Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Ethical Acting Technique - Overview Pt 3

The next steps in the outline of the technique are:

STEP EIGHT – THE CHARACTER’S SUPER-OBJECTIVE
(An OBJECTIVE is something the character WANTS, which would explain their actions.)

- Read the play, and decide in a single sentence what it is the character WANTS throughout the play. This Super-Objective MUST explain EVERY action the character takes, or it is wrong. The Super-Objective should look a lot like the MESSAGE of the play, if the character is a Protagonist, and a lot like the opposite of the message if he’s an Antagonist.

STEP NINE – THE CHARACTER’S OBJECTIVE IN EACH SCENE
- Read each scene and decide, in a single sentence, what the character WANTS in each scene. IT MUST be some part of his Super-Objective!

STEP TEN – TACTICS & BEATS
(A TACTIC is HOW the character tries to get what he wants, or WHAT HE’S DOING AT ANY MOMENT to get what he wants.)
(A BEAT is the EXACT MOMENT a character starts a NEW tactic.)

- Read a scene, and as you go, decide what the character’s TACTIC is and write down, in a simple sentence, what his TACTIC is at the side of the script.
- Find the EXACT MOMENT, or BEAT, when he changes tactics, and mark it with a small red line in the script. Then, figure out the NEW tactic, and write it down at the side of the script.
- Do this FOR EVERY MOMENT YOU’RE ON STAGE!

The rest of the outline when I get over 10 followers. If you're reading these posts and not following, there won't be any more if you don't jump in. That's how acting works, too. You only get out what you put in.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Ethical Acting Technique - Overview Pt 2

The next steps have to do with breaking down the role from your viewpoint.

Steps 4-10 assist the actor in defining the character, and in the creation of ACTOR’S CHOICES, ideas you will apply toward the playing of your character. This work should be completed BEFORE you ever have a rehearsal, along with the memorization of your role.

STEP FOUR – DETERMINE HOW YOUR CHARACTER SEES HIMSELF
- Read the play looking at only what your character DOES.
- Read the play looking only at what your character SAYS ABOUT HIMSELF.
- Decide based on the info HOW THE CHARACTER SEES HIMSELF.

STEP FIVE - DETERMINE HOW OTHER CHARACTERS SEE YOUR CHARACTER
- Read the play looking at only what other characters DO about your character.
- Read the play looking only at what other characters SAY about your character.
- Decide based on the info HOW OTHER CHARACTERS SEE YOUR
CHARACTER.

STEP SIX – DECIDE WHO YOUR CHARACTER REALLY IS
- Add up steps 4 and 5. Decide what kind of person your character REALLY is.

STEP SEVEN - CLEAR UP ANYTHING YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND
- Look for any action, any character, any scene, ANYTHING about the play you
feel you don’t fully understand.

- GET YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED! The following ways in order:
- Restudy the script to find what you missed. If you STILL have words
you don’t understand, clean them up!
- Whatever you still don’t get, read any essays the author or others have
written about the piece.
- Ask the writer, if available, for answers.
- Ask the director, if available.
- Ask other actors, if available, in the production.
- Read other works by the same writer, looking for TRENDS in his writing
that may explain what you’re looking for.
- LAST RESORT- Make up answers, based on the best available info.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The Ethical Acting Technique - Overview Pt 1

The following is a very basic overview of the technique that I teach, and this post is just part one of the overview. It is intended to give you a simple outline, and is NOT descriptive of the steps and actions. The full description and use of each step will follow in later weeks IF we get more followers, and some of you folks add a comment or two.

The overview is to be used essentially as a first, simple view, and for quick review purposes once one knows the technique. The technique has 12 steps in full. here are the first 3.

STEPS 1- 3 – YOUR WILLINGNESS TO PLAY THE ROLE

The first three steps deal directly with the actor’s WILLINGNESS to play a role. There really isn’t any point to taking on a part and doing the needed work if the actor is going to in any way resist the piece out of some essential disagreement with either the piece itself, or some of the things the actor is going to have to do or say to portray the character.

