File puptcrit/puptcrit.0611, message 57


Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2006 14:42:54 -0500
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
From: mjm <mmoynihan-AT-wi.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] The Two Types of Puppeteers... etc


1. What is the actor's function?
  To turn the dramatic character developed by the 
playwright into a living breathing human being. 
Acting is "impersonating a character in a 
dramatic presentation before an audience." 
(Wilson and Goldfarb, page 90)

2. What is the difference between the actor and the character  he is creating?
  The actor is the artist, the character is the 
work of art. The problem is that they inhabit the 
same body. According to Jeremy Kareken, a member 
of the Theatre Discussion List, acting is 
"infusing a play's character with the life of the 
actor; it's offering up the soul of personality."

3. What is the mechanical external approach to 
acting, and how  does it differ from the 
psychological internal approach?
  In the external approach, the actor re-creates 
(without becoming emotionally involved) the 
external signs of the character's emotions.

  In the internal approach, the character grows 
from  within the actor.The actor is personally 
involved with  the character.

4. What was the Delsarte System?


  Delsarte Exercises

  French actor, opera singer, and teacher, 
Fran=E7ois Delsarte (1811-1871) believed that a 
character's emotional state could be projected to 
the audience through a formal set of gestures, 
postures, and physical attitudes. This was the 
foundation of the Delsarte System of Expression 
published in 1885 by Genevieve Stebbins. This 
system was used during the last fifteen years of 
the 19th century in the actor training programs 
at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and 
Emerson's School of Oratory. Although the this 
approach was replaced by the Stanislavski method 
in the 20th centry, the influence of Delsarte can 
still be seen in American Modern Dance. The 
Delsarte Exercises to the left from Pastimes at 
Home and School: A Practical Manual of Delsarte 
Exercises and Elocution (1897) illustrate a 
posture for discovery, mourning, and 
supplication. This formal, conventional approach 
to acting can be seen in silent films such as DW 
Griffith's  The Birth of a Nation (1915) and The 
Phantom of the Opera (1925) starring Lon Chaney. 
Links are to the film's entry in the Internet 
Movie Database.

5. Who was Constantin Stanislavski?
  Stanislavski (1863-1938) was a Russian actor and 
director who developed a "method" to train his 
fellow actors at the Moscow Art Theatre. He 
wanted his actors to discover, and project, the 
"inner truth" of the character, so the 
performance would be real to the audience.

       With which approach is he associated?
  Psychological internal. As Norman B. Schwartz 
has posted to the Theatre Discussion List
KS [Stanislavski] felt that when an actor truly 
experienced what the character was living under 
imaginary circumstances, the many layers of 
meaning in the play would be revealed in a way 
that would rid it of clichés. He contended that 
his method of acting was more effective than 
illustration or indication of emotion by 
calculated poses and tricks of voice and gesture. 
If the actor believed in the imaginary 
circumstances, revealing the subtleties of the 
text by truthful action rather than rhetoric, the 
audience would see things in the play that had 
been hidden previously by poor or lazy acting. KS 
insisted upon more [from] the actor, and 
particularly [from] an ensemble of actors, than 
many directors who preceded him.
=A9 2000 by Norman B. Schwartz

to read more on the internets (as GWB sez):
www.northern.edu/wild/th100/CHAPT4.HTM

- m
in MKE, WI, USA
on "THE GOOGLE" (as GWB of the USA sez) to search for The Delsartre.
(no relation to the John-Paul Sartre? Hmm...

"The artist, a traveller on this earth, leaves 
behind imperishable traces of his being."
- Franciose Delsartre, Delsarte System of Oratory

"One of the chief motives of artistic creation is 
certainly the need of feeling that
we are essential in relationship to the world." - Jean-Paul Sartre)

oh, and this too:
www.delsarteproject.com
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