10 Presentational Acting and Representational Acting

98 Pages·2012·4.34 MB·English

Revised Edition: 2016
ISBN 978-1-280-13016-8
© All rights reserved.
Published by:
Academic Pages
48 West 48 Street, Suite 1116,
New York, NY 10036, United States
Email: [email protected]
Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction to an Actor
Chapter 2 - How to Become an Actor
Chapter 3 - How to Be an Actress
Chapter 4 - How to Be a Better Stage Actor
Chapter 5 - How to Be a Kid Actor
Chapter 6 - How to Act
Chapter 7 - How to Become a Working Actor
WT
Chapter 8 - How to Audition for a Play or Movie
Chapter 9 - How to Become Famous in Acting
Chapter 10 - Presentational Acting and Representational Acting
Chapter 11 - How to Perform in the Theater
Chapter 12 - How to Become an Understudy in Theatre
Chapter 13 - How to Act if You're in a Play
Chapter 14 - How to Prepare for a Theatre Audition
Chapter 15 - How to Do a Community Theater Audition (for Kids)
Chapter 16 - Theatre
Chapter 17 - Drama
________________________WORLD TECHNOLOGIES________________________
Chapter- 1
Introduction to an Actor

An actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film,
television, theatre, or radio in that capacity. The ancient Greek word for an "actor,"
ὑποκριτής (hypokrites), means literally "one who interprets"; in this sense, an actor is one
who interprets a dramatic character or personality.
WT
Terminology
The word actor refers to a person who acts regardless of gender, while actress refers
specifically to a female person who acts; therefore a female can be referred to by either
term. The Oxford English Dictionary states that originally "actor" was used for both
sexes. The English word actress does not derive from the Latin actrix, probably not even
by way of French actrice; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, actress was
"probably formed independently" in English. As actress is a specifically feminine word,
some groups assert that the word is sexist. Gender-neutral usage of actor has re-emerged
in modern English, especially when referring to male and female performers collectively,
but actress remains the common term used in major acting awards given to female
recipients and is common in general usage.
The gender-neutral term "player" was common in film in the early days of the Motion
Picture Production Code with regards to the cinema of the United States, but is now
generally deemed archaic. However, it remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated
into the name of a theatre group or company (such as the East West Players).
________________________WORLD TECHNOLOGIES________________________
History
WT

Actors Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin performing in The Big Voice: God or Merman
play.
The first recorded case of an actor performing took place in 534 BC (though the changes
in calendar over the years make it hard to determine exactly) when the Greek performer
Thespis stepped on to the stage at the Theatre Dionysus and became the first known
person to speak words as a character in a play or story. Prior to Thespis' act, stories were
only known to be told in song and dance and in third person narrative. In honour of
Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians. Theatrical legend to this day maintains
that Thespis exists as a mischievous spirit, and disasters in the theatre are sometimes
blamed on his ghostly intervention.
Actors were traditionally not people of high status, and in the Early Middle Ages tra-
velling acting troupes were often viewed with distrust. In many parts of Europe, actors
could not even receive a Christian burial, and traditional beliefs of the region and time
period held that this left any actor forever condemned. However, this negative perception
was largely reversed in the 19th and 20th centuries as acting has become an honoured and
popular profession and art.
________________________WORLD TECHNOLOGIES________________________
Techniques
Method acting
Method acting is a technique developed from the acting "system" created in the early
20th century by Constantin Stanislavski in his work at the Moscow Art Theatre and its
studios. The Group Theatre (New York) first popularised the Method in the 1930s; it was
subsequently advanced and developed in new directions by Lee Strasberg at the Actors
Studio in the 1940s and 50s. In Stanislavski's "system" the actor analyses deeply the
motivations and emotions of the character in order to personify him or her with
psychological realism and emotional authenticity. Using the Method, an actor recalls
emotions or reactions from his or her own life and uses them to identify with the
character being portrayed.
Method actors are often characterized as immersing themselves so totally in their char-
acters that they continue to portray them even off-stage or off-camera for the duration of
the project. However, this is a popular misconception. While some actors do employ this
approach, it is generally not taught as part of the Method. Stella Adler, who was a
member of the Group Theatre, along with Strasberg, emphasised a different approach of
WT
using creative imagination.
Method acting offered a systematized training that developed internal abilities (sensory,
psychological, emotional); it revolutionized American theater
Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques by which actors try
to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters in an effort to
develop lifelike performances. It can be contrasted with more classical forms of acting, in
which actors simulate the thoughts and emotions of their characters through external
means, such as vocal intonation or facial expression. Though not all Method actors use
the same approach, the "method" in Method acting usually refers to the practice,
advocated by Lee Strasberg, by which actors draw upon their own emotions and
memories in their portrayals, aided by a set of exercises and practices including sense
memory and affective memory.
