What is Acting? This is a question that many have tackled, but few have answered convincingly. It is also a question crucial for teachers of acting: if you don't know what you're teaching, how can you teach it? This presentation, presented at New York University in April 2009, explores how different definitions of acting have led to different theatre training techniques, and tries to show a way forward using the philosophy of Nelson Goodman. There is also a short discussion of emotion and its relationship to good acting.

1. What is Acting? And how does answering this question help teachers?

3. Marathon Man

8. William Archer’s (1888) Model of the Arts

17. Specific Training Activities Values in Pedagogy Definition of Acting

21. Nelson Goodman (1906-1998)