Creative Visualization and Mental Rehearsal for Actors

Dear viewers! Today we shall discuss about an interesting phenomenon known as Creative
visualisation. Creative visualisation is the psychological process that generates mental imagery, with
eyes open or closed, simulating or recreating visual perception in order to maintain, inspect, and
transform those images, as well as their corresponding emotions and feelings, with the goal of
experiencing a positive effect, such as reducing anxiety, improving self-esteem and self-confidence,
and enhancing the capacity to cope when interacting with others. It is extremely significant for an
artist especially an actor. Mental rehearsal can have a significant impact on an actor's performance.
Mentally practicing scenes, monologues, or auditions is almost as efficient as actual practise,
according to research. The reason for this is that mental rehearsal activates the same brain pathways as
physical rehearsal.

So, how do you prepare mentally? First and foremost, unwind and choose a suitable location. Second,
visualise everything you wish to practise in great detail, including sound, movement, feelings, and of
course visualisation. Third, visualise it from start to the end, along with a happy ending. Fourth, do it
on a regular basis. Athletes, musicians, surgeons, soldiers, and even astronauts employ mental
rehearsal to prepare for the worst and perform at their best.

Let us now know about the various stages of creative visualization:

The process of creative visualisation is divided into four broad stages:

"Image Generation" is the first stage. This needs conjuring/ illusionary mental picture from memory,
fiction, or a mix of the two. "Image Maintenance" is the second stage. This entails the deliberate
maintenance or keeping of imagery, without which a mental image will quickly disintegrate and will
not last long enough to go to the next level.

Stage 3 is "Image Inspection". In this stage, once generated and maintained, a mental image is
inspected and explored, elaborated in detail, and interpreted in relation to the participant. This often
involves a scanning process, by which the participant directs attention across and around an image,
simulating shifts in perceptual perspective.

Stage 4 is "Image Transformation". In this stage, the participant transforms, modifies, or alters the
content of generated mental imagery, in such a way as to substitute images that provoke negative
feelings, are indicative of suffering and exacerbate psychological pain, or that reaffirm disability etc.,
for those that prompt positive emotion, and are suggestive of autonomy, ability to cope, and an
increased degree of mental aptitude and physical ability.
The one phenomenon that helps in creative visualisation is the power of imagination. It is important to
understand the concept of imagination and also the relationship between creative visualisation and
imagination especially for an actor. History has numerous references to imagination and creative
visualisation being the central faculty for an actor.

Throughout the twentieth century, there was an intensive effort to systemize actor training by
reorganising traditional procedures and incorporating inter-disciplinary perspectives into psychology,
sociology, anthropology, and linguistics. In this endeavour, psycho-physical action techniques
emphasized upon the creative visualization or imagination as a critical component of actor training.
Vsevolod Meyerhold, Sergei Einsestein, and Michael Chekhov, for example, combined traditional
theatre methods and research with scientific objectivism and artistic principles. Because the inner
process has become the technique for character formation, imagination plays a vital role in all of these
efforts to add innovation and precision to the approach to character building.

"Nature would be mind made visible, mind the invisible nature," Argues Schelling in his book Ideas
for a Philosophy of Nature through which he underlines the power of imagination or creative
visualization as a tool to tapping into natural forces. This statement, however, may have been
referring to a broader scenario, but in the dramatic process of an actor, creative imagination is given
paramount importance. For example, under the influence of Anthroposophy, Michael Chekhov
established his actor training technique, which implies or believes in the presence of a non-physical,
neutral, intellectually clear, spiritual world that is accessible to human experience. With this concept
as a foundation, Chekhov and others in this league have been experimenting with diverse techniques
to putting these non-physical principles into dramatic practise, with creative visualization at the core.

