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The origin of acting
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Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play.
Most early sources in the West that examine the art of acting discuss it as part of rhetoric.
Definition and history
One of the first actors is believed to be an ancient Greek called Thespis of Icaria. An apocryphal story says that Thespis stepped out of the dithyrambic chorus and spoke to them as a separate character. Before Thespis, the chorus narrated . When Thespis stepped out from the chorus, he spoke as if he was the character . From Thespis ' name derives the word thespian.
Acting requires a wide range of
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The audience no longer sees the actor as a performer, but sees a character as a completely different being. Once this shift occurs, the actor becomes a semiotic device communicating a set of signs to the audience. A character’s signification can represent a multitude of different meanings to the audience. This may or may not be intended by the actor, who has limited control over how the audience will “read” the character. For example, if the actor is playing a character diagnosed with cancer, the audience may not just see a cancer patient, but may instead see a character similar to other cancer victims or survivors they have known. The actor’s performance, like any text, must be read by the …show more content…
The actor’s performance is mediated by particular semiotic signs including facial expression, emotion, and vocabulary. All these examples are known as performance signs. Performance signs are simple codes that the audience must decode during the actor 's performance. It is the actor’s job to deliver those codes effectively to the audience. If the audience does not find the character believable, then the actor has failed in their performance. Like other forms of communication, non-verbal or visual clues are tremendously important. Acting teacher Sanford Meisner once said, “An ounce of emotion is worth a pound of words.” Great actors master performance signs in order to win over an audience.
Acting involves two forms of communication: intrascenic and extrascenic . Both intrascenic and extrascenic communication must work in order for the audience to read the semiotic signs of the actor’s performance. The characters must have intrascenic skills – “good chemistry” – in a scene in order for the audience to understand the
Good acting is essential to any good performance. The actors and actresses have to try to make what the audience is seeing and hearing come alive. The four characters in the play “Proof” are able to do this. The meaning and purpose behind the play is easily understood because the actors and actresses do such a fine job in their performances.
Acting and dramatization is used by actors and actresses across this movie through their facial expressions. These facial expressions easily display the severity and mood of the scene to the viewer. "Essentially, it says, when you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you.” (Pescovitz, Nov.2, 2017). Therefore, when an actor
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.
The epic actors must be be able narrate and demonstrate simultaneously as well as to follows Brecht’s rule on being detached from their character. The actor must always remember that they are an actor on stage expressing another’s emo...
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.
Oral communication and interpretation is an entertaining form of vocal acting, in which the majority of the performance is done with the voice, only vaguely suggesting a character through physical acting. There are various elements of an oral interpretation performance that determine whether the performer was successful or not, including facial expressions, tone, stance, etc. Oral interpretation can take on various forms, including poetry, prose, humorous interpretation, or dramatic interpretation. In Brandon Garman’s oral interpretation of “The Dark Knight” hospital scene for his oral interpretation class, he chose to use a dramatic interpretation of the script. In Garman’s performance there are various elements
Plays are a unique form of entertainment and literature, for they typically include scenes in which characters acknowledge and address the audience directly through various monologues and soliloquies. This adds an extra interactive layer of involvement where the audience can influence a character’s decisions. For instance, in Shakespeare’s Othello, the main character, a wily young man ironically dubbed “honest” Iago stops to tell the audience about his true intentions just as often as he tries to undermine other characters. Naturally, Iago would need some release from his deceitful planning. Therefore, the audience, by silently abiding through Iago’s speeches, must be his sidekicks – albeit unwillingly – the only people Iago trusts and feels
According to Erving Goffman’s performances theory, the way we interpret ourselves is similar to a theater in which we are all actors on a stage playing a variety of roles. The way in which we act in front of a group of observers or audience is our performance. Goffman introduces the idea that we are always performing for our observers like actors performing on a stage. The impression that we give off to an audience in a scenario is the actor’s front. You can compare an actor’s front to a script. Certain scenarios have scripts that suggest the actor how he or she should behave in every situation. The setting for the performances includes the location and scenery in which the acing takes place.
Al pacino said, "The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful - my personal life suffers". In other words, "Acting is simply more than walking out on the stage" as Dr. Stevenson would put it. It is more than just reading the lines. To be a true actor, I believe it takes inner capabilities such as learning life. In all the books I have read, all the chapters we have reviewed in class, and in all honesty…Al Pacino is an actor I cannot forget.
...n, Elaine. & Savona, George. Theatre as a Sign-System: A Semiotics of Text and Performance (London: Routledge 1999)
have to act well so as to show audience with out seeming as if they
Often, actors fight against the staging or movement direction they are given; actors must be able to justify movement within their own mind in order to perform it authentically. Theater directors must be mindful of both the picturization of a moment and its sincerity; bridging the two can be a difficult task. Nevertheless, it is my job to honor the actor's instincts and create an eye-pleasing visual moment. Approaching this dilemma, I always start
Acting can easily be broken down into three different kinds: stage acting, screen acting, and being a movie star. Each category of acting is very different from one another, with each one having very different requirements. Stage and screen acting have the most differences, while being a movie star is more of a subtype of screen acting.
Actors are more than just people who portray dramatic characters on a movie screen, stage, and television. Professional actors tend to make more money than most other careers. Actors bring joy to the people who watch them perform, and take them out of the real world and into the creative world of visual communication. Performers can show more than just joy, they can also bring happiness, sorrow, fear and even comedy. Acting can be a very versatile profession. It is way for many people to refine themselves. Performing is not only about getting into a role but understanding the extent of one’s imagination. There is a lot of preparing that goes into a performance than just reading a few lines. Acting is a paradigm. Acting is very different now compared to when it first started. In todays world acting is a fast growing career and well respected. but over 200 years ago it was not that way.
Around 525 BC a man from Attica named Thespis, added an actor into the dithyramb to interact with the chorus. The actor was called the protagonist and means “the main character of a drama.” This addition turned the chorus into theater. Thespians went down in history and is where “thespians” got their name. About 534 BC was when the Dionysian Festivals were changed to add drama competitions....