Actors

From Ifilmconnection

An actor is a person who acts, or plays a role, in a dramaticproduction. The term commonly refers to someone working in movies, television, live theatre, or radio, and can occasionally denote a street entertainer. Besides playing dramatic roles, actors may also sing or dance or work only on radio or as a voice artist.

An actor usually plays a fictional character. In the case of a true story (or a fictional story that portrays real people) an actor may play a real person (or a fictional version of the same). Occasionally, actors appear as themselves, as in John Malkovich's performance in the film Being John Malkovich.

Techniques of acting

Actors employ a variety of techniques that are learned through training and experience. Some of these are:

1. The rigorous use of the voice to communicate a character's lines and express emotion. This is achieved through attention to diction and projection through correct breathing and articulation. It is also achieved through the tone and emphasis that an actor puts on words
2. Physicalisation of a role in order to create a believable character for the audience and to use the acting space appropriately and correctly
3. Use of gesture to complement the voice, interact with other actors and to bring emphasis to the words in a play, as well as having symbolic meaning

Shakespeare is believed to have been commenting on the acting style and techniques of his era when Hamlet gives his advice to the players in the play-within-the-play. He encourages the actors to “speak the speech...as I pronounced it to you,” and avoid “saw[ing] the air too much with your hand” , because even in a ” whirlwind of passion, you must...give it smoothness.” On the other hand, Hamlet urges the players to “Be not too tame neither.” He suggests that they make sure to “suit the action to the word, the word to the action”, taking care to “o'erstep not the modesty of nature.” As well, he told the players to not “...let those that play your clowns...laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too,” which Hamlet considered to be a “villainous” and “pitiful” tactic.

The English critic Benedict Nightingale discussed and compared great classical actors of the long dead past, and the present, and their magical effects upon audiences, in this 1983 article from the New York Times, available online [1].

See also

• Acting
• Leading actor
• Supporting actor
• Character actor
• Bit part
• Stunt work
• Celebrity
• Movie star
• Charisma
• Q Score
• Act (theatre)
• Method acting
• Presentational acting
• Improvisational theatre
• List of improv games
• Konstantin Stanislavski
• Bertolt Brecht
• Michael Chekhov
• Showcase theatre

External links

• Actors' Equity Association (AEA): a union representing U.S. theatre actors and stage managers.
• AGVA, AGMA and AFM: unions representing variety artists (including actors at small venues, jugglers, etc.), musical artists, and musicians.
• American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA): a union representing U.S. television and radio actors and broadcasters (on-air journalists, etc.).
• Career Advice: an online guide for beginning and professional actors, from the performing-arts trade publication Back Stage.
• British Actors' Equity: a trade union representing UK artists, including actors, singers, dancers, choreographers, stage managers, theatre directors and designers, variety and circus artists, television and radio presenters, walk-on and supporting artists, stunt performers and directors and theatre fight directors.
• Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance: an Australian/New Zealand trade union representing everyone in the media, entertainment, sports, and arts industries.
• Screen Actors Guild (SAG): a union representing U.S. film and TV actors.