Research

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For the past decade I have been passionately engaged in a unique type of interdisciplinary research.

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For non-researchers, I am interested in how science can help make the lives of working actors easier in practical ways.

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As you scroll down you will find specific information about my research interests and my research background, including conference presentations.

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Research Interests:

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My interdisciplinary focus is on bringing two elements of my research interests together.

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First, drawing on extensive academic research, as well as my own practical background in actor training, I examine how various claims and models of behavior modification in actor training converge or differ from some of the most current data from the behavioral sciences.

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My current areas of applied interest in this area are:

-the psychology of judgement and decision-making

-cognitive psychology (specifically the impact of memory and perceptual systems)

-behavioral genetics

-gene-environment interactions (including ethology)

-evolutionary psychology (specifically adaptive strategies and endocrine models)

-fetal environment (specifically non-genetic heritability)

-proteopathies and their clinical impact on behavior

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Second, I examine the convergence and differences between models of research in actor training and other models, methods and methodologies in the behavioral sciences and clinical research.

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My current areas of interest are:

-empirical models of research (with applied analytics)

-phenomenological models of research (specifically Practice-as-Research, or PaR)

-prospective methods of data-gathering

-applied epistemological constructs to research, including hypothesis-generation, population definition, falsification

-applied metaphyiscal constructs to research, including mathematical philosophy and the Automaton Theory

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My larger research goals are to identify weaknesses in the claims and models of research in actor training and develop possible improvements.

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Research Background

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Conference Presenations:

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Naturally Selected: Stanislavski in the Age of Universal Darwinism

The S-Word: Stanislavski World Conference; Rose Bruford

London, United Kingdom

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Finding the Woo-Woo: When Practice does NOT Become Research

Pratice (...) Research Intersections Conference; Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

London, United Kingdom

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What Killed the Scientific Voice in Actor Training: the Cartesian Split and Performer Training Today

Digital Research on the Arts and Humanities Conference; Dublin City University

Dublin, Ireland

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The Nonfalsifiable Trick: Rethinking Claims and Terminology in Actor Training and Performance Studies

Re-Thinking Approaches Conference; University of York

York, United Kingdom

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Noh Moment like this Moment: Exploring Potential Crossovers between Noh Theatre and the Meisner Technique

The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

London, United Kingdom

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Discovering the Result: Finding the Crossovers between Empiricism and Actor Training

International Conference on the Arts in Society; John Moores University

Liverpool, United Kingdom

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Theory Development:

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In addition to undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona, my MA at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama involved further research on many of the topics listed above.

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I have received mentoring from wonderful experts in the sciences, most of who I continue to maintain current relationships with. Their contributions to theory development and error-checking in my work have been invaluable: Robert Plomin, PhD; Al Kazniak, PhD; W. Jake Jacobs, PhD; Paul Gladden, PhD; Gail Gonzales, PhD.

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