The Actor and the Theatre

Week 6
[Part 3]
Introduction to Theatre
College of the Desert
 The Acting Process
1. Analyze the Role
• Use the script to help determine all information about the character-- and fabricate what the script does not tell you.
• The quotation analysis is a valuable tool for the actor:
– Analyzing what the character says and does
– What others say about the character and how they behave toward the character
• Define goals of the characters
• Determine the character's Objectives:
– What character wants for each scene
• Intention, purpose
– This is really the characters entire justification for being on stage.
– Often broken down into three "types" of objectives:
• Objective -- what the character wants for each scene
• Super objective -- the "Spine" -- what character wants for the whole play. Also called the through-line.
• "beats," "units" -- sub-objectives -- changes of mood, intention, subject, etc., in a scene.
• Character relationships:
– Robert Cohen in his book, Acting Power, uses the term "relacom," referring to "relationship communication."
• All communication has at least two dimensions:
– The content dimension of the message and the relationship dimension of the message.
– We not only say things, but we say them in particular ways -- and the WAY we say things often tends to develop, clarify, redefine a relationship.
– This is very important for actors to explore -- the subtext-- what is UNDER the lines.
• Function that the role fulfills in the play.
• Actors need to understand how their character relates to the theme and the action of the play:
– Is the character a protagonist, antagonist, or foil, a major or minor character.
• Sensitivity to subtext -- not what you say but how you say it--the actions and unspoken thoughts going through the mind of the character -- between the
lines -- the underlying emotional motivations for actions (including what character says to others), psychological, emotional, motivations.
• Role in the overall production
 The Acting Process
B. Psychological and Emotional Preparation

• Ways of inducing belief in self and character when actor finds difficulty fitting
self in situation.
• The "magic if" -- what would I do if I were that character in that situation.
• Emotional and sense memory -- "affective memory" and "substitution"
– Sense memory -- clothes, air etc. -- how do they affect your senses?
– Emotional memory -- remembering action / feelings from own life that resemble
character's in play.
– Substitution -- substituting a real person (mentally) for other actor.
• To what extent does the actor "become" the character?
• There are different degrees of identification (or detachment) from character
-- probably combined -- actor and character, involved and detached.
– Method Acting
 The Acting Process
C. Movement and Gesture
• Stage Business
– Obvious and detailed physical movement of performers to reveal character, aid action, or establish
mood.
– Often prescribed by the script, but may be invented by the actors or the director to clarify or
enrich action or characterization.
– "Business" -- doing actively -- to simulate real life
• Delsarte -- focused on physical characteristics -- body language
• Blocking
– The arrangement and movements of performers relative to each other as well as to furniture and
to the places where they enter and leave the stage.
• Where actors move, how, and facing which directions
• Gesture -- to help express character.
• Cheating - opening out / up -- making sure as much of the front of your face and body can be seen by
the audience as possible, while still retaining the illusion of normal conversation.
• Crossing and counter-crossing -- moving from one part of the stage to another, sometimes "countering"
another's movements to make the stage picture more balanced.
 The Acting Process
D. Vocal Characteristics

• Actors are armed with a variety of exercises to improve their vocal quality (projection [ability to be heard],
tone, inflections, pitch, rate) and their articulation (pronouncing words clearly and accurately).

E. "Learning Lines"

• (Memorization) and line readings -- learning lines suggests more than just memorization -- it suggests
learning why, for what purposes, in what circumstances lines are said...semantics refers to the "meaning"
of what is said.

F. Conservation and Build

• Actors learn that usually "less is more" -- they develop a sense of economy, using their ability to conserve
energy and action to build to ever stronger actions.

