The reaction of a viewer to what he/she sees and hears in a video will depend upon their experience of the individuals performing in it.

A sculptor works with chisels on marble, or with fingers on clay. A painter works with colors and brushes on canvas. A violinist plays upon an instrument and strings. But the actor plays upon himself; upon his whole self; upon his body, his voice, his movements, his facial expressions, even his emotions and imagination. Subjectively he is the artist. Objectively he is the instrument.

It is not, as we have seen, a matter of ultimate importance whether the young actor feels emotion or not; his object is to induce emotion empathethically in his audience. But to do so, he must induce in them physical reactions which will be felt as emotions; and to do that he must suggest those reactions by his own physical behavior. When he does so correctly, they will feel the emotions; and so, in all probability, he will.

What really does function as a means to good acting is imagination. When a play is to be repeated through many performances, the importance of imagination grows.

It is not emotional sensibility, or temperament, or inspiration, that makes an actor; but a lively, flexible, and well-controlled imagination.

Memorization of an Artist

When an actor attempts to memorize an unfamiliar part prior to acting rehearsals, it is obvious that he cann ot have a very clear conception of it. It is all new to him. There has been no chance to develop a feeling for the play, to visualize the situations and the other characters, or to coordinate lines and actions. His best plan, therefore, is to memorize words, not meanings; to commit the text without forming premature, and perhaps false, notions concerning its interpretation.