Stanislavski considers imagination to be a critical skill for an actor to learn, as he believes that an
inner instinct should lead to exterior action. Stanislavski rejected or scorned melodrama in favour of a
perception of genuineness, and hence he disapproved of traditional acting tactics based on the actor's
own clichés. Rather, he claimed that an actor's bodily behaviour was the result of interior feeling. The
soul of acting, according to Stanislavski, is an actor's creative powers or actor’s ability to create and
visualize imaginatively, whereas Meyerhold emphasises the audience's imagination. To avoid
excessive naturalism or mimicry, he insists in focusing on reception. Chekhov goes even further,
describing imagination as an unseen energy that radiates from the actor's body through what he refers
to as psychological gesture—the performance's soul. He emphasises the importance of imagination in
the communicative process; it is a creative power that comes from the space between the performer
and the audience, i.e. from the atmosphere, or what Chekhov refers to as a collective energetic state.
As we can observe, individual abilities are the emphasis of acting pedagogies, but the development of
skills like observing and understanding social dynamism through processes like creative visualisation
are also significant. To break away from the sense-memory imaginative activation, Meisner and
Adler, also built their methods upon dramatic imagination. Adler advocates for emotions to stream
from actions in imaginative circumstances instead of actions streaming from emotions. Meisner
insists, “Don’t be an actor. […] Be a human being who works off what exists under imaginary
circumstances. Don’t give a performance. Let the performance give you”.

Any logical approach to dramatic imagination would regard acting not in terms of mimesis but in
terms of transformation, of movement, of the dynamism that both the actors and spectators can run
into - in terms of performance. Nikolai Evreinov, a contemporary of Stanislavski theatre practitioner,
alludes to theatricality not as a metaphor but as an actual instinct of all forms of life,"[...] fancy is the
foundation of all arts," he asserts, "and the power of imagination would be nothing if it couldn't
transform non-existent things into existing ones" (Evreinov, 2013, p. 190).

The first step in the process of creative visualisation is largely dependence on imagination, however,
for the proceeding steps like image inspection, transformation, exploration etc. need another faculty in
an actor. This process or ability is of improvisation.