G. "Ensemble"
• Playing -- a sense of wholeness--everyone working together -- working together as a unit toward a
common goal, like a well-oiled machine.
 Modern "Realistic“ Acting
• Begun by (attributed to) George II --The Duke of Saxe Meiningen--who ran a theatre
troupe in the late 19th century in Germany -- 1870-1890 -- and toured Europe.
– He emphasized a pictorial style of directing.
– For acting he emphasized crowd scenes and ensemble.
• In our modern age -- the industrial age needed to examine the world -- to discover
the functions of things and increase our understanding of them.
• Acting becomes more literal and "representative" of manners and behaviors.
• Konstantin Stanislavsky:
– Developed the "system" (now known more popularly as "the method") of acting that
emphasizes causality, purpose, and literal interpretation of behaviors.
• Used Motivational Psychology championed by Sigmund Freud, who made the inner
workings of the mind something we could examine and study.
• In the later 20th century, there have been reinterpretations and rejections of this
"method."
• Two basic schools of thought that actually merge -- most actors will use a
combination of both: Method (Internal) vs. Techniques (External)
Who is George II (Duke of Saxe-
Meiningen)?
According to Britannica.com,
• George II, (born in Germany on April 2, 1826—died June 25, 1914), duke of Saxe-
Meiningen, was a theatrical director and designer who developed many of the basic
principles of modern acting and stage design.
• A wealthy aristocrat and head of a small German principality, Saxe-Meiningen
studied art and in 1866 established his own court theatre group, which he served as
producer, director, financial backer, and costume and scenery designer.
• Influenced by the contemporary English theatre, he insisted on realistic lighting,
speech, and stage mechanics and historically accurate costumes and sets.
• He was known for unifying the productions.
• He specialized in historical dramas.
• He emphasized historical accuracy and realism (particularly in costumes and
settings).
• He emphasized a pictorial style – focus and composition – and was particularly
renowned for his crowd scenes and "ensemble."
• He also replaced virtuoso solo performances on a flat stage with ensemble acting on
a multilevel stage that greatly facilitated the handling of crowd scenes.
• When the group was disbanded in 1890, it had toured 36 European cities.
• The Meiningen troupe’s methods had their effect upon the younger generation of
European stage directors, particularly André Antoine, who founded the first theatre
of naturalism (Théâtre-Libre, Paris, 1887), and Konstantin Stanislavsky, an influential
proponent of realism in the Russian theatre.
Method (Internal) vs. Techniques (External)
• Technique (External)
– Discovering ways to convey emotions vocally and physically and project to the audience.
– Requires an intellectual understanding
– Uses more of an "outside-in" approach
• Do the action and then the feeling will follow
• The James-Lange Theory of Emotion
– Physical actions can lead to emotional reactions
– Emphasis on Body language
– The Delsarte System
• The key to a character was the nose or how the character walks
• Method (Internal)
– To help actors discover the emotional truth of the character--works best with "realistic" theatre -- for
which it was originally intended.
– Requires an emotional intelligence and understanding.
– Uses more of an "inside-out" approach.
• Think the thought and the action will follow.
– The "magic if“
• What would I do if I were that character in that situation?
• Most actors will tell you that they veer toward "method" or "technique," but most probably use
a combination of both.
What Is the James-Lange Theory of Emotion?
• Proposed independently by psychologist William James and physiologist Carl Lange, the James-Lange
theory of emotion suggests that emotions occur as a result of physiological reactions to events.
• In other words, this theory proposes that people have a physiological response to environmental
stimuli and that their interpretation of that physical response then results in an emotional experience.
• According to this theory, witnessing an external stimulus leads to a physiological response. Your
emotional reaction depends on upon how you interpret those physical reactions.
– For example, suppose you are walking in the woods, and you see a grizzly bear. You begin to tremble, and your
heart begins to race. The James-Lange theory proposes that you will interpret your physical reactions and
conclude that you are frightened ("I am trembling. Therefore I am afraid.")
– William James explained, "My thesis, on the contrary, is that the bodily changes follow directly the
PERCEPTION of the exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur IS the emotion.“
– For another example, imagine that you are walking through a dark parking garage toward your car. You notice a
dark figure trailing behind you and your heart begins to race. According to the James-Lange theory, you then
interpret your physical reactions to the stimulus as fear. Therefore, you feel frightened and rush to your car as
quickly as you can.
• Both James and Lange believed that while it was possible to imagine experiencing an emotion such as
fear or anger, your imagined version of the emotion would be a flat facsimile of the real feeling. Why?
Because they felt that without the actual physiological response that they believed precipitated the
emotions, it would be impossible to experience these emotions "on demand." In other words, the
physical reaction needs to be present in order to actually experience the real emotion.
 Representational Vs Presentational Acting

