Introduction to Theatre
Acting Basics
The job of an actor is to tell the story of the play with their voice, movements, physicality; everything. In order to relate to and understand the complex characters in a script an actor needs a complete understanding of character roles, types and storytelling functions. As well as a developed sense of empathy with human emotional responses and interactions.
Actors must train their bodies and projection and diction.
Actor training involves studying life, verbal and non-verbal communication, movement, dance, mannerisms, and energy control.
Actors must take direction and become the mediums with which the production team tells the story of the play.
Actors must listen not only to what is being said on stage but how it is being said, the breathing pattern of the fellow actor, and the implied intention of the fellow actor.
Actors must also react to the action occurring on stage and help direct the audience’s attention to the important moments being played out.
Observing and mimicking what they see is an important skill for actors to develop. An actor needs to be able to observe , break down , analysis and recreate not only emotional responses, but also facial expression, vocal patterns, breathing patterns and movement.
Body –
Body warmups include; tensing and relaxing each muscle group, stretches, deep breathing between slow movements, bowing down and rolling up along spine and focus change muscle isolations.
for a non-character influenced physical state stand with feet below shoulders, relax all muscles and imagine you are dangling from a string.
When adopting a characters physicality choose a focus to lead with, and a posture to fall into that defines that character. Let your character’s walk be lead by that focus. Refine how that character would sit, stand up from sit, lay down, kneel, carry, reach ect.
The face of your character needs to have a default mood. Using elements of that muscle control create a sad, happy, mad ect. expression that defines what that character represents.
How your character walks across the stage and interacts with the scenery creates a walk pattern. The characters connection to the stage shows us how grounded and in control the character can be in any given situation. The way the character climbs up levels or interacts with furniture shows the audience how that character is most likely to overcome obstacles between them and their goals.
Voice –
Projection is key when acting on a live stage. Actors use their diaphragms to support their breath, their mouths as an echo chamber and their tongue and lips for proper pronunciation.
Good vocal warm-ups are: humming, “ha ha” diaphragm engagement, “a e i o u” scales, tongue twisters, glottal stop and soft consonant rhymes and verbal rhythm games.
Breath -
The rate of an actors breathing affects their heart rate and the heart rate of the actor working with the that actor
Breath control is the foundation for emotion and rhythm and pacing. These three key elements move the story forward and keep the audience engaged in the action occurring on stage.
A popular pacing and breath control warm up is to have actors pair up and each express an opposing emotion with a sound or one repeated simple word.
Vocabulary
Actor Neutral – to reach a character free mental and physical state.
Walk Pattern - how a character interacts with the stage / a reflection of how the character makes
decisions and overcomes obstacles.
Energy Control – either focused energy in a selected body part or energy sent to and directed at
the main focus of the scene in the play. (important skill for chorus to develop)
Connection to Stage – the actors weight and surface contact with the stage and its scenery.
Reflects the actors stage power and character strength.
React – the actors duty to the other actors on stage is to react to the action occurring on stage.
Audience Control – using focus and energy and lighting and movement to direct the audience’s
attention to the important moments playing out on stage during the production.
Pacing – the slowing down and the speeding up of the heart rate, the action and reaction rhythm
and the progression of the story timing of a production.
Breath Control – the control of breathing for singing, projection and heart rate of a character.
Mimicry – the ability to observe, break down and recreate what you see.