Psychology for Performing Artists

The study of theatre is of great value to psychologists because it is a vital part of life. This thoroughly revised and updated second edition provides a unique and up-to-date analysis of what psychology has to offer for actors, musicians, singers and dancers. It makes suggestions about how the particular stresses that performers are under can be managed. Newly provided examples, or Spotlights, give focused explanations of interesting topics that are self-contained within the text. Drawing on numerous practical examples from the arts as well as scientific and clinical research, this book has proven to be an invaluable resource for student, professional and amateur alike.Modern psychology has much to offer performing artists in terms of understanding themselves and optimizing their art: it examines the unique two-way relationship between audience and performer, describes the way in which emotions are communicated to an audience by non-verbal processes such as posture and facial expression, and explains the instinctual origins of the impulse to perform. Dr Glenn Wilson PhD, FBPS, CPsychol is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, and has previously held visiting professorships at Stanford University, San Francisco State and the University of Nevada, Reno. He trained as a baritone at the Guildhall School of Music, and now is an established stage director and opera singer who makes frequent appearances on British TV. He has published several papers on psychology as applied to the performing arts, and in London in 1990 and 1993 organized the first and second international conferences on Psychology and the Performing Arts.