Privileged emotion managers: The case of actors

Abstract

Theatre provides a unique set of conditions for the management of emotions. Drawing on participant observation from one repertory theater, three university productions, and interviews with stage actors, directors, and acting instructors, I conceptualize actors as privileged emotion managers. Actors access structural resources that enable their ability to manage feelings onstage. Theatre's division of labor, the rehearsal process, and formal training give actors important advantages in managing emotions compared to many other social settings, and demonstrate structural recognition of and support for feeling management. These structures outsource some of an actor's emotion management and provide a set of institutionally prescribed strategies that actors use to manage feelings during a production.