According to “The Art of the Actor: The Essential History of Acting, from Classical Times to the Present Day” by Jean Benedetti, “Acting is a way of showing our understanding of the world and passing it on to other people” (1). Such affirmation has proven itself to be true if history is taken into consideration. One of the oldest forms of art and career throughout history, acting has established itself as one of the most prominent and yet unstable careers of all times. Its vast history provides anyone who dares to become an actor with a great understanding of the different societies throughout the years and profound meaning to why, despite all adversities, it is still one of the most wanted careers. More than only a job, and differently from many work fields, acting is about passion and the ability to transmit reality within fantasy. But why acting? Because it is a career related to every other existing one; and being successful in it requires more than what one would think.
Dating back to ancient Greek theater in the sixth century BC, acting has tremendously evolved and become more than the plays acted in the Roman period. As it continues to evolve until this day, it is important to look into history to understand the present era of the career in acting. For Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, acting is “the right management of the voice to express various emotions,” considered to be a talent rather than a skill to be taught. While growing in Greece, the acting field was supported by a lack of subtleness and a great variety of huge costumes; all played in outdoor theaters with books, the written version of the play, written by Euripides and Sophocles. Despite the expansion in Greek theaters, acting as an art began to decline during ...
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...er, there are those who “break through” and make more than the average worker, but when making a decision to pursue a career in acting, one must understand the difficulties and risks involving such pursuit, and be prepared for them. Fame and money should not be the first priority. Instead, anyone aspiring to become an actor should have a genuine love for becoming what nobody had thought of before; creating a character so emotionally intense that it will be remembered for years to come by those who had been in contact with it. An actor should love spending hours creating and studying his or her character and its story and background, and even more hours rehearsing lines and stage position, as well as camera and lightning position. It is the only career that allows one to become all others and it can be extremely rewarding if taken seriously and, mainly, with passion.
Sophocles came to prominence after he defeated Aeschylus in 468 BC. Sophocles improved upon his predecessor’s ideas by adding a third actor, used painted sceneries, and made his plots connect to the ordinary citizens. The third famous playwright was Euripides. His plays contained realism and clever dialogue. In addition, he posed questions to the audience, which is still seen today in some plays. Going offstage, the audience would show their appreciation by stomping their feet. Moreover, the government would also pay the lower classes to attend these plays. The first actors’ union was started in the fourth century. After the decline of Greece, Rome took over the role of creating plays and made a new genre called pantomime. Pantomimes were inspired Greek tragedies, but as the years went on, the Romans citizens turned to games instead of plays because they weren’t educated enough to understand. Despite the deterioration of Greek plays, they have still lived on. From later playwrights like Shakespeare to recent directors like James Cameron, the concept is still the same. Ladies and gentlemen, our theatrical journey has
In Euripides’ tragic play, Medea, the playwright creates an undercurrent of chaos in the play upon asserting that, “the world’s great order [is being] reversed.” (Lawall, 651, line 408). The manipulation of the spectators’ emotions, which instills in them a sentiment of drama, is relative to this undertone of disorder, as opposed to being absolute. The central thesis suggests drama in the play as relative to the method of theatrical production. The three concepts of set, costumes, and acting, are tools which accentuate the drama of the play. Respectively, these three notions represent the appearance of drama on political, social, and moral levels. This essay will compare three different productions of Euripides’ melodrama, namely, the play as presented by the Jazzart Dance Theatre¹; the Culver City (California) Public Theatre²; and finally, the original ancient Greek production of the play, as it was scripted by Euripides.
Ley, Graham. A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater. Rev. ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006. Print.
Teachers arguably have one of the most important and influential job anyone can have. In their hands is the ability to shape the future. Mark Van Doren, an American poet and writer, once said that “the art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” Teachers bestow upon youth the proper learning devices and tools they will continue to use throughout the entirety of their lives. Why is it then quotes such as “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” come about? Though teachers are not held on the same pedestal as brain surgeons and rockets scientists, they are still deserving of appreciation for the many challenges that arise with their career. Education, theatre education in specific, is a problematic career choice due to the scarcity of jobs, poor funding, and the comprehensive process one must go
Thesis: The purpose of this study was to examine the career field of Acting, the academic prerequisites of Penn State University, and the postgraduate professional qualifications of this career.
From the Oedipus Rex’s Interactive Orals, I learned about the Greek theatres and the perfect tragedy. The Greek theatres were established in ancient Greece for music songs, honoring gods, mainly Dionysus. The growing popularity of the theatres started evolving the theaters. At first: writers, directors and actors were the same person but soon it started evolving. Now the plays started to have separate actors, writers and directors. The structures of the Greek theatre were absolutely incredible. Theatron was a way it was created the way so that everyone could hear and see the play very well. The costumes of the actors were exaggerated with emotions and style. As the actors have a face mask for the feeling they were trying to portray.
By Alison Hodge, (London, Routledge, 2000), p. 74. [2] Jacques Copeau, Twentieth Century Actor Training, ed. By Alison Hodge, (London, Routledge, 2000), p. 75. [3] Keith Johnstone, Impro. Improvisation and the Theatre, (London, Methuen, 1981), p.82.