Dear viewers, now we shall try to understand the phenomenon called Improvisation. In general,
improvisation in theatre refers to a performance or a scene that is performed without a written script
or any predetermined outcome. However, as we dig further, we discover that it has varied meanings
for different people. For some, it's a type of process for generating humour; for others, it's a practice
technique; and for still others, it's a therapeutic tool. Nonetheless, in the history of theatre,
improvisation has fulfilled a variety of objectives. Discovering innovative ways to understand any
given language or issue, as well as assisting actors in exploring and widening their emotional reaction
to fictional or past circumstances, are some of the key goals of improvisation, making it a potent
acting technique and therapeutic tool. As a result, improvisation has a significant impact on the
performance, which is why it has been employed as a key creative device throughout the history of
theatre. Despite the fact that there are countless references to this phenomenon being employed as a
device, there is still no comprehensive scholarly examination.
If one exists, it's more akin to a guidebook of improvisation exercises for boosting creativity and
spontaneity. Its genesis and history have yet to be thoroughly investigated.
Before going any further, it's worth noting what scholars have stated about improvisation in order to
broaden our understanding of the term. Isn't improvisation simply acting without a script? Is
improvisation primarily a comic technique? Can we rehearse the improvisation? What is the definition
of improvisation? We'll try to comprehend it in all of its dimensions and meanings proposed by
academics each with its own strengths and weakness. Peter Brook, a revolutionary theatre practitioner
in his book The Empty Spacewrites, “Ican take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks
across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of
theatre to be engaged”.
If every area may be regarded a potential stage when a performer and audience are present, then any
act of human life that is not planned might be termed improvisation. A simple mother-daughter
interaction with all family members present, a classroom lecture, an auto-rickshaw driver calling
people while some already in the auto are watching him shout, and so on could all be considered
improvised performances if they are spontaneous and observed by people other than the participants.
This is in line with the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "improvise," which is "to compose,
recite, or perform poem or music impromptu; to speak extempore; therefore, to do anything on the
spur of the moment."
As a result, we can claim that any human activity or behaviour can be classified as improvisational, or
that it contains improvisational elements to some amount.
James Hooker goes over the definition of improvisation in more detail. He says "In essence,
improvisation is the spontaneous expression and giving form to inner impulses or remembered
memories, with the emphasis on the body as the medium of expression, The concept of Sperber and
Johnstone goes even farther, claiming that improvisation arises from the individual's intrinsic need to
express himself or herself without being distracted or influenced by the writer's or director's
preconceived notions. This isn't a straightforward procedure of simply stating or doing what you want
because it might be difficult to push over our own personal constraints of conditioning imposed by
society and family and come forward and express yourself.
In this perspective, O'Neill's comments on Stanislavski's use of improvisation as a tool for actor
training are essential.
When he writes that Improvisation is a technique for "replacing a conscious, mechanistic, and long-
established theatrical tradition with a creative process in which conscious and subconscious
absorption and sincerity merged to produce inspiration," he makes an intriguing point. "Improv in its
purest form begins with nothing and then strives to answer the five basic questions of every situation:
Who? What? Where? When? and Why?" says Gary Izzo, "although character, place, and period are
mostly defined prior to performance in improv for interactive performance." This definition narrows
the scope of improvisation to a situation in which most of the parameters are more or less pre-
determined, but some are dependent on the performer. Although the stored memories or patterns of
behaviour may be used to modify in response to the stimulus from the audience, they must remain
within these pre-determined dimensions. Schechner pushes the concept even more by claiming that
we can never perform for the first time. A performance cannot be formed out of thin air; it is always
the product of previously stored data and actions. Rather, it is logical for a performer to draw on his
own experiences and memories. Thus, we might define improvisation as a method in which a
performer spontaneously repositions events or observations held in memory to manage the
performance depending on this dimension. However, due to the new pattern spontaneously produced
by the mind in the spur of the moment, this repositioning may be unique in and of itself.
This term also applies to other types of music, such as jazz or Indian classical music, in which
improvisation is based on previously learned basic notes. It is impossible for a performer to improvise
without the stored information and practise of those notes.
As a result, the known aids in the production of the unknown; without anything known, there can be
no unknown. "Pure improvisation, therefore, takes place at the confluence of performance and
creativity, and there are two ramifications of this: 1) it takes place inside a set time limit; 2) it occurs
constantly through time, at speed, and does not entail editing," Hazel Smith and Roger Dean wrote.
While improvisation does not entail editing, the performance is always changing due to the actors'
ongoing adapting to shifting stimuli; the reaction may change even when the input is the same.
However, once this process of change is complete, there is no physical evidence of it; however, if we
use improvisation to write scripts, we may believe that the evidence remains in the form of the scripts,
but if we look closely, we will see otherwise. Revisions and adjustments are always made to the final
script. As a result, what exists is the completed script is not improvisation but a completed script.
Similarly, in acting, the actors may borrow actions and replies from earlier improvised scenes. As
with Commedia Del Arte, where the actors rely significantly on the previously acted comic scenes or
sequences, the variety is primarily due to differences in the stimulation offered by the audience or the
scenario and also difference on the sequence of arrangement of those previously performed actions.
"Reincorporation" is the term for this concept. Reincorporation is a technique in which a performer or
group of performers revives a few specific movement and behaviour sequences, as well as spoken
word, from prior performances, such as an extremely funny joke, a strange circumstance, or a strange
persona. This process, too, relies heavily on actor’s imagination and creative visualisation.
Thus, while improvisation can be fully based on imagination or spontaneous reactions, all
improvisations rely largely on the performers' reactivity to external stimuli, making it a continuous
process. This process contributes to creative visualization. Thus, creative visualisation depends on
imagination and follows the process of improvisation to complete its stages. In some cases, the
chronology may not be the same yet all three have a definite relationship. Thus, it is imperative to
know the role that these phenomena played in the origins of theatre as an art form.
In ancient Greece, there existed a tradition of singing sacred texts in the form of Dithyrambs, i.e.
some songs sung in the praise of God Dionysus. Theatre as an art form arose from one of those
Dithyramb performances in which an actor used his imagination and instinctively came out to sing
lines as a character. Imagination and Improvisation is thus recognised as the foundation of theatre. In
later versions, such as the Atellan farce of the third century B.C.E. and the Medieval Commedia
dell'arte, improvisation remained the backbone of the performance. Though the actors of Commedia
Dell’Arte eventually become generic to a large extent, there is still a great deal of improvisation in the
arrangement of those stock sequences. Improvisation is also used in a variety of other dances and
theatrical events around the world. Augusto Boal's forms rely significantly on improvisation as a
means of igniting spontaneous and creative energy and prompting the spect-actors to visualize their
situations creatively.
Examining examples of different theatre practices over time, one can understand the function of
imagination, creative visualisation and improvisation in the genesis and progression of theatre and
also as the essence of performances from our rituals to treatment; from process to performance.
Creative Visualisation has been a useful tool for actor training, performance design, screenplay
writing, creating a safe space, and teaching, among other things. It aids practitioners in breaking up
the monotony of thought, movement, and all actions.

So, dear viewers, today we learned about creative visualisation and its intrinsic relationship with
imagination and improvisation, two complementary phenomena of theatre. Also, how they keep our
performances dynamic and vibrant. Thanks for watching!