout her adult life has performed semi-professionally (mostly in musicals). In addition, she served as an adjudicator for the Bobby G Awards, as well as a theater critic in her role as “She” in a husband/wife critic team called He Said/She Said Critiques, as well as a brief stint as a freelance critic for The Denver Post.
Anne Penner
Anne Penner is an Associate Professor in the University of Denver Theatre Department, where she teaches acting, directing, and movement courses. Most recently she performed Joan Didion’s one-woman play adaptation of her book, The Year of Magical Thinking, with Stories on Stage. Other professional acting credits include Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Julius Caesar, and Cymbeline (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); The Wolves (Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company); Abundance, Crimes of the Heart, American Notes, and Savage in Limbo (Sis Tryst Productions); Not I & Rockaby (Edinburgh International Fringe Festival); Seascape (Modern Muse); The Crimson Thread (Arvada Center); Backsliding in the Promised Land (Syracuse Stages); and various performances with Stories on Stage. She also directs and produces, most often for DU; her theater company, Sis Tryst Productions; and for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Episodes
Season 4:
Season 4 Episode 4: The Space Between
Anne and Kateri discuss their reactions to the conversation with Dr. Danny McIntosh about different kinds of empathy, the space between actor and character, characters and other characters, and interdisciplinarity.
Season 4 Episode 3: Mimicry and Resonance
Anne and Kateri talk about all sorts of things—mimicry, resonance, empathy, the power of theater, religious experiences, and more—with psychologist Dr. Danny McIntosh, who also has been Dean of DU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences for the past seven years.
Guest: Dr. Danny McIntosh
Season 4 Episode 2: Actor Agency, Empathy, and Embodiment
Kateri and Anne’s response to Episode 1.
Season 4 Episode 1: The Science of Acting
Anne and Kateri interview three psychologists who have worked with actors in order to investigate how various psychological studies make sense of the acting process.
Guests: Dr. Thalia Goldstein, Dr. Denis Dumas, Dr. Peter Sokol-Hessner
Season 3:
Season 3 Episode 5: An Interview with Kristin Linklater
Anne’s May 2020 interview with world-renowned voice teacher, Kristin Linklater, who passed away on June 5.
Guest: Kristin Linklater (https://www.linklatervoice.com/)
Season 3 Episode 4: Actor’s Mental Health and Emotional Intelligence
Kateri and Anne discuss actor mental health and emotional intelligence. Then they interview Ashley Hamilton, Executive Director of the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative.
Guest: Ashley Hamilton
Season 3 Episode 3: Creativity
Kateri and Anne discuss creativity, describe it as a three-step process, and explain the neuroscience behind it. Then Anne interviews Anne Bogart.
Guest: Anne Bogart (http://siti.org/blogs/anne-bogart)
Season 3 Episode 2: Emotion
Kateri and Anne take a deep dive into one of their favorite topics: emotions. Then Kateri interviews Dr. Ajay Satpute, an affective neuroscientist.
Guest: Dr. Ajay Satpute
Season 3 Episode 1: The Pandemic Episode
Anne and Kateri discuss teaching theater online, and then Anne talks with guests about the pandemic’s impact on the Colorado theater community.
Guests: Lynne Collins, Anthony Powell, and Allison Watrous
Season 2:
Season 2 Episode 5: Comedy and Psychological Theories of Humor
Anne and Kateri discuss comedy and psychological theories of humor.
Guest: Jessica Robblee
Season 2 Episode 4: Inner Monologue + Modes of Cognition
Kateri and Anne discuss the acting tools of inner monologue and objects of attention as well as the psychological concepts of “top down” and “bottom up” modes of cognition.
Guests: Mare Trevathan and Rodney Lizcano
Season 2 Episode 3: Perspective, Feedback, and Psychological Distance
Anne and Kateri discuss the roles of actor, director, dramaturg, audience, and critic when discussing perspective on the process of rehearsing and performing a play, including giving and receiving feedback.
Guest: John Moore (http://mydenvercenter.org)
Season 2 Episode 2: Casting + Personality Traits
Anne and Kateri discuss casting and personality traits.
Guest: Talleri McRae
Season 2 Episode 1: Auditioning + Impression Formation
Anne and Kateri discuss Auditioning and Impression Formation.
