Northern Illinois University
Paul Kassel
College of Visual and Performing Arts

I am continually engaged in chronicling, reviewing, and critically analyzing the performance experience with intention for publication. It is important to articulate the performance process, not only from a historical or theoretical position, but from an experiential one. Scholarly research is a critical part of my work and directly affects the work I do as an artist and teacher. By articulating the performance process (my own and others), I add to the conversation in the field, change and improve my own process, and provide my students with a record of my thinking in these areas.

The central focus of my research is the investigation of the fundamental principles of acting, and the application of those principles to the making of theater. The basic elements of acting have been known for a very long time. What has changed is our understanding of human beings. Each generation of actors and acting teachers utilize the current understanding of being human, and subtly but substantively alter the discussion on acting and training actors.  Currently, I am investigating the intersection of neuroscience and evolutionary studies as it relates to the perception and enactment of performance.

My research and writing is an attempt to marry theory and practice, and describe rather than prescribe. The concepts of art and acting are elusive. My goal is to state as clearly as possible what the actor does, how the actor does it, and to help actors expand their talents, skills, and creative imaginations.