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Acting is the
Art of Physical Action
By
Mark Westbrook
Actors perform the actions of
fictional characters, the audience watching suspend their
disbelief and create character out of playwright's word
and actor's action.
This action must always
be motivated, it must always have a cause. This is
cause is found when analyzing the scene for the
driving needs of the character in the scene.
"All action in the theatre
must have an inner justification, be logical, coherent and
real."
Stanislavski |
Action is both physical and
psychological, it is what we call psychophysical action,
usually confusingly shortened to Physical Action. Action
must have its own cause (that's the Psychological aspect),
it's motivation, it's driving force. The action is the
end-result of the cause. No matter how fantastical the
story, the audience will believe in the imaginary
circumstances if they are both logical and coherent. If it
is not logical, if it does not contain logic, following a
certain ordered pattern of behaviour, the audience will
not suspend their disbelief. The coherence is provided by
being logically connected. In Finding Nemo, we discover
that fish can talk. It is logical and coherent that all
fish talk in this fictional world, although some fish
speak in different languages. An action must be logical,
coherent and also physical, for it is through the physical
world that we accomplish and achieve our desires.
Many actors, when asked what
acting is mention the word 'emotion'. The obsession with
emotion is damaging to our craft of acting. There is
nothing wrong with emotion itself. Emotion is the
byproduct of action in life and on the stage. The pursuit
of emotion makes the actor frustrated and strongly self
conscious and this leads to poor acting. Many student
actors when asked will list 'the portrayal of emotion' one
of their definitions for acting. There is no such thing as
the portrayal of emotion because it cannot be controlled
or willed. If it could, no one would need therapy or
counseling. Stanislavski warns in An Actor Prepares:
"Leave feeling and spiritual content alone"
If you work towards an
emotional result, you will end up muddying the scene,
waiting, preparing the emotion when you should be acting
truthfully off your partner. When that emotion does not
arrive, or even if it does, you will be thrown out of the
scene and either be overwhelmed by it or criticize
yourself for not becoming emotional. Stanislavski again
insists in An Actor Prepares:
"On the stage there cannot
be, under any circumstances, action which is directed
immediately at the arousing of a feeling for its own
sake."
Emotions are intangible, they
cannot be summoned at will and employed in the service of
the play. They can be faked, but usually very badly.
Acting is as David Mamet describes it in True and False:
"A physical art. It is close
to the study of music or of dancing"
Acting is a physical thing, to some like a sport or game.
The actor is the aesthetic athlete. In what way is acting
like a sport?
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