Acting for the stage (chapter 5)

Question 1

What are two examples of acting in real life?

Answer 1

Two examples of acting in daily life are imitation and role playing.

Question 2

Difference between acting in real life and on stage.

Answer 2

1. Actors and actresses onstage are always being observed.
2. Acting onstage, requires a performer to play roles he or she does not play in life.
3. In real life, a lawyer knows the law; but onstage, an actor playing the role of a
   lawyer may not know anything about law.
4. Performers are even called on at times to double, that is, perform several parts in one play.

Question 3

What are the challenges of acting?

Answer 3

1. To make characters believable—inner truth
2. Physical acting—the use of the voice and body
3. Synthesis and integration—combining inner and outer skill

Question 4

What is Stanislavski techniques for developing realistic acting?

Answer 4

1. Relaxation
2. Concentration and observation(circle of attention)
3. Importance of specifics
4. Inner truth(magic if)
5. Action onstage: What? Why? How?
6. Through line of a role(objective,intermediate obj and overall obj)
7. Ensemble playing

ReC Ice In A TEa (acronym)

Question 5

What is realism?

Answer 5

Realism: Broadly, an attempt to present onstage people, places, and events corresponding to those in everyday life

Question 6

What is the “magic if”?

Answer 6

Magic if: Stanislavski’s acting exercise, which requires the performer to ask, “How would I react if I were in this character’s
position?”

Question 7

What is the ‘super objective’?

Answer 7

Superobjective: What the character wants above all else during the course of the play

Question 8

What is ‘ensemble playing’?

Answer 8

Ensemble playing: Acting that stresses the total artistic unity of a group performance rather than individual performances.

Question 9

What is emotional recall?

Answer 9

Emotional recall: The performer feels a character’s emotion by thinking of the conditions surrounding an event in his or her own life that led to a similar emotion

Question 10

What are the 2 types of role playing?

Answer 10

Social and personal.
Social roles are general roles recognized by society: parent, child, police officer, store clerk, teacher, student.

We develop personal roles with our family and friends. For example, some people become braggarts, or martyrs.

Question 12

What is stanislavski’s psychophysical action?

Answer 12

According to him, the purposeful action or psychophysical action is done to fufill a character’s goals.

Question 13

What are the instruments of an actor?

Answer 13

voice and body.

Question 14

What are the key questions we may ask ourselves about the acting or when we evaluate a performance?

Answer 14

1. Were the performers believable?
2. Identify the performers you considered most successful.
3. If there were performers you did not like, identify them and explain why you did not like them
4. Discuss how the performers related or
   failed to relate to one another. Did they listen to each other and respond? Did
   anyone seem to be “showing off” and ignoring the others?