If you were to ask any person what acting was, they would most likely give you an answer along the lines of: portraying the life of another person, talking and acting like a character, bringing a fictional or representational character to life. While actors may appear to be inseparable with their characters while one is watching them perform, once they go home and take off the stage makeup, they change; Mark Ruffalo is no longer a 10-foot green monster, and Bradley Cooper is not a sadistic bionic raccoon. However, Konstantin Stanislavski, a Russian actor and writer of the late 19th and early 20th century, felt as if these actors should adopt the characteristics of their character as best they can in order to be able to actually become the characters …show more content…
While in school, Stanislavski and several friends worked together to prepare and perform a scene from Shakespeare's Othello. While Stanislavski was preparing to perform as the character Othello, he became impassioned, and began using anything and everything around him as props for his scene. Even though he was just practicing by himself at home, he transformed the world he knew into the world of Othello: a dining room tray became his shield, sheets became a robe, a small knife became his dagger, and smeared chocolate cake became dark brown skin. Everything he did was for the sole purpose of feeling and becoming this person of Othello. His acting teacher would later tell him this was a beautiful experience both for Stanislavski as an actor and for the audience members, and that Stanislavski truly became his character and portrayed him beautifully on stage (Stanislavski, An 2). His teacher, Tortsov, praises his performance and passion by telling their class that “‘[an actor’s] job is not to present merely the external life of his character. He must fit his own human qualities to the life of this other person, and pour into it all of his soul’” (Stanislavski, An 14). This quote captures the heart of method acting, because it captures the importance of depth of understanding. To properly …show more content…
Stanislavski, in addition to being a published author and famous actor, was also an acting teacher. In his classes he taught this new idea he had formed: system acting. One of his students, Stella Adler, followed in his footsteps, and went on to teach this system to many students of her own. She largely taught actors of the 1950s, but two of her most famous pupils were Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando, both famous celebrities of the 1950s (Penny). Monroe went on to play several variations of the “dumb blonde” character; two of such characters were Sugar Kane Kowalczyk in the movie Some Like it Hot, and Lorelei Lee in an earlier film, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. These characters and the way she played them exemplify system acting. While acting, she portrays hints of her character’s feelings, but does not have the outright passion of a method actor. This is evident in her telling face but monotone voice, and her lack of emotion (Lederer). Marlon Brando, on the other hand, plays brother-in-law Anthony Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, and has almost tangible passion: the audience can feel his emotion from on-screen (Williams). This passion, comes not only from Brando, but Kowalski as well, thanks to the ideas of method acting. The role of Anthony Kowalski melded Kowalski and Brando together, and created a
In William Shaspeare play Othello, Iago make Othello believe that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. He does by taking advantage of any situation to make of Othello doubt. Iago make Othello thing a lot of crazy thing on his head, Othello got so jelous leading him to kill his own wife, Desdemona, satisfying iago obseccion for revenge.
Othello's identity in the Venetian society is his role as "the Moor". Few people use his real name when talking about him. When speaking the given quote, Othello is telling the Venetians how he won Desdemona's heart by telling her the story of his life, and he now retells it to the Venetians. This tale-telling is a way of employing the linguistic system to reshape for himself a new identity with more positive connotations than "the Moor" can offer. "The Moor" is an expression the Venetians connect to other expressions in the linguistic system which all have a negative value. Examples are such expressions as "old black ram...
In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, the character Othello is portrayed as a fairly good man. By some, he may be known as a bad person but he has become greatly beneficial to the growth of Venice and the state of Cyprus. Othello is a good man even if he committed murder to his wife because he is a great war general and contributed to Cyprus in time of need.
Stanislavski: Uncensored and Unabridged discusses how the late theatre director and actor, Constantin Stanislavski, not only wrote about his ideas that would help bring characters to life and demand total commitment from his student actors, but he also practiced them. Within his many method books for acting such as An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, and My Life for Art, he would discuss the ways in which an actor should genuinely create the living soul of said character.
The first question is why use "commedia dell' arte" as a training tool for modern actors at all, since drama and the business of acting has hopefully moved on since the Italian Comedians finally left Paris. The fact remains, however, that the dominant form of acting today that both exists as the aspiring young actor's performance role model and as a category of performance in itself is T.V. naturalism. We are lucky in that something both inspirational and technical has survived from those heady times. When contemporary acting technique does not provide all the answers that actors may be looking for, it is not surprising that they look towards the past for inspiration. It is in this grey area between researching historical certainties and reconstructing guessed at acting technique that we must look. These Martinellis and Andreinis were the superstars of their day and the question that most often gets asked is "how did they do it?"(Oliver Crick).
