Abstract:

"Liberating actor's nature" sounds like from the West, yet not from Stanislavsky or any other mainstream acting teachers. It was coined by the Chinese who misread Western teachers. Westerners doing short-term acting workshops unwittingly contribute to this misconception. Because of the language barrier, they usually eschew scripts and focus on physical exercises. Those fragmented workshops are seen in China as representing mainstream Western actor training. "Be yourself", a western marketing cliché, is also mistaken as the core of acting. Actor training should cultivate actors' second nature, not let loose their original nature. Since the 1950s, Western theatre professors increasingly promote directing/acting, while most Chinese scholars are not well-versed in directing/acting, which has resulted in previous problems in the import of Western teachers. This needs serious reflection.

Key words: liberating actor's nature, second nature, Stanislavsky, workshop, import of Western teachers