3. The actor most clearly personifies the
stage for the general public
THE ACTOR IS theatre itself
4. The Actor’s Training and Means
In acting training, different aspects of acting are singled out for
specialized attention:
• Dancing (Ballet, Jazz, Folk Dances etc)
• Movement (Contact Impovisation, Movement Improvisation, Stage
Fight, Tai Chi)
• Music (Theory of Music, Singing, Dictee)
• Speech & Articulation
• Drama Studies (Text Analysis, History of theatre)
• Make up & Costume Design, Stage Design
5. The Actor’s Instrument
Actors spend years mastering their instrument –
themselves
(Body – Voice – Acting Styles )
Body & Voice are the actor’s primary means of expression
These must be flexible, disciplined and expressive
One of the actor’s primary challenges is to understand
how the body and voice function
Work toward gaining control over one’s physical
instrument
Eliminate any inhibiting tensions.
It is difficult to achieve physical and vocal freedom and
expressiveness without some concern for the psychological
processes that may create tension or block creative
expression (No Sir I can not sing…)
Improvisational exercises or theatre games help overcome
6. Movement, Gesture and Business
Actors need to feel comfortable with their blocking and
movement
The actor must fill in many details of the character’s
movement
Physical characterization often involves a basic threestep process
Consider physical traits required by the action
Identify physical traits that may be dominate in any
given beat
Apply appropriate distinctiveness through greater
specificity
7. Observation and Imagination
Actors need to develop the habit of watching other
people
Actors must also develop imagination in order to “feel
their way” into the lives of others and into fictional
situations
Identify the given circumstances
Particularize objects with the properties of real ones
(hold the gun correctly)
Endow objects, places and people with the emotional
significance and value they have for the character
8. Concentration
Actors must also learn to control, shape and integrate
their basic skills (Body & Voice) as the script and the
director demand.
One mark of control and discipline is concentration:
I.
II.
The ability to shut out all distractions
The ability to concentrate on present stimulus as it
occurs to create the illusion of “the first time”
9. Stage Vocabulary
Many routine tasks have been reduced to a set of conventions that actors are expected to know:
Among the basic conventions is the division of the stage into areas:
Upstage – Downstage
Stage right and stage left
Up right, up center, up left
Right, center, left
Down right, down center, down left
The actor is also expected to be familiar with body positions as they relate to the audience
Full front
one-quarter
one-half
three-quarter
full back
Other terminology may supplement designations of area and bodily position
Open up Turn in, turn out
Share a scene
Give stage Focus
Dress the stage
Some devices are used to emphasize or subordinate stage business
A “planted” prop A masked, “cheat ed” or faked action
Actors normally strive to be graceful
Movement should be precise and clear
The more actors know about other aspects of production the better they will be able to
utilize these elements in their acting
10. Creating a role - Questionaire
The most basic task of acting is to understand the role
Levels of characterization
a. Biological
b. Sociological
c. Psychological
d. Ethical
It is helpful to determine which traits are necessary within the dramatic action
The actor needs to understand the “spine” of the role
What the character wants
What the character is willing to do to get it
How these are manifested in each scene, beat by beat, and how they develop
throughout the play
Actors also need to examine how their roles relate to the others in the play
What does the character think of others?
How does the character present him or herself to other characters?
What does each of the others think of the character?
What is the function of each of these variations within the dramatic action?
The actor needs to understand the script in terms of its:
Themes
Implied meanings
Overall significance
Subtext
Actors need to examine their roles in relation to the director’s interpretation of the script
11. Psychological and Emotional
Preparation
Actors must be able to project themselves imaginatively
into the world of the play, its the specific situations and
their characters’ feelings and motivations
Experiments with ways of inducing empathic
involvement have yielded various methods
Emotion memory
Research and observe appropriate subjects
Improvisation and theatre games
12. Vocal Characterization
Actors may modify their vocal patterns considerably for purposes of
characterization
Variable factors of voice
a. Pitch
b. Volume
Quality
Variable factors of speech
1. Articulation
2. Pronunciation
3. Duration
4. Inflection
5. Audibility
6. Intelligible
7. Variety
13. Memorization and Line Readings
It is helpful to memorize speech and movement
simultaneously because they reinforce each other
Memorization is aided by a few simple procedures:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Actors memorize their cues in connection with their lines
Actors study the meaning and purpose of their lines
Familiarity with the sequence of beats that make up each scene
Actors require repetition for memorization - even if it is provided
by another simply holding a script copy and providing cues for the
actor to repeat his or her lines over and over again
a.Actors form distinctive line readings through the controllable
factors of voice and speech as filtered through an understanding of
their characters
14. Dress Rehearsals and Performance
Actors are usually not able to work with all properties, settings,
costumes, makeup and stage lighting until dress rehearsal(s)
Of special importance are the costumes and makeup:
These alter appearance, movement and gesture
Rehearsal garments are often helpful to the performers:
a. They help the actors understand how they might use their costumes
b. They help the actors understand how their costumes might affect their
performances
The actors need to understand and be able to apply the makeup
for their characters
Performance is the ultimate goal:
1.Preparation equals confidence
2.Stage fright is common
3.Performers must guard against letdowns and mechanical performances especially in long runs