STEP ONE - FIND THE MESSAGE
- Read the piece to get the plot (“This happens, then that happens”.)
As you read, make certain you use a dictionary to define ANY words you
do not fully understand!
- Ask yourself about the play; “What does the piece make me want to DO?”
- Make THAT the message, in a single sentence.

STEP TWO – YOUR CHARACTER’S POSITION
- Decide if your character:
AGREES with the message (Protagonist)
DISAGREES with the message (Antagonist)
HAS NO OPINION regarding the message (Neutral)
- Look at the character’s actions for things you either cannot or will not do.

STEP THREE – DECIDE
- Based on the two steps above, do you agree with the message? Can you do everything the role requires, and would you? If so, then you’re WILLING to play the role. If you disagree with the message, or can’t or won’t do the things the role calls for, you must turn down the role.

Monday, September 6, 2010

THEATRICAL SCHOOLS AND STYLES AND HOW TO USE THEM

The history of theater is a long one. Theatre and the plays authored for her have gone through an evolution, made of many phases. The way theatre has been presented, the sort of theatre presented, and the conventions of theatre, have altered dramatically over the past 2,500 years in the west, and many times.

A “school” is a type of theatre that was used during a certain period of time.

Let me clarify what I mean by a “convention”. A convention is a rule, a standard, the agreed-upon way a thing will be done. An example can be offered from Japanese NOH theatre. In NOH theatre, if an actor is dressed in black, it is understood by the audience and all concerned that he is “invisible”. So when he moves a set piece around, the set is “moving by itself”. If he lifts an actor, that actor is miraculously “floating”. No, in real life, people in black are not invisible. But in NOH theatre, it’s accepted that they are, as a convention.

Another convention is the foundation for all opera and musical theatre. It is understood and accepted that in these works, people are going to sing and dance when they are moved. No, in real life, normally, people don’t invent songs and dance with dozens of others on the streets. In musicals, it is the accepted convention.

Theatre and film are actually nothing but conventions. The audience accepts that the actors BECOME the characters, that the story is really happening. But there are conventions with the big conventions, and every play, every musical, every movie or TV show develops its own set of rules which the actor must create within.

Every past and present school of theatre has its own rules and methods. As you read more plays, and study the history of theatre and film, you will discover how much these media have changed.

The Greeks wore heavy masks and declaimed their dialogue. They used a chorus of people for commentary and narration. They played outdoors, in an amphitheatre. These are part of the Greek school of theatre. It should be remembered that, before Aeschylus, the first great Greek playwright, no actor is thought to have spoken independently. The convention was that they spoke as a chorus. It is also believed that Greek dramas may have been sung through, like operas.

During the Medieval period in Europe, theatre was often performed on the steps of a church, and only biblical themes were acceptable for a very long time.

Shakespeare used an essentially bare stage. As he used no settings, he was forced to tell the audience in some way, at the start of each scene, where we are. This very much alters the writing. Women were not allowed to act in his day, so men played the female roles. Much of the audience, called the “groundlings”, would stand throughout a performance. Poetic language was not only accepted on stage, but it was understood that what happened on the stage was “heightened life”, so poetry was expected to some degree.

Moliere’s troop toured the country, and finally founded a theatre on a tennis court in Paris, before taking over a huge, indoor theatre which had been in the possession of a Catholic cardinal. He used women to play women (a novelty until that period of history). He borrowed heavily (as did Shakespeare in his comedies) from an Italian school of theatre called “Commedia”, in which there were certain “stock” characters used, like a miser, or a braggart general. (Commedia borrowed heavily from the Roman playwright, Plautus.) It was understood that a play would be populated with characters who were sort of “stereotypes”, not particularly original, but familiar and comfortable for an audience.

Realism came into the theatre in the mid 1800s, and with it the portrayal of the average or “common” man, and realistic sets and casting, a huge contradiction to the existing schools and conventions of the day.

Film has gone through many schools. The German Expressionistic school created films like M and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. These found their influence in American and foreign films in a school (type of film) called “Film Noir. Such films as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon are examples. ”The “Spaghetti Western”, which borrowed from the conventions of Hollywood Westerns, had many unique conventions, which were in turn borrowed by great directors like Kurosawa to make masterworks like The Hidden Fortress, and The Seven Samurai, which eventually made their way back to the United States as Star Wars, and The Magnificent Seven!

