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Towards or not towards? Using the ACT Matrix as a psychological tool in the analysis and interpretation of dramatic texts and characters

ABSTRACT This article addresses key elements of “ACT for Acting”, an ongoing project using the psychological framework of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/Training (ACT) to explore the processes of acting and actor training. The article introduces readers to a tool called the ACT Matrix and demonstrates how it can be used to “sort”, understand, and visualize different aspects of human experience and behaviour. It then illustrates the application of this process to a dramatic text through the discussion of a Shakespearean soliloquy: Hamlet’s “To be or not to be”. It is suggested that the ACT Matrix can provide a useful tool for textual analysis and serve as the foundation for new approaches to dramatic action and character that are grounded in twenty-first century understandings of human behaviour and psychology.