Chapter 4: Acting Shakespeares Advice: -Speak the lines as they are written, demonstrate that you know their

meanings, and pronounce them distinctly and uently. -Do not use gestures during speech, conserve your energy to build up the emotional climax of the speech smoothly and effectively -Do not try to exaggerate a characters position to those unintelligent or uninterested in the audience. Approaches to Acting: Two Main Approaches to acting: -Emotional /Subjective Acting: Where actors play a character in such a way so that they can express emotions such as sadness or sorrow via demonstrating weeping, suffering, or struggling emotionally in front of the audience, becoming parts of the play themselves -Technical/Objective Acting: -The Actor analyzes how the play is structured (theme, mood etc.) and the personalities of the characters, before applying skills of acting, movement, speech, and interpretation to shape the role. -Emotional responses are not meant to be part of the creation of the role, but the technical control is more responsible for doing so. -Actor does not live out the part, but acts it in a way so that an illusion of the actor being the part itself can be seen. -Using the emotional approach = use of actors personal inner emotions that interconnect with the characters, -Technical Approach = the use of study, analysis, and creative immaginations form the characters personality -The Method: -Most discused and valuable acting theory today -Developed by Russian actor and director Konstatin Stanislavski. -Theories of acting focused on the use of proper vocal and body expression -Some misinterpretation of his theories = too much emphasis on analyzing and connecting personal emotional experiences to create the role -Lead to many method actors depending too much on their own thinking and resources in their role, failing to communicate fully to the audience in their character, as they often slack off in speech and provide too much additonal actions. -The Method is meant for the actor to connect more to the lines of the role, and to respond personally both to the script and others onstage, not for emotions to identify what the character is -Magic If -Another Stanislavski technique to create a character -Focus on what you would do in the described scene if they actually happened, and you were involved in the events. Leading Roles (main characters) commonly described in acts: -Protagonist: The character who must solve the problems in the play, or he/she will be defeated during conict

Adrian Ma

Saturday, 10 November 2012 3:02:41 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time

-Antagonist: The character that opposes the protagonist -Juvenile: The young male lead aged 16-30 -Ingenue: The young female lead -Lead roles are referred to as principals -Supporting Roles: the hardest/most demanding roles -Challenge of a role depends on the type of person being portrayed, not the length of his/ her performance onstage Ex: Foil = a supporting character that is often compared to another character, primairly the main character Straight Parts: Actors chosen for roles who resemble in appearence or personality the characters in the play as described, due to similarities in voice, personalities, or appearances between the actors and the characters. Character Parts: Actors chosen for parts that have a distinguishable trait, by appearance or personality wise -Both types of parts require high level of acting ability, since rarely do actors resemble their roles, physically or psychologically. -Some actors easily identied via personality+role (e.g confused person, rich tycoon) = Typecasting: the repetitive casting of an actor over and over again for a particular role -No matter how little involvement or speech a role has in a play, even the most minor of roles demand as much attention to detail as larger roles. Characterization: -Important to understand your character -First, develop the personality of the whole character. Second, project the personality so that the character becomes an actual human being onstage -The main piece of acting, important for you to actually research and study various behaviors and responses from other human beings -Projections of characters depends on usage of techniques to demonstrate the role + insight into characters behavior and ability to express these as the character itself -Process will allow you think more about pause, to substain emotion while controlling body movement, originality, an original acting style that colors and characterizes each role your own personal way, and versatility, the ability to change the style or character you perform easily. Studying the Play: -Researching the whole script is vital to development of character -When reading, identify the following: -authors purpose -theme -Protagonists main problems -layout of the plot (climax + interest throughout) -Focus also on how others pronounce your characters lines, and the various moods throughout the script and how it affects the behaviors of your character -Understand the motivations and background of your character, and how it affects its behaviors/actions in the play

Adrian Ma

Saturday, 10 November 2012 3:02:41 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time

-Do research on the setting or characters if unfamilliar to you, so that you can reect and make connections between the characters, your role, and the plays atmosphere. -Look at other works by the same or other playwrights of the same era or country origin -Understand the vocabulary if unfamilliar Developing a Character Sketch: -Helpful to nd clues or ways to perform your character -Supplies information for the character not found in the original script -Use it to summarize major traits, such as behaviors and motivations -Ask basic questions about your character, mainly about his/her purpose, function in the play, wether he/she is a protagonist/antagonist, and the characters goal in which particular scenes. -Ask more questions as you gain better knowledge of your character, particularly ones to deepen your understanding of the characters personal and social environment.

Adrian Ma

Saturday, 10 November 2012 3:02:41 PM Hong Kong SAR China Time