Method actors are often characterized as immersing themselves in their characters to the
extent that they continue to portray them even offstage or off-camera for the duration of a
project. However, this is a popular misconception. While some actors have employed this
approach, it is generally not taught as part of the Method.
Method acting has been described as "revolutionizing American theater." While classical
acting instruction "had focused on developing external talents," the Method was "the first
systematized training that also developed internal abilities (sensory, psychological,
emotional)."
________________________WORLD TECHNOLOGIES________________________
Method acting continues to evolve, with many contemporary acting teachers, schools,
and colleges teaching an integrated approach that draws from several different schools of
thought about acting.
Origins
Method acting was first popularized in the United States by the Group Theatre in New
York City in the 1930s and was subsequently advanced by Lee Strasberg at the Actors
Studio from the 1940s until his death in 1982. It was derived from the system created by
Konstantin Stanislavski, who pioneered similar ideas in his quest for "theatrical truth."
Stanislavski developed his system through his friendships with Russia's leading actors,
whose work he observed and analyzed; his collaborations with playwright Anton
Chekhov; and his own acting and teaching at the Moscow Art Theater. It was also
influenced by then-current ideas about Realism (art).
In Stanislavski's system, actors deeply analyze the motivations and emotions of their
characters in order to personify them with psychological realism and emotional auth-
enticity. Using the Method, an actor may recall emotions or sensations from his or her
own life and use them to identify with the character being portrayed.
WT
Strasberg's students included many of America's most famous actors in the latter half of
the 20th century, including Montgomery Clift, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Paul
Newman, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Eli Wallach, Alec Baldwin, Robert De Niro, Jane
Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Ellen Burstyn.
Technique
"Method acting" or "the Method" usually refers to the teachings of Lee Strasberg, but the
term is sometimes also applied to the teachings of his Group Theatre colleagues,
including Stella Adler, Robert Lewis, and Sanford Meisner, and to other schools of acting
derived from Stanislavski's system, each of which takes a slightly different approach.
Even Stanislavski himself modified his system dramatically over the course of his career.
In general, however, Method acting combines the actor's careful consideration of the
character's psychological motives and personal identification with the character, possibly
including a reproduction of the character's emotional state. It is often contrasted with
acting in which thoughts and emotions are indicated, or presented in a clichéd, unrealistic
way. Among the concepts and techniques of Method acting are substitution, "as if," sense
memory, affective or emotional memory, animal work, and archetype work.
Sanford Meisner, another Group Theatre pioneer, championed a closely related version
of the Method, which came to be called the Meisner technique. Meisner broke from
Strasberg on the subjects of sense memory and affective memory, basic techniques
espoused by Strasberg through which actors access their own personal experiences in
order to identify with and portray the emotional lives of their characters. Meisner
believed that this approach caused actors to focus on themselves and not fully tell the
________________________WORLD TECHNOLOGIES________________________
story. He advocated fully immersing oneself "in the moment" and concentrating on one's
partner. Meisner taught actors to achieve spontaneity by understanding the given
circumstances of the scene (as did Strasberg) and through interpersonal exercises he
designed to help actors invest emotionally in the scene, freeing them to react "honestly"
as the character. Meisner described acting as "living truthfully under imaginary
circumstances."
Robert Lewis also broke with Strasberg. In his books Method—or Madness? and the
more autobiographical Slings and Arrows, Lewis disagreed with the idea that Method
actors should not become familiar with the style of acting required by classical authors
such as Shakespeare and Molière because, according to Strasberg's teachings, their plays
are too stylized and therefore far removed from the actor's own life experiences. Lewis
felt that more emphasis should be placed on formal voice and body training, such as
teaching actors how to speak verse and enunciate clearly, rather than on pure raw
emotion, which he felt was the focus of Method training.
Stella Adler, an actress and acting teacher whose fame was cemented by the success of
her students Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro, also broke with
Strasberg after she studied with Stanislavski himself, the only Group Theatre teacher to
WT
do so, after he had modified many of his early ideas about acting. Her version of the
Method is based on the idea that actors should conjure up emotion not by using their own
personal memories, but by using the scene's given circumstances. Like Strasberg's,
Adler's technique relies on carrying through tasks, wants, needs, and objectives. It also
seeks to stimulate the actor's imagination through the use of "as ifs." She often preached,
"We are what we do, not what we say."
Contemporary approaches
Contemporary Method acting teachers and schools often synthesize the work of their
predecessors into an integrated approach. They reject the notion that any one of the major
Method teachers of the 20th century was completely correct or incorrect, and they
continue to develop new acting tools and techniques.
Some modern acting theorists and teachers have noted that Lee Strasberg, Sanford
Meisner, Stella Adler, and others often misunderstood each others' work, and that their
criticisms were based on this misunderstanding. For example, they all taught actors to use
their imagination, to connect with each other in performance, to analyze the script for
wants, needs, and objectives. Meisner often said that Strasberg actors were too focused
on themselves, but Strasberg trained many of the most respected actors of the 20th
century.
