The Three Centers: A Framework for Inclusivity in the Acting Classroom

Abstract

This essay presents a framework for teaching the art of acting in service of the urgent, moral need to ensure acting classrooms are inclusive. Inspired by a study of the Enneagram as a tool for spiritual formation, the essay reorganizes acting pedagogy into the “Three Intelligences,” or the engagement of the heart, the body, and the mind. The author presents how the art of acting can be taught in a way that charts growth through a student’s integration of these intelligences through a variety of training methods rather than privileging mastery of a particular acting technique. This methodology also makes space for new and more diverse approaches to the art of acting, broadening the American pedagogical heritage of acting techniques belonging to primarily white, Western teachers.