acting, the representation of a usually fictional character on stage or in films. At its highest levels of accomplishment acting involves the employment of technique and/or an imaginative identification with the character on the part of the actor. In this way the full emotional weight of situations on stage be communicated to the audience. The actor must be a sharp observer of life and thoroughly trained in voice projection and enunciation and in body movement.

Evolution of Acting

In the ancient Greek theater, acting was stylized; indeed, the large outdoor theaters made subtlety of speech and gesture impossible. The actors, all men, wore comic and tragic masks and were costumed grotesquely, wearing padded clothes and, often, artificial phalluses. Nevertheless, there were advocates of naturalistic acting even at that time, and actors were held in high esteem. In the Roman period actors were slaves, and the level of performance was low, broad farce being the most popular dramatic form. The tragedies of Seneca were probably read in declamatory style, rather than acted on stage.

During the Christian period in Rome, acting almost disappeared, the tradition being upheld by traveling mimes, jugglers, and acrobats who entertained at fairs. In religious drama of the Middle Ages, an actor's every gesture and intonation was carefully designated for performance in church, and, as with the later pageants under the auspices of the trade guilds, the actors were amateurs.

Modern professional acting began in the 16th cent. with the Italian commedia dell'arte, whose actors improvised convincing and entertaining situations from general outlines. During the Restoration period in England, Thomas Betterton and his wife Mary were famous for their naturalness of delivery, as was Edward Kynaston. Their contemporaries, Charles Hart, Barton Booth, and James Quin, however, were well known for their lofty, heroic acting, a style that became dominant in the first third of the 18th cent. In the mid-18th cent. Charles Macklin and his pupil David Garrick introduced a more naturalistic style, and similar movements took place in France and Germany.

The old declamatory method did not really die out until the early 20th cent., and such great 18th- and 19th-century actors as Lekain, Sarah Siddons, Edmund Kean, and Junius Brutus Booth would probably seem overly histrionic to modern audiences. Part of the reason for the persistence of bombastic acting was the star system that existed until high standards of ensemble playing—common in popular repertory theaters since at least Shakespeare's time—were set by the Meiningen Players in 1874. Important late 19th-century actors, varying considerably in the naturalism of their acting styles, were Edwin Booth, Dame Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, Eleanora Duse, and Sarah Bernhardt.

Acting in the Twentieth Century

Acting in the 20th cent. has been greatly influenced by the theories of the Russian director Constantin Stanislavsky. An advocate of ensemble playing, he believed that an actor must strive for absolute psychological identification with the character being portrayed and that this identification is at least as important as mastery of voice projection or body movement. Stanislavsky's theories were popularized in the United States by the Group Theatre and later by Lee Strasberg at the Actors' Studio, which produced a generation of extremely naturalistic actors, notably Marlon Brando. The emergence of motion pictures and television has offered unprecedented opportunities and challenges for actors, the sensitivity of camera and microphone making subtlety of voice, expression, and movement absolutely essential.

Related Topics

For further information, see drama, Western; Asian drama; scene design and stage lighting; directing.

or method acting

Influential system of dramatic training developed by the Russian actor, producer, and theoretician Konstantin Stanislavsky. The method was developed over years of trial and error, beginning circa 1898. It requires that an actor use his emotion memory (i.e., his recall of past experiences and emotions) to identify with the character's inner motivation. The technique was developed in reaction to the histrionic acting styles of the 19th century. Noted American practitioners began using the method in the 1920s; they have included Lee Strasberg, Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, and Eli Wallach.

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Art of representing a character on a stage or before a camera by means of movement, gesture, and intonation. Acting in the Western tradition originated in Greece in the 6th century BC; the tragedian Thespis is traditionally regarded as founder of the profession. Aristotle defined acting as “the right management of the voice to express various emotions” and declared it a natural gift that he doubted could be taught. Acting declined as an art in the Middle Ages, when Christian liturgical drama was performed by craft guilds and amateurs. Modern professional acting emerged in the 16th century with Italy's commedia dell'arte troupes. It flourished during the era of William Shakespeare. Not until the 18th century, however, was acting considered a profession to be taken seriously, through the efforts in England of the actor-manager David Garrick and the talents of actors such as Sarah Siddons, Edmund Kean, and Henry Irving. Modern acting styles have been influenced by Konstantin Stanislavsky's emphasis on the actor's identification with his role and by Bertolt Brecht's insistence on the objectivity and discipline of the actor. The Stanislavsky method was adopted in the U.S. by Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler (1901–92) and is the basis of most contemporary training, which features the cultivation of emotional and sense memory, physical and vocal training, and improvisation.

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