Drama Term Tuesday #21

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Method Acting

Stanislavski

The Method

System of acting derived from Stanislavski and popularised in the USA by Group Theatre, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, Elia Kazan and Boleslavsky amongst others. There are various interpretations of method acting.

There is a focus on creating life-like realistic performances with actors drawing on their own emotions, memories and experiences. Based on the sense or emotional memory process, method acting focuses on actors fully immersing themselves in their characters in order to sense all of the experiences the character would sense.

Well suited to film and realistic acting, Method Acting has been highly popular and also highly criticised for over indulgent focus on internalised emotion and excess.


Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #8

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Theatre of the oppressed

T.O.

Brazilian director Augusto Boal (1931 - 2009) developed a method of forum theatre for, about and by the oppressed, who act as “spect-actors” (rather than spectators) to examine and change the existence in which they live, through drama.

Boal’s key practices:

  • Forum theatre

  • Image theatre: where the “spect-actors” are asked to sculpt their bodies and other participants’ bodies to create images (tableaux) representing particular situations, emotions or ideals. Boal encouraged the images to be created spontaneously so as to articulate raw emotions and ideas.

  • Invisible theatre: where a rehearsed play is performed in a public space without the public knowing that they are seeing a performance. This form was used to focus on social themes and to incite debate within society.

  • Legislative theatre: similar to forum theatre except the theme of the drama is based on local government.

  • Newspaper theatre

Extract from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #5

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Mark

Hitting the mark

Marking through a performance

Hitting the mark: when an actor moves to a prearranged place on the stage on given lines.

Marking through a performance: in rehearsal when an actor goes through the actions and lines but does not give a fully committed performance; most often used for technical rehearsals and to preserve the voice in opera rehearsals. 

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #4

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Futurism

20th century theatre movement focusing on the “dynamism of the Machine Age”; rejected all former stage practice and argued for the inclusion of the dramatic energy of other forms such as circus, music hall and  cabaret; a compression of drama into brief situations.


Influenced many later 20th Century innovations such as the use of new technologies, multimedia approaches and environmental theatre.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #3

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Readers theatre

Staged reading

A performance where the dramatic script is read aloud rather than memorized; costumes and simple settings may or may not be used; focus and limited movement feature strongly; although the play has been rehearsed the actors are familiar with their lines but there is no attempt to pretend  that they are not reading.

See also chamber theatre

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts