ACTING What is acting? Impersonation, what does it mean?

p2 THE BUSINESS OF ACTING Acting is a very strenuous, highly demanding and consciously controlled business that carries a lot of responsibilities. It requires physical, emotional as well as vocaltraining and resources. PERFORMERS RESPONSIBILITIES A performer must be responsible by training himself or herself in two different ways: Outer aspect of acting and inner aspect of acting. OUTER ASPECT OF ACTING: SPECIAL SKILLS. ACTORS VOICE This must be trained for the following reasons: 1. To achieve clarity and believability at the same time 2. Projection 3. Sustained breath for meaningful rendition of lines CLASS WORK 1. Breathing exercise to control breathing from the diaphragm rather than the throat. 2. Head, neck and shoulder exercises to free to free the throat for ease of projection . ACTORS BODY Actors body must be trained with aerobic exercises to keep it always fit. You can start with: 1.jogging 2. Lie on your back, beginning with the feet, tense and relax each part of the body one after the other all the way to the face. Note the difference in the relaxation of various muscles and of the body generally after the exercise is complete 3.Start walking in a circle; walk on the outside of the feet, then on the inside, then on the toes and then on the heels. Notice what this does to the rest of the body. Adeptness and precision in physical movement is essential. Lack of this can cause accidents like a sudden pull of the muscle in physically exerting scenes e.g. scene of a fall down the staircase. This can cause avoidable pain and unnecessary delay on location.

CLASS DISCUSS

What if it happens during a stage performance? SPECIAL TECNIQUES Some dramas requires the actor to have special discipline or training e.g. singing,

dancing,freezing up, exercises e. t. c. Pantomime requires acting without words or props. It involves merely suggesting everything i. e. hunting, fishing, farming e. t. c. Acquiring the skills necessary to deal with the peculiarities of a given historical period.

INNER ASPECT OF ACTING This is acquiring the training necessary to project into and re-enact the inner or emotional life of the character you are playing. It was the Russian actor-director, CONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKI that propounded the theories as well as pioneered the practice of making characters believable; that is making them true to life or realistic. Here are some of the techniques he devised for making characters convincing and true. 1. RELAXATION: Elimination of tension so that characters can come through effortlessly. The performer must attain at all times a state of physical and vocal relaxation. 2. CONSENTRATION AND OBSERVATION: Stanislavski discovered that gifted performers always appeared fully concentrated on some object person or event while on stage. This helps the performers to stop worrying about the audience and to lose their selfconsciousness. 3. IMPORTANCE OF SPECIFICS: One of Stanislavskis techniques was emphasis on specifics. A performer should never try to act in general but rather find some concrete activities that represent the inner working of the emotion in the character they are playing. CLASS PRACTICALS Concretize the following: an anxious woman; an angry boy; a confused man; someone who just received unexpected news of great joy; e. t. c. 4. INNER TRUTH: an innovative aspect of Stanislavskis work has to do with inner truth. This deals with the inner or subjective world of the characters-that is, their thought life and emotions. Stanislavski has several ideas on how we can achieve a sense of inner truth which includes: A. THEMAGIC IF: If is a word which can transform our thought. Through it we can imagine ourselves in virtually any situation. Ifif if the word if can lift us out of ourselves and give us a sense of absolute certainty about imaginary circumstances. B. EMOTIONAL RECALL: This is another tool for achieving inner truth on stage. It is the remembrance of a past experience in the performers life that is similar to the one in a play; by recalling sensory impressions of an experience in the past such as what a room looked like,any prevalent odors and any contact with objects; emotions from that time are aroused and can be used as basis of feelings called for in the play. 5. ACTION ON STAGE: WHAT? WHYY? How?All actions on stage must have a purpose. The performers attention must always be focused on a series of physical actions that are linked together by the circumstances of the play. Important for cues. 6. THROUGH LINE OF A ROLE: For the development of continuity in a part, consistency in character building. The performer should find the super objective of the character. What is it, above all else, that the character wants during the course of the play? What is the characters driving force? This is the spine that holds the beats together. 7. ENSEMBLE PLAYING: Performers do not act alone, they interact with other people. Stanislavski was aware that a tendency for many performers is to stop acting or lose their concentration when they are not the main characters in a scene or when someone else is talking. These performers make a great effort when they are talking but not when they are listening. This tendency destroys the through line and causes the performer to move into

and out of a role. That in turn weakens the sense of ensemble-the playing together of all the performers 8. VOICE AND BODY: Stanislavski championed the development of a highly trained voice and body that could express the many and diverse thoughts and feeling of a performers inner life. A sensitive body and vocal instrument are an indispensable part of the craft of acting.

COMBINING THE OUTER AND THE INNER ASPECTS The greatest challenge for a performer is therefore, combining a realistic portrayal of character with special vocal and physical skills. Some actors get into the mind and feelings of the character before combining the physical aspect; others do it the other way while some others combine the two aspects together from the start. The most important thing, is that at the point of the performance the two aspects most be seamlessly combined to reinforce and support each other..