In addition to taking an integrated approach, contemporary actors sometimes consult with
psychologists or use imaginative tools such as dream work or archetype work to remove
emotional blocks. Techniques have also been developed to prevent the world of the
performance from spilling over into an actor's personal life in destructive ways.
________________________WORLD TECHNOLOGIES________________________
Teachers
Stanislavski described his acting system in a trilogy of books set in a fictional acting
school: An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, and Creating a Role. He also wrote an
autobiography, My Life in Art. Acting teachers whose work was inspired by Stanislavski
include:
• Richard Boleslawski, actor, film director, and founder of the American Labo-
ratory Theatre in New York.
• Michael Chekhov, an actor, director, and author whose technique, largely an
outside-in approach and somewhat more metaphysical, diverged from and
returned to Stanislavski's over the course of his career.
• Maria Ouspenskaya, an actress who taught at the American Laboratory Theatre.
Her students included John Garfield, Stella Adler, and Lee Strasberg.
• Lee Strasberg, a director, actor, and producer whose teachings are most closely
associated with the term Method acting.
In fact, most post-1930 acting philosophies have been strongly influenced by Method
acting, and it continues to be taught at schools around the world, including the Lee
WT
Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles, the Actors Studio
Drama School in New York, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York and Los
Angeles, the Edgemar Center for the Arts and the Larry Moss Studio in Santa Monica,
Calif., HB Studio in New York, Le Studio Jack Garfein in Paris, Palm Beach Playhouse
in Palm Beach, Fla., Shelton Studios and Shelley Mitchell's Actors Center in San
Francisco, Hull Actors Studio in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, Calif., and the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles and New York.
Presentational and representational acting
Presentational acting refers to a relationship between actor and audience, whether by
direct address or indirectly by specific use of language, looks, gestures or other signs
indicating that the character or actor is aware of the audience's presence. (Shakespeare's
use of punning and wordplay, for example, often has this function of indirect contact.)
In representational acting, "actors want to make us 'believe' they are the character; they
pretend." The illusion of the fourth wall with the audience as voyeurs is striven for.
As opposite gender
In the past, only men could become actors in some societies. In the ancient Greece and
Rome and the medieval world, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to go on the
stage, and this belief continued right up until the 17th century, when in Venice it was
broken. In the time of William Shakespeare, women's roles were generally played by men
or boys.
________________________WORLD TECHNOLOGIES________________________
When an eighteen year Puritan prohibition of drama was lifted after the English Re-
storation of 1660, women began to appear on stage in England. Margaret Hughes is
credited by some as the first professional actress on the English stage. This prohibition
ended during the reign of Charles II in part due to the fact that he enjoyed watching
actresses on stage. The first occurrence of the term actress was in 1700 according to the
OED and is ascribed to Dryden.
In Japan, men (onnagata) took over the female roles in kabuki theatre when women were
banned from performing on stage during the Edo period. This convention has continued
to the present. However, some forms of Chinese drama have women playing all the roles.
In modern times, women sometimes play the roles of prepubescent boys. The stage role
of Peter Pan, for example, is traditionally played by a woman, as are most principal boys
in British pantomime. Opera has several "breeches roles" traditionally sung by women,
usually mezzo-sopranos. Examples are Hansel in Hänsel und Gretel, Cherubino in The
Marriage of Figaro and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.
Women in male roles are uncommon in film with the notable exception of the film The
Year of Living Dangerously. In this film Linda Hunt played the pivotal role of Billy
WT
Kwan. She received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her per-
formance.
Having an actor dress as the opposite sex for comic effect is also a long standing tradition
in comic theatre and film. Most of Shakespeare's comedies include instances of overt
cross-dressing, such as Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The movie A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum stars Jack Gilford dressing as a young
bride. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon famously posed as women to escape gangsters in
the Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot. Cross-dressing for comic effect was a frequently
used device in most of the thirty Carry On films. Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams
have each appeared in a hit comedy film (Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, respectively) in
which they played most scenes dressed as a woman.
Occasionally, the issue is further complicated, for example, by a woman playing a
woman acting as a man pretending to be a woman, like Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria,
or Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. In It's Pat: The Movie, filmwatchers never
learn the gender of the androgynous main characters Pat and Chris (played by Julia
Sweeney and Dave Foley).
A few roles in modern films, plays and musicals are played by a member of the opposite
sex (rather than a character cross-dressing), such as the character Edna Turnblad in
Hairspray—played by Divine in the original film, Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway
musical, and John Travolta in the 2007 movie musical. Linda Hunt won an Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Billy Kwan in The Year of Living
Dangerously. Felicity Huffman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
for playing Bree Osbourne (a man in the process of becoming a woman) in
Transamerica.
________________________WORLD TECHNOLOGIES________________________