A Practice-Based Research Summary
Bogdan-Mihail Dumitrescu
Actor, Acting Teacher, PhD
1. Research Context
This article presents the main ideas and practical conclusions of my doctoral research in theatre and performing arts, entitled Tehnici de dezvoltare și antrenare a creativității specifice Artei Actorului (Techniques for Developing and Training Creativity Specific to the Art of Acting), completed at the National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” (UNATC), Bucharest, in 2018.
The research explores how creativity — a central element in the actor’s work — can be developed through structured training. It combines practical theatre pedagogy with experimental research methods, bringing together performance practice and the psychology of creativity.
My background is primarily practice-based. I have worked for more than twenty years as an actor, improviser and acting teacher, including university-level teaching in acting and improvisation.
Throughout this work, improvisation has been at the centre of my practice, both as a performance tool and as a way of training attention, presence, responsiveness and creative flexibility.
2. Improvisation as a Training Method
The starting point of the research is a question: to what extent can creativity be trained?
Improvisation is approached not only as a theatrical technique, but also as a structured method of actor training. It places performers in situations that require immediate response, adaptation, decision-making and active listening.
In my teaching practice, improvisation is used to develop:
- responsiveness in the moment;
- awareness of rhythm and timing;
- group interaction and collective attention;
- the connection between intention and physical expression.
Although the research is rooted in actor training, many of these processes are also relevant to movement-based disciplines. The body is treated not as something separate from thinking, but as an active part of the creative process.
3. Experimental Study: Torrance Tests
The central practical component of the research was an exploratory study designed to investigate whether improvisation training could be associated with measurable changes in specific dimensions of creativity.
Method
The study involved 14 second-year acting students with no previous experience in improvisational theatre.
The process included:
- an initial creativity assessment using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking;
- a four-week training period consisting of 12 improvisation sessions, each lasting three and a half hours;
- a final assessment using the same testing methodology.
The psychological assessment and interpretation were conducted by Alina Gherghișan, a psychologist who worked with the Romanian Olympic fencing team.
The workshops combined general improvisation training with exercises addressing verbal fluency, responsiveness, adaptability, active attention, relaxation and confidence within the group.
Results
The psychological assessment indicated improvements in specific dimensions of creativity following the four-week improvisation training programme.
The clearest numerical change reported in the dissertation concerned elaboration, with the group’s mean score increasing from 4.0 to 5.0. The psychologist also reported important improvements in originality.
A qualitative analysis of the participants’ responses suggested a shift from introspective themes towards greater emphasis on other people and the external environment.
During the workshops, I also observed changes in students’ responsiveness, adaptability and engagement with their scene partners. These pedagogical observations should be distinguished from the abilities directly assessed by the Torrance Tests.
The study was exploratory and used a pre-test/post-test design without a control group. Therefore, the findings do not establish a definitive causal relationship between improvisation training and increased creativity.
Nevertheless, the results offer preliminary support for further investigation into the relationship between structured improvisation training and specific dimensions of creative thinking.
One particularly interesting observation concerned the relationship between creativity and attention. The qualitative findings suggested a possible movement away from self-focused thinking towards greater awareness of other people and the surrounding environment.
From a pedagogical perspective, this raises an important question: can improvisation help actors shift their attention from monitoring their own performance towards responding more freely to their partners and the circumstances of the scene?
4. Pedagogical Perspective
Based on both the experimental work and my teaching experience, the research explores an important possibility: creativity training may benefit from structure.
As part of this work, I also collaborated with high-performance athletes, including members of the Romanian Olympic fencing team during their preparation for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
This experience reinforced my interest in how principles of structured sports training might be adapted to artistic practice.
Some of the working principles explored in the research include:
- repetition with variation;
- gradual increases in complexity;
- working under changing conditions;
- maintaining responsiveness and adaptability;
- balancing preparation with opportunities for spontaneous discovery.
These principles can be applied in actor training without reducing the complexity or individuality of the creative process.
One of the central questions of my research concerns the transition from improvisational games to working with pre-written dramatic texts.
In the early stages of actor training, theatrical games frequently encourage experimentation, spontaneity and immediate responses. However, as students begin working with scripted scenes, these principles may receive less attention.
How can the actor maintain the creative freedom developed through improvisation while working within the structure of a dramatic text?
5. Precontextual Improvisation
One of the methodological proposals developed in my doctoral research is precontextual improvisation (improvizația precontextuală).
The term combines two stages of work:
The pretextual stage, in which the actor explores personal creative material in relation to the dramatic text, before the text has been fully incorporated into the performance.
The contextual stage, in which improvisational exercises are integrated into the ongoing rehearsal process, after the actor has begun working with and assimilating the playwright’s text.
The approach draws upon principles of theatrical improvisation, action-based analysis and structured training.
Its purpose is not to replace the playwright’s text or the director’s artistic decisions, but to support the actor’s creative process while working within an established dramatic structure.
Unlike improvisational theatre, where suggestions may come from the audience, precontextual improvisation uses the dramatic text itself as the source of its exercises and creative stimuli.
For example, during a scripted scene, an actor may be asked to interrupt the action and verbalise the inner monologue associated with the dramatic situation. The actor then returns to the scene and continues working with the partner.
Such exercises are intended to encourage discovery, flexibility, attention and spontaneous responses while preserving the framework of the original dramatic work.
Precontextual improvisation is one practical contribution of the dissertation, situated within the broader investigation of creativity and actor training.
6. Continuing Practice and Research
The ideas developed through this research continue to inform my teaching, workshops and actor-training projects, including Act in Progress.
My current professional interests include creativity in actor training, the relationship between improvisation and scripted performance, attention and responsiveness, and the possibilities of adapting principles from sports training to theatre pedagogy.
The doctoral research also opened questions that require further investigation, particularly concerning the measurement of artistic creativity and the transfer of skills acquired through improvisation to the development of a scripted role.
I regard the dissertation as a starting point for further research rather than a definitive explanation of how acting creativity works.
The broader question remains open: how can actors continue to discover something new while working within a dramatic structure they already know?
Research reference
Dumitrescu, Bogdan-Mihail (2018). Tehnici de dezvoltare și antrenare a creativității specifice Artei Actorului. Doctoral dissertation, National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” (UNATC), Bucharest, Romania.
This article is an English-language summary and updated presentation of research conducted for the 2018 doctoral dissertation. It is not a new experimental study. The methodological limitations and interpretations are presented in accordance with the original research.