BECOMING AN ACTOR BY DOING: HOW DRAMATIC PREPARATION INTERWEAVES ANTHROPOLOGY

Abstract

This piece is a personal account of a Princeton student’s endeavors and self-observation throughout a school year of attempting theater performance for the first time. In doing so, I overcame different obstacles by embracing the medium despite apprehension. By examining and analyzing the benefit of participation in order to learn more about a practice, parallels are drawn to the field of anthropology. The system of “Method Acting” is compared to the conceptual theory of ethnography.