Acting and Personality Change: The Measurement of Change in Self-Perceived Personality Characteristics during the Actors Character Development Process

Abstract

Fourteen student actors who were involved in a dramatic production completed the Adjective Check List (ACL) at four points in time: prior to the beginning of the play′s rehearsal period, in the middle of the rehearsal period, during the performance period, and 1 month after the production was over. The personality profiles yielded by the 22 ACL scale scores were compared with the profiles for each actor′s fictional dramatic character. It was hypothesized that (1) the actor chosen to play a given character would have personality characteristics similar to that of his or her corresponding character, and (2) the actor′s self-perceived personality profile would become more similar to the character′s during the rehearsal and production period. Support emerged for the second hypothesis, but not for the first. Observations regarding these findings and suggestions for future explorations are given.