In this article of 1987, the Italian scholar Nando Taviani offers a view of the actor’s “energy” as a “premise” for artistic and theoretical research. Elaborating the fundamentals of theatre anthropology and replying to common objections, Taviani defines theatre anthropology as a “hand-made theory”. Ian Watson later considered this definition as one of the most successful. Taviani also discusses the relationship of theatre anthropology with science and the complementarity of energy as animus and anima according to Barba. The article was originally published in French in the journal Bouffonneries (15-16, L’énergie de l’acteur. Anthropologie Théâtrale 2, 1987, 23-32).