On acting and the alphabet
October 20th 2009 23:06
Scattered and hastily written...
* Most actors think in terms of "actions" -- to implore, to threaten, to comfort, etc. I don't know if I could define what an action is, but they're usually to do with some change that you're trying to effect in your acting partner.
* Even monologues are often treated this way. I remember a teacher saying to me that monologues should never be to no one -- they're to God, or yourself, or the world at large, but they're never to no one.
Many actors will have an imagined addressee that they're reacting off; and the words of the addressee are probably playing in their heads.
* Acting is more about the behaviour than the words, so goes the customary thinking. The writer gives you the words -- it's your job to bring them to life.
It's sometimes said: a viewer should be able to set the TV volume to mute, and still tell what's happening in a scene.
* So, after some acting training, most actors arrive at this situation: they can bring life to any text, and it doesn't matter what's written. Any half-decent actor can take the alphabet and use it for any action -- you simply overlay the words, regardless of what they are.
To threaten -- "A! B!! C!!!"... To question -- "D? EF?"... To tell off -- "G! HIJKLM. NOPQ!"...
* But there are more things you can bring to a text than action. For instance:
-- The reality of place. When you speak the words, are you alive in an environment, do you react to it? You're supposed to be on a ocean cliff -- well, do you feel the wind blowing on your cheek, do you smell the brine, do you hear the waves...
-- Are you connected to the words, or are they just words, as for a newsreader? Might you as well be speaking the alphabet?
* What does it mean to be "connected" to words? Well, I suppose this would include:
-- Connection in terms of character. This could be a very crude thing -- for instance, someone's appearance might not match their words -- a five-year-old pretending to be a quantum physics lecturer -- the "package doesn't fit". Or it could be a more subtle thing -- the particular drawl with which someone speaks making what comes from their mouth surprising.
I suppose "connection" here would embrace all the things that actors work on when they speak of character. And I guess I'm saying that, for dramatic purposes, it's often better than there be a smooth fit rather than a mismatch between character expectations and text -- even though in real life we're surprised all the time...
-- Connection in terms of emotion. I've said this before, but most words carry some sort of charge -- "Holocaust", "sex", "murder", "God", your own name, the names of something sacred or personal or loved... In real life, when we say such words, our behaviour is changed in the speaking. We say words with tenderness, with awkwardness, with hate...
-- Connection in terms of meaning. Does the person really understand what they're saying? This category might include the way that words relate to one another, the variations of duration and pause and intonation in the course of a sentence as someone, in real life, tries to express themselves.
***
* Most actors think in terms of "actions" -- to implore, to threaten, to comfort, etc. I don't know if I could define what an action is, but they're usually to do with some change that you're trying to effect in your acting partner.
* Even monologues are often treated this way. I remember a teacher saying to me that monologues should never be to no one -- they're to God, or yourself, or the world at large, but they're never to no one.
Many actors will have an imagined addressee that they're reacting off; and the words of the addressee are probably playing in their heads.
* Acting is more about the behaviour than the words, so goes the customary thinking. The writer gives you the words -- it's your job to bring them to life.
It's sometimes said: a viewer should be able to set the TV volume to mute, and still tell what's happening in a scene.
***
* So, after some acting training, most actors arrive at this situation: they can bring life to any text, and it doesn't matter what's written. Any half-decent actor can take the alphabet and use it for any action -- you simply overlay the words, regardless of what they are.
To threaten -- "A! B!! C!!!"... To question -- "D? EF?"... To tell off -- "G! HIJKLM. NOPQ!"...
* But there are more things you can bring to a text than action. For instance:
-- The reality of place. When you speak the words, are you alive in an environment, do you react to it? You're supposed to be on a ocean cliff -- well, do you feel the wind blowing on your cheek, do you smell the brine, do you hear the waves...
-- Are you connected to the words, or are they just words, as for a newsreader? Might you as well be speaking the alphabet?
* What does it mean to be "connected" to words? Well, I suppose this would include:
-- Connection in terms of character. This could be a very crude thing -- for instance, someone's appearance might not match their words -- a five-year-old pretending to be a quantum physics lecturer -- the "package doesn't fit". Or it could be a more subtle thing -- the particular drawl with which someone speaks making what comes from their mouth surprising.
I suppose "connection" here would embrace all the things that actors work on when they speak of character. And I guess I'm saying that, for dramatic purposes, it's often better than there be a smooth fit rather than a mismatch between character expectations and text -- even though in real life we're surprised all the time...
-- Connection in terms of emotion. I've said this before, but most words carry some sort of charge -- "Holocaust", "sex", "murder", "God", your own name, the names of something sacred or personal or loved... In real life, when we say such words, our behaviour is changed in the speaking. We say words with tenderness, with awkwardness, with hate...
-- Connection in terms of meaning. Does the person really understand what they're saying? This category might include the way that words relate to one another, the variations of duration and pause and intonation in the course of a sentence as someone, in real life, tries to express themselves.
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