Guest: Sylvia Gregory (http://sylviagregorycasting.com/)
Season 1:
Season 1 Episode 1: Objective + Appraisal Theory of Emotion Kateri and Anne discuss one of the most important acting tools, objective, and a parallel psychological concept, appraisal theory of emotion.
Guests: Larry Hecht, Ashlee Temple, and Allison Watrous
Season 1 Episode 2: Substitution + Episodic Memory
Kateri and Anne discuss substitution and episodic memory.
Guest: Gareth Saxe
Season 1 Episode 3: Actor/Character Physicality + Embodied Cognition
Kateri and Anne discuss actor/character physicality and embodied cognition.
Guest: Regan Linton (www.reganlinton.com)
Season 1 Episode 4: Presence + Mindfulness
Kateri and Anne share their discussion of actor presence/stage presence and the psychological concept of mindfulness with guest Thalia Goldstein.
Guests: Thalia Goldstein, Jessica Austgen, and Lauren Bahlman
Season 1 Episode 5: Language + Psycholinguistics
Kateri and Anne discuss the power of language for an actor and the corresponding study of psycholinguistics.
Guest: Sabin Epstein
Click here to access the The Actor’s Mind Podcast on iTunes
Resources
Season 3:
Anne’s resources:
Jiang, Manyu. “The Reason Zoom calls drain your energy,” BBC Remote Control online article, April 22, 2020.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200421-why-zoom-video-chats-are-so-exhausting
Grant, Adam. “The Creative Power of Misfits.” WorkLife: a TED original podcast. 3/20/2019
O’Brien, Conan. “Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, #55.” Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast on Earwolf. 1/19/2020.
Bogart, Anne and Tina Landau. The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. New York, Theatre Communications Group, 2005.
Chekhov, Michael. To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting (7th edition). New York, Barnes & Noble Books, 1985.
Kiely, Damon. How To Read a Play. London & New York, Routledge, 2016.
Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. New York, Grand Central Publishing, 2016.
Brant, George. Grounded. Oberon Books, 2013.
Mandell, Jonathan. “Cooling Down: How Actors Unwind After Taxing Performances.” American Theatre Magazine. March, 2017.
Linklater, Kristin. Freeing the Natural Voice: Imagery and Art in the Practice of Voice and Language. Hollywood, CA, Drama Publishers, 2006.
Linklater, Kristin. Freeing Shakespeare’s Voice: The Author’s Guide to Talking the Text. New York, Theatre Communications Group, 1992.
Brainard, Joe. I Remember. New York, Granary Books, 2001.
D’Amasio, Antonio. The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. Orlando, FL, Harcourt Books, 1999.
Kateri’s resources:
RESOURCE: Chess and memory – expertise
Schneider, W., Gruber, H., Gold, A., & Opwis, K. (1993). Chess expertise and memory for chess positions in children and adults.
Sato, T. G., Shiraki, Y., & Moriya, T. (2017, October). Audience excitement reflected in respiratory phase synchronization. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) (pp. 2856-2860). IEEE.
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/21/616829753/when-everything-clicks
https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief
Guilford, J. P. (1967). Creativity: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 1(1), 3-14.
Ashby, F. G., & Isen, A. M. (1999). A neuropsychological theory of positive affect and its influence on cognition. Psychological review, 106(3), 529.
Vosburg, S. K. (1998). The effects of positive and negative mood on divergent-thinking performance. Creativity research journal, 11(2), 165-172.
Ziv, A. (1976). Facilitating effects of humor on creativity. Journal of educational psychology, 68(3), 318.
Season 2:
Anne’s Resources:
Merlin, Joanna. (2001). Auditioning. New York: Vintage Books.
Edelstein, Barry. (2018). Thinking Shakespeare: Revised Edition. New York: Theatre Communications Group.
Roznowski, Rob. (2013). Inner Monologue in Acting. New York: St. Martin’s Press
Wright, John. (2006). Why Is That So Funny? A Practical Exploration of Physical Comedy. London: Nick Hern Books.
Harrop, John and Sabin R. Epstein. (1999). Acting with Style (3rd edition). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Kateri’s Episode 1 resources:
Walker, M. P. (2008). Cognitive consequences of sleep and sleep loss. Sleep Medicine, 9, S29-S34.
MacLeod, C. M. (1991). Half a century of research on the Stroop effect: an integrative review. Psychological bulletin, 109(2), 163.
Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. Journal of personality and social psychology, 82(6), 878.
