Letting go of control: a never-ending process

This paper examines the actor’s personal approach to developing a role or character for performance. The actor begins her analysis by establishing what her acting process was when she first began her training as part of the MFA Acting program at The University of Iowa and examines how this training, along with performances, has re-shaped and re-defined how she approaches not just a role but acting in general.

She begins by identifying the state of her process at the beginning of the first year of her training, the resistance she felt to this, and how difficult it was to make room for new ideas. She then examines how these obstacles were overcome as a product of the classes she took, the techniques she learned, the feedback she received from the faculty, and the performances in which she was able to apply all of the above. Through self-evaluation, the actor recognizes that her process is always in flux, but at this time she has found techniques that instead of confounding her, have allowed for more vocal and physical freedom, a greater sense of play, and a deeper commitment to truth.