Because of Brando’s performances in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, “On the Waterfront”, and “The Wild One” other actors would soon crawl out from his shadow. The start of Brando’s career was so magnificent that actors such as James Dean, Paul Newman and others tried to imitate him. In fact, Brando became worried that Dean was copying his lifestyle and acting method.(BIOGRAPHY)
Texts and their appropriations reflect the context and values of their times. Within Shakespeare’s Othello and Geoffrey Sax’s appropriation of Othello, the evolution of the attitudes held by Elizabethan audiences and those held by contemporary audiences can be seen through the context of the female coupled with the context of racism. The role of the female has developed from being submissive and “obedient” in the Elizabethan era to being independent and liberated within the contemporary setting. The racism of the first text is overtly xenophobic and natural, whilst the “moor” is unnatural whereas the updated context portrays Othello’s race as natural and racism as unnatural. Therefore these examples show how Shakespeare’s Othello, and it’s appropriation, Geoffrey sax’s Othello, reflect the context and values of their times.
“I asked her to wear something revealing, so she showed up in a prophet's toga.”(CITE) Jarod Kintz’s words are an example of miscommunication, or failure to comprehend meaning. In this case, it is implied that one person misunderstood the message of another, but incomprehension also applies to problems other than falsely interpreted requests. Incomprehension can occur when people misinterpret another’s words or intentions, or when a person misreads situations or events. The outcome described in Kintz’s quote is unexpected and unintended, but there are instances of incomprehension that have consequences of greater severity. Perhaps a classic tragedy with a high body count falls under these parameters.
In his work, Goffman explains that ‘the self’ is the result of the dramatic interaction between the actor and the audience he or she performs to. There are many aspects of how an individual performs his or her ‘self’. One of the aspects of performing the self that Goffman labels as the ‘front.’ The front involves managing the individual’s impression.
In Act three, Scene three, Desdemona agrees to speak to Othello in Cassio’s behalf) As Desdemona and Cassio discuss Cassio’s loss of rank and trust in Othello’s eyes. Iago brings to Othello’s attention the discussion taking place between Cassio and Desdemona. Iago knowing full well why the discussion is happening. Iago hints the pair seems to be spending a lot of time together. Iago plants the seed of doubt in Othello’s mind Othello begins to ponder the idea of whether Iago suspicions are true.
Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality and Irving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life analyze human interaction in the context of actions we perform and the meanings that such actions take in social environments. I will analyze Goffman’s account of modification of the “self” through performance within the context of Berger and Luckmann’s hypothesis. The theatrical performance metaphor looks at how socialization and experience affect the use of fronts, expressions, and expressions given off.
There are many opposing views to the way that Othello is defined within Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Othello. Some suggest that Othello is a savage "Moor," and at no point is he the noble "Venetian" he attempts to portray himself as. Others suggest that Othello is the noble "Venetian" he portrays himself as, and his ultimate demise stems directly from Iago being a savage. Yet some agree that Othello is both the noble "Venetian" and the savage "Moor," unable to fully interpolate himself into the "Venetian" paradigm, but becoming, rather, a "noble savage."
The Tragedy of Othello William Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, from the sixteenth century is an excellent example of Renaissance humanism. “A poet of unparalleled genius, Shakespeare emerged during the golden age of England under the rule of Elizabeth I.”(Fiero 3:98) He produced comedies, tragedies, romances and histories. According to Webster’s pocket dictionary, a tragedy is defined as a form of drama in which the protagonist comes to a disaster, as through a flaw in character, and in which the ending is usually marked by pity or sorrow. I would like to concentrate on the character Iago and the theme of deceit.
The play Othello is Shakespeare's own version of a classic Greek tragedy. A classical dramatic tragedy derives its essence from the ancient Greek plays that were often popular in Athens. These plays would typically consist of the downfall of a famous Greek character in history/legend, or the breakdown of a hero. Typically the hero is forced to struggle against overwhelming odds, and fate only that this characters downfall would be so imposing that regardless of these forces of nature and fate that destroy him, that he would rise and regain glory due to his moral victory. These tragedies would invoke terror and pity on the audience, in a sense a tragedy could be considered a form of a catharsis, literally cleansing the soul as it is performed, even though the horror typically disturbed audiences, at the same time it cleansed their soul and purified the spirit.
Stanislavski believed in ensemble acting and wanted to take theatre away from the idea of having a star, to create as near to naturalism as possible. (1)