What happens when an actor cries

Woman with red lipstick and collar with a single teardrop on her cheek
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Jen Plants teaches contemporary theater-making and dramaturgy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She says when an actor cries on stage, it’s a lot more complicated, and important, than you think. And when the crying is contrived and rote, it not only hurts the stage production, but society as a whole - a society that apologizes when it cries in front of others or doesn’t cry at all.