Schultz, W. (2013). Updating dopamine reward signals. Current opinion in neurobiology, 23(2), 229-238.
Shohamy, D., & Adcock, R. A. (2010). Dopamine and adaptive memory. Trends in cognitive sciences, 14(10), 464-472.
Jamieson, J. P., Mendes, W. B., Blackstock, E., & Schmader, T. (2010). Turning the knots in your stomach into bows: Reappraising arousal improves performance on the GRE. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 208-212.
Zarolia, P., Weisbuch, M., & McRae, K. (2017). Influence of indirect information on interpersonal trust despite direct information. Journal of personality and social psychology, 112(1), 39.
Kateri’s Episode 2 resources:
Zillig, L. M. P., Hemenover, S. H., & Dienstbier, R. A. (2002). What do we assess when we assess a Big 5 trait? A content analysis of the affective, behavioral, and cognitive processes represented in Big 5 personality inventories. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(6), 847-858.
Nettle, D. (2006). Psychological profiles of professional actors. Personality and individual differences, 40(2), 375-383.
Greengross, G., & Miller, G. F. (2009). The Big Five personality traits of professional comedians compared to amateur comedians, comedy writers, and college students. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(2), 79-83.
Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (2007). Psychological essentialism of human categories. Current directions in psychological science, 16(4), 202-206.
Goldstein, T. R., & Winner, E. (2012). Enhancing empathy and theory of mind. Journal of cognition and development, 13(1), 19-37.
Prati, F., Crisp, R. J., Meleady, R., & Rubini, M. (2016). Humanizing outgroups through multiple categorization: The roles of individuation and threat. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(4), 526-539.
Woods, S. A., & Hampson, S. E. (2005). Measuring the Big Five with single items using a bipolar response scale. European Journal of Personality: Published for the European Association of Personality Psychology, 19(5), 373-390.
Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological bulletin, 132(1), 1.
Carstensen, L. L., & Mikels, J. A. (2005). At the intersection of emotion and cognition: Aging and the positivity effect. Current directions in psychological science, 14(3), 117-121.
Kateri’s Episode 3 resources:
Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological review, 117(2), 440.
Medvec, V. H., Madey, S. F., & Gilovich, T. (1995). When less is more: counterfactual thinking and satisfaction among Olympic medalists. Journal of personality and social psychology, 69(4), 603.
Kateri’s Episode 4 resources:
Buschman, T. J., & Miller, E. K. (2007). Top-down versus bottom-up control of attention in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices. Science, 315(5820), 1860-1862.
Ochsner, K. N., Ray, R. D., Cooper, J. C., Robertson, E. R., Chopra, S., Gabrieli, J. D., & Gross, J. J. (2004). For better or for worse: neural systems supporting the cognitive down-and up-regulation of negative emotion. Neuroimage, 23(2), 483-499.
Otto, B., Misra, S., Prasad, A., & McRae, K. (2014). Functional overlap of top-down emotion regulation and generation: An fMRI study identifying common neural substrates between cognitive reappraisal and cognitively generated emotions. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 14(3), 923-938.
Sonnby-Borgström, M., Jönsson, P., & Svensson, O. (2003). Emotional empathy as related to mimicry reactions at different levels of information processing. Journal of Nonverbal behavior, 27(1), 3-23.
Stel, M., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2008). The role of facial mimicry in the recognition of affect. Psychological Science, 19(10), 984.
Kateri’s Episode 5 resources:
Attardo, S. (1997). The semantic foundations of cognitive theories of humor. Humor-International Journal of Humor Research, 10(4), 395-420.
McGraw, A. P., & Warren, C. (2010). Benign violations: Making immoral behavior funny. Psychological science, 21(8), 1141-1149.
McGraw, A. P., Williams, L. E., & Warren, C. (2014). The rise and fall of humor: Psychological distance modulates humorous responses to tragedy. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(5), 566-572.
McGraw, A. P., Warren, C., Williams, L. E., & Leonard, B. (2012). Too close for comfort, or too far to care? Finding humor in distant tragedies and close mishaps. Psychological science, 23(10), 1215-1223.
Nezlek, J. B., & Derks, P. (2001). Use of humor as a coping mechanism, psychological adjustment, and social interaction. Humor, 14(4), 395-414.
