Acting
The Actor’s Tools
Body
Voice
Mind
Body- the actor’s body should have the following
attributes: ????
Flexibility
Strength
Expressiveness
Endurance
Coordination
General Looks/appearance
Actor’s who seemed to be especially skilled with their body?
Voice
Desired attributes: ???
Vocal quality or character
Volume/projection (esp. Theatre)
Expressiveness- emotion, inflection etc.
Clarity/neutral dialect
Flexibility- singing, dialects, character effects etc.
Actors who seem particularly skilled with their voices?
Mind
Desired Attributes: ???
Memory
Concentration/focus
Imagination
Sensitivity- to world and people
Vulnerability
Observant/inquisitive
Actors who seem skilled in the use of their mind?
Actors who seem able to use all three equally well?
The Actor’s Responsibilities
1. Get the job! Audition and get cast
Cattle Call- Actor has 1-2 minutes to sell themselves to a director by
performing 2 contrasting monologues that demonstrate their range of
ability. 1 of 300 (or more). Actor provides director with a headshot
and a resume.
Callback- Actor is usually given more time to meet and speak with
the director and then will either do another monologue or cold
reading from the script.
2. Rehearse
-develop blocking (movement of actors in space from moment to
moment in play)
-collaborate/communicate with director
- Develop/make character choices; determine who tools will be used
- Motivate actions- find psychological reasons for doing things to
achieve believability or desired performance style for production
- Learn lines and blocking (this should be automatic- like showing up
to work)
- Collaborate with other actors/foster character relationships/maintain
professionalism
- Explore/experiment/grow- in terms of character choices and levels of
the performance
3. Perform
- Manifest rehearsal work into performance for an audience
- Retain discoveries and continue to build on them
- Continue to grow through performance-must not settle but move
forward
But
- Maintain character choices and be consistent in EVERY performance
Realism/Naturalism: Contemporary acting
theory
Dominate theatre style prior to 1890’s: Melodrama-overblown physical
acting consisting of large gestures and exaggerated emotions:
Stock villain with dark moustache ties damsel in distress to railroad tracks
1890’s:
Freud: we are motivated by our sexual desires/needs
Ivan Pavlov and his salivating dogs
Anton Chekhov is writing plays that are considered naturalistic:
The Seagull, The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters
In a Small German state: George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, a
director, demands that all actors conceive realistic characters
All of these factors influence:
Constantin Stanislavski- an actor and director who was fed up with
the melodramatic style and wanted to refine the way an actor prepares a
role.
-studied neurophysiology
- Recognized the need to develop an inner acting technique-melodrama called
for only the development of physical tools
“The most important thing is to build the inner life of the human spirit”
-created a system that would aid actor’s in building the soul of a character and
creating their inner world.
He called his system: The Elementary Grammar of Dramatic Art
His system was based on years of research and observation of actors. He
wanted to figure out how to make the unnatural environment of the stage
(in front of an audience) into a natural environment.
Actors must see and not pretend to see, to hear and not pretend to listen, and
talk to other actors not just recite lines. They must think and feel
-his system was based on human psychology: are actions
come from our desires/needs.
If an actor can identify what a character wants then the
actor can pursue these wants.
Objectives- moment to moment wants of a character
throughout the play
Superobjective- the central or overall want of the character
for entire play
Actors must go beyond text and find the subtext (true
intentions of one’s words)