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🎬 Acting Truthfully in Virtual Reality: Vakhtangov-Inspired Pedagogy

In An Actor’s Work: A Student’s Diary, Stanislavsky describes the actor’s journey toward truth, where genuine human experience replaces convention and artifice. His colleague Yevgeny Vakhtangov expanded on this idea, blending the psychological realism of the system with a heightened sense of imagination and transformation.

Drawing on these foundations, this workshop reimagines Vakhtangov’s pedagogy for today’s performers by integrating virtual reality (VR) technology into actor training. Participants work on a monologue within an immersive VR environment, allowing them to juxtapose their own experiences with the character’s and explore the emotional and psychological truth of the role.

The process encourages actors to identify personal triggers, connect deeply with inner impulses, and embody authenticity. In doing so, it addresses contemporary concerns in actor training, well-being, inclusion, and employability, while remaining true to Vakhtangov’s core principle: that through self-awareness and imagination, the actor reveals the truth of both self and character.

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Ethnoacting in VR: DIY Soft Skills Development

Ethnoacting in VR: DIY Soft Skills (Trade mark number: UK00004133854 dated 06/12/2024) is an innovative intervention inviting participants to engage in ethnoacting. This means they repeat real-life testimonies while listening to them through headphones, fully immersed in a tailored virtual reality (VR) environment. The VR setting is designed to replicate the world of the testimony, enhancing focus, the sense of presence and empathy. By applying modelling theories from psychology, this project explores how VR can help several social groups or professionals build essential soft skills that support their wellbeing. Tailored survey research assesses the impact and benefits for these groups. The core team includes expertise in acting (Evi Stamatiou, Principal Investigator), VR experimentation (Oluwatosin Sanni, Co-Investigator), and psychology (Volker Thoma, Co-Investigator). The project has already expanded into nursing (Georgina Cox, Co-Investigator) and youth development (in partnership with the Youth Empowerment Zone at Newham Council), with discussions setting the ground for applications on self-advocacy for people with disabilities (in partnership with the RIX Centre), and compassion in law professionals, reflecting its broad potential impact.

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Last Updated 8 November 2025
Created 8 November 2025
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Extract from film American Beauty

No description available

Monologue from American Beauty- Screenplay

The monologue has been adapted to remove gender and location identifiers, such as names or...

PDF

American Beauty VR feeder Voice Over

The voice-over guides the actor through the monologue line by line, offering space to...

audio/mp4

hospital_room.mp4

This isolated hospital room is the virtual environment in which the actor will rehearse the...

MP4

truthfulness_vr_vakhtangov_qr.png

The QR code is intended for conference delegates to enable independent access to and interaction...

PNG

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