An actor MUST understand the school and the conventions of the piece he’s working. These will directly alter the choices the actor must make. A performance in a film noir type of piece couldn’t be more different from a Shakespearian performance, which is wildly different from a Greek drama. Not only do the schools change, but the rules from show to show WITHIN A SCHOOL are different, as determined by the writers. Aeschylus does not write like Euripides, though they are contemporaries. Shakespeare does not write like Christopher Marlowe. Ibsen does not write like Chekhov. Each invents his own conventions within the school they are working, and those conventions can and do change from play to play, even with plays authored by the same man.

What do you need to understand about a piece. Here are a few basic questions;

-Does the piece tend to be REALISTIC, or NOT REALISTIC? This will obviously change your approach somewhat, though remember, audiences identify with Human Common Denominators and real emotion, even in a fantastic piece. We love Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz because she’s an innocent who finds herself in a strange and hostile world, as anyone who ever left home will understand. Her emotions are real, so we care. Still,if the piece is highly comic along certain lines, like a farce, demanding some “mugging” (over the top play for laughter), then that’s its rules.

-What were the rules when the piece was written? This may require a little study on your part. You’ll want to know, because those rules will largely explain why the piece is written as it is! Without this info, you may very well make outrageously wrong decisions! What school was the piece written in, and what are the rules of that school? Additionally, will your director be using those rules, and how, or will he be updating the the rules and the feel of the piece? You’ll definitely need answers to these questions!

I’m afraid that a truly good actor needs to be more than a little bit of a historian, as well as a detective. You can’t rely on directors to be able to answer all your questions. Too often today, directors take on older plays without any real knowledge of the manner the author wrote them to be done, and with the sort of foolishly arrogant assumption that the piece needs updating. A reminder… Shakespeare will survive us all. This is not to say shows should not be updated, but they should be with respect and an understanding of the original intent of the authors.

And if you’re cast in a new movie or play, you will find that it has tendencies to fit into one school of theatre or another. All writers write IN CONTEXT TO THEIR CIVILIZATION. Ours, today, is a product of all that has come before us, so many schools of art may influence a single work. I’ve described some schools above, such as the Greek and Shakespearian and Realism. There are many more, and you will need to read a lot of plays to understand them! The history of literature and mankind both influence every work written today! Plan on becoming very smart!!!

Here are a few more basic schools prevalent in the 21st century:

-Theatre of the Absurd: A European and American response to WWII and the existence of the Bomb. A type of theatre in which there is little or no hope, communication is seen to have failed, life is pointless outside of the act of living and dying itself, and these have little meaning. Tends to be motivated by the pain of mankind feeling “small” in the face of his own hostility, and that of the universe’s.

-Stream of Consciousness: An outgrowth of novelists in the 20th century such as Kafka and James Joyce, in which we enter a character’s rather rambling mind and are “entertained” by his rambling thoughts. Playwrights such as Samuel Beckett have employed this as a device, as in his play “Krapp’s Last Tape”. It is the character’s thought process that IS the piece.

-Black Comedy: Very grim, but sometimes hysterically funny comedy, which grew out of Absurdism. Often intended to shock, and make people think and revise their opinions. This could be seen to be an outgrowth from Aristophanes, Moliere, and Chekhov, by the way, and not entirely the modern invention we often believe it to be. A BAD HEIR DAY is a black comedy. It was also adapted from a play by Euripides, a Greek, who wrote its original, Alcestis, some 2,500 years ago.

-Musical Theatre: A type of story telling where characters sing and dance when they are moved. These have a “book”, which is the script, and a “score”, the songs, made up of music and lyrics. Sometimes there is almost no spoken dialogue, sometimes, there’s a great deal.

-Musical Revue: A musical which does not tell a story, with songs tied together either by theme (political, social), or by the fact they were all written by a certain composer or lyricist. In this case, the actor is creating each song as if it were a play unto itself.

-Noir: Tough characters like detectives and their dames, in black and white, from the 40s.