• Representational
– Actors want to make us "believe" they are the character
– They "pretend”
• Presentational
– Rather than "pretending" they are the character
– Actors "present" the character to us, almost as if saying, "Hi, this is the actor speaking, and I'm
going to present the ideas of this character to you; I don't really believe I'm anything other
than myself, but you can believe it if you want."
• “Personality" actors -- even today, many successful actors never play anyone but
themselves, but do it very well. They use their habitual persona while they act.
– Examples: Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Seth Rogan, Tim Allen, any
celebrity appearing as themselves in a film role
• On the "representational" side of the aisle, arguably:
– Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Robert DeNiro, Jered Leto, Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, Paul
Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and J.K. Simmons
• A "revolt" against Stanislavsky's "method" acting is Brecht's "Alienation-effect"
– Asks actors to "present" their characters to the audience and specifically NOT to get involved.
 Brecht's "Alienation-effect"
• Bertolt Brecht, German leftist playwright and director, had nothing but disdain for the conventional, commercial theater of his time.
• He considered it a “branch of the narcotics business.”
• The theater of his time, like most Hollywood movies now, relied on emotional manipulation to bring about a suspension of disbelief for
the audience, along with an emotional identification with the main character. Audience members were taken on an uncritical emotional
roller coaster ride, crying when the main character cried, laughing when s/he laughed — identifying with him/her even when the
character had nothing in common with them or their interests.
• Brecht saw that these audiences were manipulated by theater technology — beautiful, realistic sets, cleverly naturalistic lighting, the
imaginary fourth wall, and most importantly, emotionally effusive acting techniques. He soon watched with horror as the Nazi movement
gained popular support in his country with its racist, emotional manipulation. Emotional manipulation was, to him, Enemy Number One
of human decency.
• It was in this context that Brecht developed his theory of Verfremdungseffekt, also known as V-effekt, alienation effect effect.
• The alienation effect attempts to combat emotional manipulation in the theater, replacing it with an entertaining or surprising jolt.
• For instance, rather than investing in or “becoming” their characters, they might emotionally step away and demonstrate them with cool,
witty, and skillful self-critique.
• The director could “break the fourth wall” and expose the technology of the theater to the audience in amusing ways.
• Or a technique known as the social gest could be used to expose unjust social power relationships so the audience sees these
relationships in a new way. The social gest is an exaggerated gesture or action that is not to be taken literally but which critically
demonstrates a social relationship or power imbalance. For example, workers in a corporate office may suddenly and quickly drop to the
floor and bow to the CEO, or the women in a household may suddenly start to move in fast-motion, cleaning the house, while the men
slowly yawn and loaf around.
• By showing the instruments of theater and how they can be manipulative — for example, the actor calling out “Cue the angry red
spotlight!” before he shrieks with rage, or “Time for the gleeful violin” before dancing happily as the violinist joins him on stage, or visibly
dabbing water on his eyes when he is supposed to cry . . . the audience can be entertained without being manipulated.
• Many of Brecht’s techniques have been co-opted and incorporated into contemporary theater and film, though his challenge remains
relevant:
– How to confront the problem of emotional manipulation while creating a stimulating, surprising, entertaining, radically critical,
popularly appealing and accessible social art practice.
 Personality vs. Character Acting
• Personality acting, by my definition, is when an actor basically plays
themselves over and over in different parts. If you have a very strong and
unique presence naturally, acting from that personality is a valid place to
start. Personality acting can get you acting jobs. Personality actors are often
very successful in soap operas or sitcoms or playing the same type of
character over and over (type casting).
– Examples of Type-casted Actors:
• Top 10 Typecast Actors - https://youtu.be/g9J0wjkqdfU
• Top 10 Typecast Actresses - https://youtu.be/rf-q7kN4bRY
• On the other hand, you have actors who change everything about
themselves when the character inhabits the body and voice. Movement,
reactions, even the sound of the voice changes.
– Examples of Character Actors:
• Top 10 Best Actress Oscar Winners - https://youtu.be/PmWJJOMl7W8
• Top 10 Unrecognizable Actors in Movies - https://youtu.be/A9eRhmAWFF4
 Works Cited
Kendra Cherry | Reviewed by a board-certified physician. “What Is the
James-Lange Theory of Emotion?” Verywell, 19 June 2017,
www.verywell.com/what-is-the-james-lange-theory-of-emotion-
2795305. Accessed 20 Sept. 2017.

L.M. Bogad. “Alienation effect.” Beautiful Trouble,

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “George II.” Encyclopædia