Imagination and Scenic Expression in Performance Art

Abstract

This paper aims at revealing the relationship between imagination and the scenic expression of the student actors, as a relevant sign of the talent for performance art. We took into account two indicators which we found essential for the scenic talent: an internal indicator which involves the processing of the role-related data largely on the basis of creative imagination, and an external one which covers the embodiment of the character by way of the system of expression means. If improvisation, as a creation method, helps the student actor capitalise on their creative abilities, we can determine, following the psychological mechanism of improvisation, the relationship between imagination and the scenic expression, and the extent to which scenic talent may be expressed by improvisation. To this end, we started from turning some classical improvisation exercises used in the training sessions of the student actors, into psychological improvisational models applied as a natural experiment. This approach resulted in positive correlations between the indicator being assessed and the artistic performances of the student actors.