Evolution of Acting
In the ancient Greek theater, acting was stylized; indeed, the large outdoor theaters made subtlety of speech and gesture impossible. The actors, all men, wore comic and tragic masks and were costumed grotesquely, wearing padded clothes and, often, artificial phalluses. Nevertheless, there were advocates of naturalistic acting even at that time, and actors were held in high esteem. In the Roman period actors were slaves, and the level of performance was low, broad farce being the most popular dramatic form. The tragedies of Seneca Seneca, the younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (l
..... Click the link for more information. were probably read in declamatory style, rather than acted on stage.
During the Christian period in Rome, acting almost disappeared, the tradition being upheld by traveling mimes, jugglers, and acrobats who entertained at fairs. In religious drama of the Middle Ages, an actor's every gesture and intonation was carefully designated for performance in church, and, as with the later pageants under the auspices of the trade guilds, the actors were amateurs.
Modern professional acting began in the 16th cent. with the Italian commedia dell'arte commedia dell'arte (kōm-mā`dēä dĕl-lär`tā)
..... Click the link for more information. , whose actors improvised convincing and entertaining situations from general outlines. During the Restoration period in England, Thomas Betterton Mary Saunderson Betterton, d. 1711, was the first woman to act Shakespeare's great female characters, most notably Lady Macbeth. Both are buried in Westminster Abbey.
Bibliography
See R. W. Lowe, Thomas Betterton (1891, repr. 1972); B.
..... Click the link for more information. and his wife Mary were famous for their naturalness of delivery, as was Edward Kynaston. Their contemporaries, Charles Hart, Barton Booth, and James Quin Quin, James, 1693–1766, English actor. He made his London debut in 1714. The successor of Barton Booth, he was the last of the declamatory school. At his best in declaiming the great tragic roles, Quin was in constant rivalry with the young Garrick until Quin
..... Click the link for more information. , however, were well known for their lofty, heroic acting, a style that became dominant in the first third of the 18th cent. In the mid-18th cent. Charles Macklin Macklin, Charles (măk`lĭn), 1697?–1797, English actor and dramatist, whose original name was Charles McLaughlin, b. Ireland.
..... Click the link for more information. and his pupil David Garrick Garrick, David, 1717–79, English actor, manager, and dramatist. He was indisputably the greatest English actor of the 18th cent., and his friendships with Diderot, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, and other notables who made up "The Club" resulted in detailed
..... Click the link for more information. introduced a more naturalistic style, and similar movements took place in France and Germany.
The old declamatory method did not really die out until the early 20th cent., and such great 18th- and 19th-century actors as Lekain, Sarah Siddons Siddons, Sarah Kemble, 1755–1831, English actress. The most distinguished of the famous Kemble family, she had early theatrical experience in her father's traveling company, and at 18 she married William Siddons, an actor.
..... Click the link for more information. , Edmund Kean Charles John Kean, 1811?–1868, went on the stage against his father's wishes. At his father's last appearance in 1833 he played Iago to his father's Othello at Covent Garden.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Junius Brutus Booth Booth, Junius Brutus, 1796–1852, Anglo-American actor. After experience in the provinces, he appeared at Covent Garden. In 1817, with his portrayal of Richard III, he established himself as a rival of Edmund Kean.
..... Click the link for more information. would probably seem overly histrionic to modern audiences. Part of the reason for the persistence of bombastic acting was the star system that existed until high standards of ensemble playing—common in popular repertory theaters since at least Shakespeare's time—were set by the Meiningen Players Meiningen Players, German theatrical company that toured Europe from 1874 to 1890. The group, inspiring theatrical reforms wherever it performed, was a major influence in the movement toward modern theater.
..... Click the link for more information. in 1874. Important late 19th-century actors, varying considerably in the naturalism of their acting styles, were Edwin Booth Booth, Edwin, 1833–93, one of the first great American actors, b. "Tudor Hall," near Bel Air, Md. After years of touring with his father, Junius Brutus Booth , he appeared in New York City (1857) and later toured (1861–63) England.
..... Click the link for more information. , Dame Ellen Terry Terry, Dame Ellen Alicia, 1848–1928, English actress. Of a prominent theatrical family, she made her debut at eight as Mamillius in Charles Kean's production of The Winter's Tale. She played juvenile roles until her unsuccessful marriage, at 16, to G. F.
