The Stage and the School

Chapter 4: Acting

Overview

There are two major approaches to acting. The first is emotional or subjective acting, in which actors become their characters. The second approach is technical acting, in which actors base performance on technique. In this approach, an actor analyzes the play's structure and the personalities of the characters. Many actors borrow from both approaches. Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski created “The Method” approach to acting. "The Method" advises actors to use their full powers of concentration to ask what they would do if the events in the play were actually happening and they were intimately involved in these events. Substitution defers from "The Method" because it requires summoning a personal experience similar to the character's experience in order to project an accurate emotional response. Improvisation, the impromptu portrayal of a character without preparation or rehearsal, is another useful acting technique.

Characterization is the substance of acting and requires the actor to grasp the fundamental personality of a part. To understand and interpret a role faithfully, an actor must study the play closely, perhaps scoring the script—marking pauses, emphasis, and movement, among other elements. An actor might also develop a character sketch, or brief biography of the character.

While developing and then playing a character, an actor must keep in mind that the audience will include visual, auditory, and kinesthetic people. Therefore, actors must incorporate voice, body movement, and gesture in their acting. Physical acting relies on body language, or nonverbal communication. For instance, an actor should develop a master gesture, a distinctive action that serves as a clue to the character's personality. The positions and grouping of actors on stage convey the spirit of a situation without any lines being spoken. The following are basic staging techniques: "sharing a scene," "giving a scene," "turning the scene in," and "taking yourself out of a scene." Furthermore, an actor's movements on stage, whether employing crosses or countercrosses, send messages to the audience. Your voice is one of the strongest instruments you have for creating a character. Pay attention to your pitch and inflections, and be sure to memorize your lines. Rehearsals, which are at the director's discretion, are crucial to the finished product. A strong play will feature enthusiastic cast members who bond, almost as if they were a team.