Westbury, C., Shaoul, C., Moroschan, G., & Ramscar, M. (2016). Telling the world’s least funny jokes: On the quantification of humor as entropy. Journal of Memory and Language, 86, 141-156.
Hurley, M. M., Dennett, D. C., Adams Jr, R. B., & Adams, R. B. (2011). Inside jokes: Using humor to reverse-engineer the mind. MIT press.
Season 1:
Anne’s Resources:
Caldarone, Marina & Maggie Lloyd Williams. (2004). Actions: The Actors’ Thesaurus. Hollywood, CA: Drama Publishers.
Hagen, Uta. (1973). Respect for Acting. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Bruder, Melissa, et al. (1986). A Practical Handbook for the Actor. New York, NY: Random House.
Ball, William. (1984). A Sense of Direction. Hollywood, CA: Drama Publishers. “Objectives” chapter.
Hodge, Alison, editor. (2010). Actor Training, second edition. New York, NY: Routledge. Chapter 1: Stanislavsky’s System.
Bogart, Anne and Tina Landau. (2005). The Viewpoints Book. New York: NY. Theatre Communications Group.
Bogart, Anne. (2001). A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre. New York, NY: Routledge.
Chekhov, Michael. (1953). To the Actor. New York, NY: Harper and Brothers.
Harrop, John and Sabin Epstein. (2000). Acting with Style, third edition. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Jeffries, Stuart. “Inside the mind of an actor (literally).” Theguardian.com. November 29, 2009.
Vedantam, Shankar (Producer). (January 29, 2018). Hidden Brain episode: “Lost in Translation” [Audio podcast].
Linklater, Kristin. (2006). Freeing the Natural Voice. Hollywood, CA: Drama Publishers.
Barton, John. (1984). Playing Shakespeare: An Actor’s Guide. New York, NY: Random House.
Kateri’s Episode 1 resources:
Arnold, Magda B. “Emotion and personality.” (1960). NY: Columbia University Press.
Ellsworth, Phoebe C., and Klaus R. Scherer. “Appraisal processes in emotion.” Handbook of Affective Sciences 572 (2003): V595.
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Vedantam, Shankar (Producer). (January 29, 2018). Hidden Brain episode: “Lost in Translation” [Audio podcast].
Kateri’s Episode 2 resources:
Tulving, Endel, and David Murray. “Elements of episodic memory.” Canadian Psychology 26.3 (1985): 235-238.
Phelps, Elizabeth A. “Human emotion and memory: interactions of the amygdala and hippocampal complex.” Current opinion in neurobiology 14.2 (2004): 198-202.
Hamann, Stephan B., et al. “Amygdala activity related to enhanced memory for pleasant and aversive stimuli.” Nature neuroscience 2.3 (1999): 289.
Alberini, Cristina M., and Joseph E. LeDoux. “Memory reconsolidation.” Current Biology 23.17 (2013): R746-R750.
Kateri’s Episode 3 resources:
Ambady, N., & Rosenthal, R. (1993). Half a minute: Predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. Journal of personality and social psychology, 64(3), 431.
Rule, N. O., Ambady, N., Adams Jr, R. B., & Macrae, C. N. (2008). Accuracy and awareness in the perception and categorization of male sexual orientation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 95(5), 1019.
Curhan, J. R., & Pentland, A. (2007). Thin slices of negotiation: Predicting outcomes from conversational dynamics within the first 5 minutes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 802.
Schwartz, B. (2004, January). The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New York: Ecco.
Västfjäll, D. (2001). Emotion induction through music: A review of the musical mood induction procedure. Musicae Scientiae, 5(1_suppl), 173-211.
Henver, K. 1937. The affective value of pitch and tempo in music. American Journal of Social Psychology, 49(4): 621–30.
Sievers, B., Polansky, L., Casey, M., & Wheatley, T. (2013). Music and movement share a dynamic structure that supports universal expressions of emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(1), 70-75.
Strack, F., Martin, L. L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: a nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Journal of personality and social psychology, 54(5), 768.
Söderkvist, S., Ohlén, K., & Dimberg, U. (2018). How the experience of emotion is modulated by facial feedback. Journal of nonverbal behavior, 42(1), 129-151.
Noah, T., Schul, Y., & Mayo, R. (2018). When both the original study and its failed replication are correct: Feeling observed eliminates the facial-feedback effect. Journal of personality and social psychology, 114(5), 657.
Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 9(4), 625-636.
