Acting

©Kevin Sprague/Shakespeare
& Company

Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education.  All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
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Performers
• Performers are a direct and immediate link
to the audience.
• Their ability to connect live with spectators
is what sets theatre apart from other
media like film and television.

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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“Acting” in Everyday Life

• Imitation
– Mimicking or copying someone else’s vocal
patterns, gestures, facial expressions,
posture, etc.
• Children are especially good at imitation
– Role playing
– Social roles
– Personal roles

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Acting in Life vs. Acting Onstage

• Differences:
– Actors onstage are constantly observed and
on display.
– Acting onstage requires an actor to play roles
not played in real life.
– Actors onstage often play multiple characters.
– Actors onstage are aware that they are part of
a theatrical event.
– Characters onstage are not real people but
can be representations of real people.

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Acting in Life vs. Acting Onstage

In Arthur Miller’s Death of

a Salesman, the character
of Happy plays the “role”
of a big shot, and invents
exaggerated stories to
make himself seem more
important than he is.

© Eric Y. Exit

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Acting in Life vs. Acting Onstage

Roles on stage are often

similar to roles people are © Robert J. Saferstien

called on to play in real life.

Workers in a diner or
restaurant are a good example.
Here we see two familiar,
everyday occupations: the
proprietor of a doughnut shop
and his employee, in the play
Superior Donuts by Tracey
Letts.

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 4-7

Stage Acting: A Historical

Perspective
• Physical demands of classical acting:
– Formal movement and stylized gestures
– Performing musical
components
– Acting not intended to
replicate real life

Athalie, Historical Picture Archive/Corbis

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 4-8

Stage Acting: A Historical

Perspective
• Vocal demands of classical acting:
– Language was often poetry and required
intense training
– Problems of projection and theatre acoustics
– Performances were often outdoors with large
audiences, requiring projection

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Performing in Classics Today

• Many actors are called upon to perform in
classical works today.
• Such a feat requires great skill and
training, although it is rare that today’s
actors perform in the same exaggerated
styles of the past.
• Classical performances today often use
realistic styles.

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Development of Realistic Acting

• Realism perfected by:

– Henrik Ibsen (Norway)
– August Strindberg (Sweden)
– Anton Chekhov (Russia)
• Realism defined:
– Closely resembled what people could identify
with and verify from their own experience

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Acting Experience

• The audition
• The callback
• Getting the role
• Rehearsing the play
• Technical rehearsals
• Opening night and beyond

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Challenges of Acting Today

• Actors today are called
upon to perform many
different kinds of roles,
using many different
techniques and
approaches.
• Actors today must also
study voice and movement.
• Some types of theatre call
for other skills, such as tai
chi or circus techniques.
• Today’s actors must
prepare their bodies,
minds, and imaginations for
a myriad of challenges.
© Sara Krulwich/NYTimes/Redux
© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Development of Realistic Acting

• The Stanislavsky system:

– Relaxation
– Concentration and observation (circle of attention)
– Importance of specifics
– Inner truth (the “magic if”)
– Action onstage: What? Why? How?
– Through line of a role
– Ensemble playing
• Stanislavsky’s ideas have been adapted,
sometimes with considerable controversy.

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Development of Realistic Acting

• Various approaches
– Emotional and memory recall
– Use the text as an instrument of action
– Use the body to help shape character
• Decide which techniques, or combination
of them, works best

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Performers’ Training Today

• Voice and Body
Training
– Learning to articulate
and project
– Achieving a balance
between being heard
and being credible
– Performing exercises
that develop the
instruments of body
and voice © Sara knulwich/NYTimes/Redux

– Centering

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Performers’ Training Today

• Training techniques from other disciplines
– Asian theatre
• Asian theatre combines elements of ballet,
pantomime, and sign language
• Asian theatre artists develop their craft with tai chi
and other martial arts
– The circus
• Juggling can help with concentration
• Acrobatics help keep the body limber and teach
teamwork

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Performers’ Training Today

• Training for special forms of theatre
– Musicals
• Singing and dancing
• Coordination © Stephanie Berger

– Pantomime
– Avant-garde and
experimental theatre

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Synthesis and Integration

• All the demands of actor training
help actors create instruments
that are flexible, resourceful, and
disciplined.
• Actors employ many techniques
and skills when studying to play a
role; however, the final product
must be an integration of the
training—a synthesis of the outer,
physical aspects, and the inner,
emotional ones.
© Sarah Krulwich/NY Times/Redux
© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Puppetry around the World

• The puppet figure is the image, reflection,
and embodiment of a theatrical character
and, thus, a replacement for the actor.
• rod puppets
• marionettes
• shadow puppets
• bunraku
• hand puppets

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Judging Performances
• We study the techniques and problems
of acting so that we will be able to
understand and judge the performances
we see.
• As a result of the roles they play, and the
personal charisma they often possess,
actors have always held a fascination for
audiences.

© 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.