..... Click the link for more information. , Henry Irving Irving, Sir Henry, 1838–1905, English actor and manager, originally named John Henry Brodribb. He made his debut in 1856 and achieved fame in 1871 with his portrayal of Mathias in Leopold Lewis's The Bells, a role he often repeated.
..... Click the link for more information. , Eleanora Duse Duse, Eleonora (d
`zə, Ital.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Sarah Bernhardt Bernhardt, Sarah (bûrn`härt, Fr. bĕrnär`), 1844–1923, stage name of Rosine Bernard, French actress, b. Paris.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Acting in the Twentieth Century
Acting in the 20th cent. has been greatly influenced by the theories of the Russian director Constantin Stanislavsky Stanislavsky, Constantin (kənstəntyēn` stənyĭsläf`skē)
..... Click the link for more information. . An advocate of ensemble playing, he believed that an actor must strive for absolute psychological identification with the character being portrayed and that this identification is at least as important as mastery of voice projection or body movement. Stanislavsky's theories were popularized in the United States by the Group Theatre Group Theatre, organization formed in New York City in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strasberg . Its founders, who had worked earlier with the Provincetown Players , wished to revive and redefine American theater by establishing a permanent company
..... Click the link for more information. and later by Lee Strasberg Strasberg, Lee (străs`bərg, sträs`–), 1901–82, American theatrical director, teacher, and actor, b.
..... Click the link for more information. at the Actors' Studio, which produced a generation of extremely naturalistic actors, notably Marlon Brando Brando, Marlon, 1924–2004, American film actor, often described as the greatest of his generation, b. Omaha, Nebr. Regarded as the foremost practitioner of "method" acting as taught by American disciples of Constantin Stanislavsky at New York's Actor's Studio,
..... Click the link for more information. . The emergence of motion pictures and television has offered unprecedented opportunities and challenges for actors, the sensitivity of camera and microphone making subtlety of voice, expression, and movement absolutely essential.
Related Topics
For further information, see drama, Western drama, Western, plays produced in the Western world. This article discusses the development of Western drama in general; for further information see the various national literature articles.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Asian drama Asian drama, dramatic works produced in the East. Of the three major Asian dramas—Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese—the oldest is Sanskrit, although the dates of its origin are uncertain.
..... Click the link for more information. ; scene design and stage lighting scene design and stage lighting, settings and illumination designed for theatrical productions.
See also drama, Western ; Asian drama ; theater ; directing ; acting .
..... Click the link for more information. ; directing directing, the art of leading dramatic performances on the stage or in films. The modern theatrical director is in complete charge of all the artistic aspects of a dramatic presentation.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Bibliography
See T. Cole, ed., Acting: A Handbook of the Stanislavski Method (1955); C. Stanislavski, Building a Character (tr. 1962) and An Actor Prepares (tr. 1963); J. A. Hammerton, ed., The Actor's Art (1969); T. Cole and H. K. Chinov, ed., Actors on Acting (rev. ed. 1970); J. Grotowski, Towards a Poor Theatre (1970); T. Guthrie, Tyrone Guthrie on Acting (1971); M. Billington, The Modern Actor (1973); W. Worthen, The Idea of the Actor (1984); S. Mast, Stages of Identity (1985).
acting
Art of representing a character on a stage or before a camera by means of movement, gesture, and intonation. Acting in the Western tradition originated in Greece in the 6th century BC; the tragedian Thespis is traditionally regarded as founder of the profession. Aristotle defined acting as “the right management of the voice to express various emotions” and declared it a natural gift that he doubted could be taught. Acting declined as an art in the Middle Ages, when Christian liturgical drama was performed by craft guilds and amateurs. Modern professional acting emerged in the 16th century with Italy's commedia dell'arte troupes. It flourished during the era of William Shakespeare. Not until the 18th century, however, was acting considered a profession to be taken seriously, through the efforts in England of the actor-manager David Garrick and the talents of actors such as Sarah Siddons, Edmund Kean, and Henry Irving. Modern acting styles have been influenced by Konstantin Stanislavsky's emphasis on the actor's identification with his role and by Bertolt Brecht's insistence on the objectivity and discipline of the actor. The Stanislavsky method was adopted in the U.S. by Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler (1901–92) and is the basis of most contemporary training, which features the cultivation of emotional and sense memory, physical and vocal training, and improvisation.
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