(Inter)acting with the Inner Partner is the core discipline in a program in “authorial acting” at the Department of Authorial Creation and Education. It is a holistic (psychosomatic), multidisciplinary experiential-reflective investigative path toward cultivating the personality and preparing for optimal, creative interaction in performance situations. (Inter)acting with the Inner Partner trains and nurtures the dynamics of creative, disciplined, playful and spontaneous (inter)acting. Over time, students develop a holistic preparedness (i.e., "psychosomatic fitness") for optimal creative experiencing in performance situations, and cultivate and enrich the qualities of an authorial personality. The discipline is relevant to a wide range of professional activities. Actors, students of acting, as well as all people who “act,” “do” and “perform” in front of others in their professional or every day lives (teachers, social workers, doctors) as well as individuals in other creative fields (e.g., film, visual arts, philosophy) find the discipline contributes to their professional work and personal growth.

Rehearsing the discipline works like so: Without any predetermined theme, students take turns going on stage individually in front of an audience in order to discover and experience interactions (relationships) between his/her “inner partners” during short (1-5 minutes) “rehearsals” or “attempts.” The only condition of this solo, open improvisation is to maintain ‘public solitude’ (Stanislavsky): By not contacting the audience directly, a student can pay attention to his actions and direct them towards his inner partner. After a few minutes rehearsing, the student is asked to sit. He is given comments and reflections on his work and guided toward paths of further discovery by class leaders. Students keep a written journal as a way of reflecting on their on-stage investigations.

Through this process, students study and practice the conditions necessary for making spontaneous, conscious interaction amongst inner partners possible (e.g., directing action towards a partner, paying attention, listening, accepting, affirming, etc.). Further, students learn to allow personal themes, positions, attitudes, and roles to emerge, and cultivate how they relate to them.

(Inter)acting with the Inner Partner’s  philosophical and ideational core is based on notions of the dialogical self. It has an existential simplicity which provides actors - not just individuals who engage in the art of acting, but all those who "act" in performance situations - with the opportunity to investigate, study and practice dynamics fundamental to (inter)acting in performance situations.

(Inter)acting with the Inner Partner has been inspirational to the work of a host of theatre and performance artists in the Czech Republic and internationally, as well as individuals in fields like teaching, philosophy, psychology and the visual arts. Workshops in the discipline have been given in the U.S.A. (Columbia University, New York University, Czech Center NY), England (Dartington College, Rose Bruford, University of Brighton), Greece (International Conference on the Dialogical Self) and Finland (Metropolia, TEAK, Teattri Takomo), where it has become an important performance-making tool in the work of director Milja Sarkola.

The discipline was discovered, and primarily developed, by Professor Ivan Vyskočil, one of the major progenitors of “small forms” theatre in the Czech Republic of the late 1950s and 60s and a founder of the Department of Authorial Creation and Education at DAMU. Apart from his creative work as an author and actor, he is renown for co-founding the Theatre on the Balustrade (Divadlo na Zábradlí), where he sowed the seeds of “appellative” theatre. Václav Havel and Jan Grossman, who took over the Balustrade after Vyskočil’s departure, later developed his idea of an open, appellative theatre. He has received numerous awards, including a lifetime achievement award from the Czech Ministry of Culture for his contribution to theatre, authorial creation and theatre education. He developed the discipline from his theatrical experiences as an authorial actor and from his work as a psychologist and teacher.