Method acting,in both theory and practice,is a technique that actively creates emotionally embodied performances.Yet the theory of method acting views emotions as experiences generated by an individual,independent of his or her social or geographical context.This article offers a spatialized rereading of method acting,highlighting the relational spatialities involved in the bodily performance of emotion,thereby developing literatures in theater on space,emotion,and meaning.A focus on Asian American theater enables an examination of the racial politics of this acting technique and its emotional performances.By drawing on four months of ethnographic research working as an assistant stage manager on an Asian American theater production,my analysis demonstrates how relational spaces of emotion enabled fluid performances of racial identity.The performance of emotion was marked by an ambivalent tension between seeing emotional experience as universal and also being marked by racial difference. Examining the theatrical practice of method acting therefore opens up geographical discussions surrounding race and emotion beyond a critique of universality or a focus on difference by attempting to reconcile these contradictory perspectives of emotions in performance.Dramatic forms of theater can be considered sites through which to demonstrate the complexity of creating,experiencing,expressing, and reading emotional bodies.%方法演技,在理论和实践上,是一种积极创造情绪体现的表演技术.然而,方法演技的理论将情绪看作是个人产生的经验,独立于社会或地理环境之外.本文从空间视角出发,对方法演技进行了重阅,突出身体情绪表现中的空间关系,从而为戏剧在空间、情绪和意义上提供更多文献.本文聚焦亚裔美国人戏剧,研究这种表演技巧的种族政治及其情绪表演.作者为一部亚裔美国人戏剧做了四个月的舞台助理,其间进行了人种学研究,分析表明关系的情绪空间如何使种族身份得到完美流畅的表现.情绪表演的特点是普遍的情绪体验与种族差异之间的矛盾张力.本文试图调和表演中这些互相矛盾的情绪观点,研究了方法演技的戏剧实践,与以往只注重普遍性或差异性的视角不同,开辟了围绕种族和情绪的地理讨论.戏剧可以认为是人们展示创造、经历、表达,以及理解情绪体的复杂性的场所.
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