Masked I Advanced: The Price & Power of Facial Expressions

The Edge of the Stage: Life Lessons from Performance Training

Hosts:

Matthew Ellenwood (EmoVerity, Ellenwood Studios)

@Ellenwood Studios

Berit Elizabeth (Emotive Agility Training)

@emotiveagility

Summary:

In this episode, Matthew and Berit explore the price and power of facial expressions in both performance and everyday life. They discuss how nonverbal communication—especially facial expressions—can be used intentionally to connect with others, regulate emotions, and navigate complex social situations.

Key Topics:

• The three components of emotion: subjective experience, physiological response, and expressive response.

• Emotional granularity: understanding and naming nuanced emotions.

• The importance of emotional intelligence and regulation in both performance and professional contexts.

• The concept of “masking” as a communication tool—not as inauthenticity, but as a strategic choice for effective interaction.

• The three expression archetypes: Externalizer, Internalizer, and Equalizer/Generalizer.

• How to “read the room” and align your expression with context and intent.

• Recent neuroscience research on how our brains register others’ emotions, even subconsciously.

• Practical exercises for warming up and training facial expressions, including “Making Faces” and exploring facial morphologies (broad/wide, tall/long, bunched/constricted).

• The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and its use in performance and motion capture.

• The Rasaboxes technique and the concept of “emotional athleticism.”

• The importance of autonomy and co-regulation in emotional communication.

Practical Takeaways:

• Practice facial warmups and morphologies to increase expressive range.

• Use emotional “masking” intentionally to support your goals and the needs of the room.

• Develop self-awareness of your own expressive style (externalizer, internalizer, equalizer).

• Remember: emotional intelligence is a skill that can be trained, not just understood.

Resources & Links:

🔔 Subscribe on You Tube for video version & more great content @theedgeofthestage

💻 “Making Faces” self-study course by Matthew Ellenwood

📗 Dacher Keltner’s Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.

📕 Brene Brown’s “Atlas of the Heart”

🔬 Neural signatures of emotional intent and inference align during social consensus

🎭 The Rasaboxes technique by Richard Schechner

🔎 FACS (Facial Action Coding System)

💗 Dr. Erika Rosenberg

Next Episode Preview:

Join us next time for a discussion on the “mixology” of emotions—how emotional “cocktails” and “mocktails” show up on stage and in everyday life.