I loved acting — when I booked the “real” jobs, I got paid to make believe — and the results of booking jobs (or not) had “real” consequences. I wasn’t earning an automatic paycheck every two weeks. And, the few days I worked each year didn’t make me feel like I was really doing something, something tangible, concrete. As a result, by 1991, a not-so-strange thought occurred to me: I didn’t want to just pretend to know how to do something, I wanted to do something, something “real” — and something that would help me hold down my end of the family financial bargain. Without abandoning the hope of steady work as an actor, which I came to understand was an oxymoron (even as I continued to pursue it), I decided that going back to school would be real enough for now, while possibly making myself more financially marketable, and it would be a great way to exercise my Attention Deficit Disorder.
Throughout history, humans have always enjoyed being entertained. Whether it be through song, dance, or a moving story; the central need for something beautiful and miraculous has been there to touch our souls and inspire our minds. In the theatre, greatly written plays are no different. Playwrights look to entertain audiences and to fulfill a certain need within themselves when they create their unique worlds and stories. This is something that has occurred since the days of the Greeks when tragedies were one of the most influential forms of theatre. Tragedy as an art, can be used to show a person when they are experiencing life at its lowest level. This form of theatre also shows how the character handles the situation they are in and in
Good morning/afternoon students. Let me first congratulate you for being chosen for this semesters acting course here at Nida. I’m Tayla, your tutor for the semester. My position here today, is to clarify the confusion you have may have about the aspects of the acting career. Many of you may think the fame comes as a part of being an actor. After many years of working in this industry, I can tell you with emphasis fame is truly only a media creation. ‘The state of being widely known or recognized’ (TheFreeDictionary.com, 2014) justifies faultlessly what fame is. Think to yourself for a second, how would we know about any of the celebrities without the media? Accept if we know them in person of course. Without the media, there would be no fame and the publicity fame brings, does not always bring the best out in people. Fame is solely a media creation.
Historically, drama, and indeed all areas of the arts, have been seen to make an unimportant contribution to society as a whole. As recently as the mid to late 20th century, the arts were seen as a luxury, and a purely leisure exercise or hobby, with only gifted children having access to classically defined art forms such as music or art. This ideology still exists in some form today, although the arts are beginning to be recognised as an integral part of our everyday and working lives. Many drama practitioners and educators consider the arts to be a growing power within the economy, and that drama has benefits to society, culture, and a person’s inner development. These benefits have shaped the incorporation and delivery of drama within Queensland schools. This essay will examine how, by teachers delivering a rich aesthetic experience to students through drama in schools, students are provided with opportunities to develop self identity and equipping them with a skill set that is transferable across a variety of learning areas.
Greek and Elizabethan theatre, while similar in some respects, had a few large differences. The Greeks believed in a certain unity of theme, which was prevalent throughout the production. Greek plays were often drawn from myth or of historical significance, so it seems that only ki...
The survival of theatre lies in the very nature of humankind: its inner voyeuristic drive. The desire to watch other people dealing with their conflicts and fates challenges as well as reinforces values and the morality of society. The theatre provides an exciting opportunity to watch stories and situations as if they were real life, showing us the truth of our nature.
Theater is a natural outlet for our desire to hear and tell stories, and in some ways it is even more primal and powerful than the written word. At its worst, theater will merely bore; while at its best it will not only entertain but move and shape its audience. Two such genres of theater, or drama, have consistently achieved this effect. Tragedy, represented by the weeping actors’ mask, usually features the title character’s fall from greatness to ruin, guided by the gods or fate. Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, is the epitome of classic Tragedy, as defined by Aristotle (96-101). Here, Oedipus falls from kingship to blindness and exile. Drama’s other great genre, Comedy, is represented by the laughing actors’ mask. In Comedy the action is usually propelled by a problem or crisis of some sorts, but unlike tragedy it usually ends well. Lysistrata, written by Aristophanes, is a perfect example of classic Comedy. The farcical story line follows the title character, who rallies the women of Greece to withhold sex from their mates all in the good cause of ending war. At first glance these two genres would seem to have nothing in common with each other. Comedy entails laughter and good feelings while the audience will leave a Tragedy in tears. But the best of Comedy and the best of Tragedy will produce the same affect: catharsis. Catharsis is the purgation and purifying of the emotions, specifically fear or pity. (“Catharsis”) The plays that manage to produce catharsis in their audience are the ones that we return to time and time again. Although catharsis is one of the main objectives of Greek Tragedy (Jacobus 34), Comedy done well will shape and move its audience in the same way. These two classic genres use characters that are co...
For thousands of years, people have been arguing that theatre is a dying art form. Many people think theatre is all just cheesy singing and dancing or just boring old Shakespeare, but there is much more to theatre than those two extremes. Theatre is important to our society because it teaches us more about real life than recorded media. Theatre has been around for thousands of years and began as a religious ceremony that evolved into an art form that teaches about the true essence of life. Theatre can incorporate profound, and provocative, observations of the human condition that can transcend time; lessons found in Greek plays can still be relevant to the modern world. People argue that the very essence of theatre is being snuffed out by modern