Chapter 6 Stage Acting Today

1
Chapter 6Stage Acting Today

• The Acting Experience
• The Audition
• The Callback
• Getting the Role
• Researching the role
• Rehearsing the play
• Opening night and beyond

2
Challenges of Acting Today

• Actors today are called upon to perform many
  different kinds of roles, using many different
  techniques and approaches
• Actors today must also study voice and movement
• Some types of theatre call for other skills, such
  as pantomime and acrobatics
• Todays actors must prepare their bodies, minds,
  and imaginations for a myriad of challenges

3
Development of Realistic Acting

• The Stanislavski System
• Relaxation
• Concentration and observation (circle of
  attention)
• Importance of specifics
• Inner Truth (the magic if)
• Action Onstage What? Why? How?
• Through line of a role
• Ensemble playing
• Psychophysical action
• Stanislavski is widely used and more often
  misunderstood

4
Performers Training Today

• Body and Voice Training
• Learning to articulate and project
• Achieving a balance between being heard and being
  credible
• Performing exercises that develop the instruments
  of body and voice
• Centering
• Staying physically fit and in tune with the body
• Requires intensive and constant practice and
  rehearsal

5
Performers Training Today

• Training techniques from other disciplines
• Asian Theater
• Asian theater combines elements of ballet,
  pantomime, and sign language
• Asian theater artists develop their craft with
  tai chi and other martial arts
• The Circus
• Juggling can help with concentration
• Acrobatics help keep the body limber and teach
  team work

6
Synthesis and Integration

• All the demands of actor training helps actors
  create instruments that are flexible,
  resourceful, and disciplined
• Actors employ many techniques and skills when
  studying to play a role however, the final
  product must be an integration of the traininga
  synthesis of the outer, physical aspects, and the
  inner, emotional ones.