Lotze, M., Montoya, P., Erb, M., Hülsmann, E., Flor, H., Klose, U., … & Grodd, W. (1999). Activation of cortical and cerebellar motor areas during executed and imagined hand movements: an fMRI study. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 11(5), 491-501.
Cross, E. S., Hamilton, A. F. D. C., & Grafton, S. T. (2006). Building a motor simulation de novo: observation of dance by dancers. Neuroimage, 31(3), 1257-1267.
Tchernichovski, O., & Wallman, J. (2008). Behavioural neuroscience: Neurons of imitation. Nature, 451(7176), 249.
Wiens, S. (2005). Interoception in emotional experience. Current opinion in neurology, 18(4), 442-447.
Carney, D. R., Cuddy, A. J., & Yap, A. J. (2010). Power posing: Brief nonverbal displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance. Psychological science, 21(10), 1363-1368.
Ranehill, E., Dreber, A., Johannesson, M., Leiberg, S., Sul, S., & Weber, R. A. (2015). Assessing the robustness of power posing: No effect on hormones and risk tolerance in a large sample of men and women. Psychological science, 26(5), 653-656.
Kateri’s Episode 4 resources:
Konijn, E. A. (1991). Empirical analysis of emotion processes in the theatre. Psychology and performing arts, 59.
Tugade, M. M., Fredrickson, B. L., & Feldman Barrett, L. (2004). Psychological resilience and positive emotional granularity: Examining the benefits of positive emotions on coping and health. Journal of personality, 72(6), 1161-1190.
Zuberbühler, K. (2008). Audience effects. Current Biology, 18(5), R189-R190.
Jakobs, E., Manstead, A. S., & Fischer, A. H. (2001). Social context effects on facial activity in a negative emotional setting. Emotion, 1(1), 51.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Abuhamdeh, S., & Nakamura, J. (2014). Flow. In Flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 227-238). Springer, Dordrecht.
Ellen, W., Goldstein, T.R., & Stéphan, V. L. (2013). Educational research and innovation art for art’s sake? The impact of arts education: The Impact of Arts Education. OECD publishing.
Kateri’s Episode 5 resources:
Majid, A. (2012). Current emotion research in the language sciences. Emotion Review, 4(4), 432-443.
Hauser, M. D. (1993). The evolution of nonhuman primate vocalizations: effects of phylogeny, body weight, and social context. The American Naturalist, 142(3), 528-542.
Wood, A., Martin, J., & Niedenthal, P. (2017). Towards a social functional account of laughter: Acoustic features convey reward, affiliation, and dominance. PloS one, 12(8), e0183811.
Kastl, A. J., & Child, I. L. (1968). Emotional meaning of four typographical variables. Journal of Applied Psychology, 52(6p1), 440.
Bar, M., & Neta, M. (2007). Visual elements of subjective preference modulate amygdala activation. Neuropsychologia, 45(10), 2191-2200.
Scherer, K. R. (1986). Vocal affect expression: A review and a model for future research. Psychological bulletin, 99(2), 143.
Whorf, B. L. (2012). Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Mit Press.
Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 13(5), 585-589.
Smith, A. D. (2001). Talk to me: Listening between the lines. Random House.
Kagitani, T., Goto, M., Watanbe, J., & Sakamoto, M. (2014, January). Sound symbolic relationship between onomatopoeia and emotional evaluations in taste. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 36, No. 36).
Collaborators and Thanks
A big thanks to all of our guests: Larry Hecht, Ashlee Temple, Allison Watrous, Gareth Saxe, Regan Linton, Jessica Austgen, Lauren Bahlman, Thalia Goldstein, and Sabin Epstein. Thanks to everyone willing to be recorded for our Introduction and the beginning of Episode #4, Presence: Moss Kaplan, Wren Schuyler, Mare Trevathan, Adeline Mann, Molly Carter, Gareth Saxe, Isaiah Adams, Deb Hultgren, Matthew Jones, Spencer Duncan, and Kenzie Kilroy.
Jennifer Forsyth, Production Administrator
Jonathan Howard, Music Composition and Audio Engineering
The University of Denver Department of Theatre
The University of Denver Creative Arts Materials Fund (CAMF) Grant
The University of Denver Faculty Research Fund (FRF) Grant
Contact Us
To reach us with questions or comments, please email: actorsmindpodcast@gmail.com