-Epic Theatre: The invention of Bertolt Brecht, the great German playwright, director and theorist. A type of theatre intended to be intentionally artificial, not believable, so the audience is always aware they’re watching a show. The theatrical lighting is visible and exposed, the actors are “acting”, there are many conventions. Well worth studying, especially for a director!

When you read plays, try to also read about the authors. If they wrote articles or books about the theatre of their day, or their inventions of conventions, read them. Brecht wrote many hundreds of pages, as did Shaw, on their intentions. These can be truly educational, and open the actor’s mind to possibilities in theatre perhaps undreamed of before.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

CHARACTER CONDITIONS: WHAT THEY ARE

A condition is some temporary or permanent quality which does not belong innately to a character, but which they might be experiencing, and which may alter the character and the way he or she is portrayed.

A condition can be innate (built in to the character), self-induced, or imposed from outside. Here are some examples of conditions:

INNATE/
The character is mentally challenged.
The character is very short,
The character is very tall.
The character is underweight. (This could be self-induced, or organic)
The character is overweight. (This could be self-induced, or organic)
The character is of a particular ethnicity.
The character has a birth defect of some sort.
The character is brilliant.
The character is blind, or losing their vision.
The character is deaf, or losing their hearing.

SELF INDUCED/
The character is drunk.
The character has intentionally injured himself.
The character is on drugs.
The character is starving himself.
The character is gorging himself.
The character is desperate for sex.
The character is in love.

IMPOSED FROM WITHOUT/
The character is in jail.
The character is being starved.
The character is being or has been brainwashed.
The character has been drugged.
The character is ill.

There are many more potential conditions that can alter a persons life and actions. Probably, there are as many conditions possible as there are people. Your character will likely have innate conditions that help shape who they are. They MAY OR MAY NOT have self induced, or imposed conditions. If they do not, you MAY OR MAY NOT wish to create conditions for your character. They can add richness to your portrayal, both comic and dramatic, if the conditions are carefully and wisely selected and utilized. They can also unnecessarily complicate a portrayal. This is a matter of choice, an Actor’s Choice. Use as your guide the message of the piece, and the super objective of your character. If adding a condition or three will assist in the communication of the message and character, do it. If not, then don’t.

That said, I would never allow a condition to BECOME the character, to dominate the portrayal. It should only be an addendum, an add-on that brings more color and clarity to the portrayal, for the audience. It’s too easy for an actor to work very hard on a condition, say a chronic limp, a bad cold, a bout of drinking, and let that BE the entire character. Conditions are not characters. They are things that happen to characters, or that are done to characters, or that characters do to themselves. Please make this distinction.

________________

EXERCISE: Select an INNATE condition your character could have, from a given scene in a play. It doesn’t matter if the character has it or not, just assign a condition they were born with. Play the scene with a partner at least five times, grooving in your portrayal of that condition. Work it until you know how that condition alters the playing of your character, and you know you can use the condition to create nuances in the character’s portrayal.

Do the same thing again, with another innate condition.

Do the same thing again with a self-induced condition,

Do the same thing again with another self-induced condition.

Do the same thing with a condition imposed from without.

Do the same thing again with another condition imposed from without.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

THE SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE CHARACTER

Everyone could be said to have some sort of spiritual state. They do not believe in a thing, or they do believe, and if they believe, they generally believe in something specific, and that belief (or non-belief) can color their actions, thoughts, and emotions, not to mention their objectives.

Many people and characters assume a spiritual belief as their principle objective in life. Service to God, or a belief system, is not unique as a life choice. This can certainly be true of a character, such as Shaw’s St. Joan, or Ben Kingsley’s Gandhi. And needless to say, an actor playing Buddha or Jesus or Mohammad will be playing a character with a strongly defined spiritual state.

Non-belief is a state, as well. One’s choice not to believe in prevailing religious doctrine can certainly color not only their own actions, but how others around them perceive them and respond to them.

You should always takes a few minutes to determine your character’s spiritual state, and add it into their character history.

______________

EXERCISE: Take your character in a play. Determine his beliefs or non beliefs. Look over the play and decide how his or her religious state affects the character’s behavior (as in Step IV.) Determine how the religious state of your character affects other characters reactions to your character (as in Step V).