SOCIETY FOR PHENOMENOLOGY AND MEDIA 62 | Page On Becoming Present to the Spectators: A Phenomenological Approach to Theatrical Performance Raluca Mocan Université Paris-Est Créteil, EA LIS Archives Husserl, ENS-CNRS Paris, France “Practice comes before “theory” everywhere and in all times” (Edmund Husserl, Hua XVI: 61) The living presence of actors gives a phenomenal full consistency to the world on stage. Fluidity of life and credibility of action indicate that the artificial world of the staged fiction is alive. Once communicated to spectators, it is precisely this sense of vitality that can awake and open their awareness to what might happen on stage. Therefore, it is important for the actor to know how to be scenically alive, how to fully become involved in unreal situations. Theatre practitioner’s main challenge is to enliven the truth of the play, to “put himself and the viewer in a state of dreaming, to give an anatomy to the dream: ligaments, nervous tension, joints, blood circulation, blood pressure..” (Barba, 2011: 255) Becoming present to the audience is conveying the theatrical effect of life (l’effet de vie) for spectators. The engagement may seem paradoxical: they react to imaginary situations in a credible manner yet in an artificial environment. Actors’ ability is to repeat and to keep alive precise and credible actions, to which they give precision and consistency. "Where is the secret of an imagination that makes the actor “live” the torments of Prince Hamlet or the misfortunes of Oedipus, incest and parricide?" asks Jacques Copeau (Copeau, 1955: 33). Imaginary feelings are not felt at all; they are imagined with one’s whole being. How can spontaneity and formal artistic discipline coexist in one expressive approach? What kind of experience allows performers to discover and repeat night after night credible, real actions despite the conventional artificiality of representation? To answer these questions, we initially focus on learning techniques in the art of the performer taking several examples of exercises used by practitioners, actors and theatre teachers. We will then examine a few practical principles for acquiring stage presence. On a phenomenological level of description, we particularly focus on the joint structures of the living body (Leib) understood both as substrate of habits and as centre of actual will. By situating our analysis in the context of Husserl's perspective on kinaesthetic awareness, we will grasp what is specific in performers’ imagination