Image Maker: The Actor

For it is not a game of

charades, this acting world of
ours; it is an everlasting
search for truth.

—Laurence Olivier
 Chapter Summary

• Acting is the truthfulness and technique by which actors

bring human presence onto the stage.
• Theatre is the art human beings make out of themselves.
 Acting Is Doing

• Definitions of acting:
– “[L]iving truthfully in imagined circumstances”
(Sanford Meisner-American actor and acting teacher)
– “[A]n everlasting search for truth” (Laurence Olivier-
English actor and director))
• Foundation of acting: search for truthful behavior
• Acting is not:
– Showing
– Narrating
– Illustrating
– Exhibiting
– Displaying emotion
 Acting Is Doing

• Three responsibilities of actor:

– Select sensory responses
– Select behavior pertinent to character
– Respond to given circumstances of play
• Preparing for a role:
– Actor selects emotions, sensations, responses from
personal experience.
 The Actor’s Goals

• To tell the character’s circumstances in play truthfully

and effectively.
• “Circumstances” are conditions of world of play:
– Time
– Place
– Surroundings
– Other characters
• To attune him or herself to the reality of the play
 External Technique: Mimetic Acting

• Technical, “outside in” approach:

– Actor observes and studies human behavior.
• Naturalistic
• David Garrick-English actor and playwright:
– 18th century British actor
– Approached acting as imitation of life
– Prepared for role of King Lear by observing friend
who had been driven mad by child’s death
– Felt that actor should not feel the emotions being
portrayed
• Aims to recreate authentic human behavior
 Internal Belief: “Realistic” Acting

• Aims to build authentic response to world of play from

subjective emotional responses
• Actor works from “inside out”:
– Searches for emotional impulses from personal
experience
– Transfers these to portrayal of character
• Uta Hagen as Nina in Chekhov’s The Seagull:
– Used awe of fellow actors as basis for similar feelings
experienced by her character
• Stanislavski’s “Method”
 The Actor’s Training

• Traditionally, actors trained in theatre:

– Apprenticed to older actors
– Learned time-tested vocal and movement techniques
• In late 19th century, realism dominated:
– “Large” style of acting seen as old-fashioned
– Demand for characters that were recognizable human
beings (as opposed to “theatrical” types)
– Created demand for new training methods
 Preparing the Role:
Stanislavski’s “Method”
• “Method” a systematic approach to training actors to
work from inside outward.
• Actors must understand how people behave physically
and psychologically in given circumstances.
• Actor must study and experience subjective emotions
and feelings and show them to audiences by physical
and vocal means.
• Personal truth must be balanced with playwright’s vision.
 Preparing the Role:
Stanislavski’s “Method”
• Psychotechnique:
– Set of exercises designed to help actor call on
personal feelings and experiences
• Actors learned to experience what their characters
experienced as if it were happening to them:
– “The magic ‘if’” (e.g., “If I were in Othello’s situation,
what would I do?”)
 Preparing the Role:
Stanislavski’s “Method”
• “Emotional recall” (or “affective memory”):
– Process by which actor creates reality of emotions
– Effort to remember circumstances surrounding a past
emotional event to stimulate emotions that could be
used onstage (Lee Strasberg)
• Psychophysical actions:
– Reframing of concept of emotional recall
– Physical action as means of triggering emotional
memory
 Trends in Training American Actors

• Sanford Meisner’s Foundations:

– Derived from “Method”
– “The reality of doing”:
• Instinct and imagination
• Practical Aesthetics (David Mamet and William H. Macy):
– Combined stoicism with “Method”
– Focused on those things in actor’s control:
• Voice, body, concentration, script analysis
– Process of making acting tools habitual to free the
actor to live truthfully and fully within the play’s
circumstances
 Trends in Training American Actors

• The “Viewpoints” (Mary Overlie and Anne Bogart):

– Postmodern, movement-based approach
– Focused on six principles of movement:
• Space, time, shape, movement, story, and emotion
– A physical alternative to Stanislavski’s “emotional
recall”
 Actors at Work: Improvisation

• Spontaneous invention
• Exercises and games:
– Substitute own words for script
– Repetition between two actors of same word or
phrase
• Purposes:
– Frees creativity
– Hones concentration
– Spurs commitment to finding truth of behavior
 Actors at Work: Movement Training

• Gives actors a range of

physical choices in creation of
character

(c) Barry Slobin/ Playmakers Repertory Company

• Process of eliminating tensions
and mannerisms
• Assumes movement to be
expressive signal of character
and intention

Kathleen Widdoes as Maria Callas

in Terrence McNally’s Master Class
 Actors at Work: Voice Training

• Aimed at freeing the voice, opening up possibilities

• Goal to merge technique with actor’s imagination to
communicate character’s needs through words
 Actors at Work: Rehearsal and
Performance
• Rehearsal:
– Conditions actors’ responses
– Brings cast and director together to “set”
interpretation and physical movement
• Performance:
– Everything actor has established in rehearsal
(objectives, mannerisms, vocal intonations,
movements) should stay consistent.
– At same time, each performance requires the actor to
give fresh life to the character.
 Actors at Work: Acting with the Camera

• Credibility before camera “eye” separates the successful

film actor from the talented stage actor:
– Camera listens to and records everything.
• Challenges:
– Scenes shot out of sequence
– Distraction of technicians
– Camera records every mistake and hesitation
– Fast production schedules
 Actors at Work
Stage Acting vs. Screen Acting

Stage Screen
• Audience more distant • Audience as close (close-
up) or far as camera
• Auditions focus on match • “Screen test” assesses
between actor and presence in front of
character camera
• Rehearsals explore • Rehearsals used to set
character, relationships, blocking for camera
interpretation
• Actors discuss role with • Production schedules
director, each other often rule out discussion
 Core Concepts

• Actors bring living presence to the stage.

• Their search for new depths of creative energy and
truthful behavior keeps their performances fresh and
lively night after night.