Affective Memory - Short Note

There is no doubt in my mind that the best of actors consciously uses their emotional memories actively in their work. Now, some may not admit to it and some may do it accidentally, but it happens because...good acting with depth and meaning doesn't happen without it. I should repeat that. Without the actor's affective memory in active participation with the fiction of the play, good acting doesn't happen. And so it only follows in my book that unless actor training and preparation includes conscious and purposeful use of emotional memory, then you might as well play tiddly-winks or do gymnastics. Shakespeare knew this, Stanislavsky described it for us, and taught us how to consciously make use of it, Vakhtangov reinforced it and Strasberg freed it for all of us.