Historical Background and Development of Theater
– In ancient Greece and medieval England, only men could become actors.
– Women’s roles were generally played by men or boys.
– Ancient Rome allowed female stage performers, but only a small minority had speaking parts.
– Italy’s commedia dell’arte allowed professional women to perform early on.
– After the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear onstage in England.
– Churches in Europe staged dramatized versions of biblical events in the Early Middle Ages.
– Liturgical drama spread from Russia to Scandinavia to Italy by the 11th century.
– The Feast of Fools encouraged the development of comedy.
– Vernacular Mystery plays in the Late Middle Ages often contained comedy.
– Secular plays, farces, and professional actors emerged in England and Europe.
– Renaissance theatre drew inspiration from medieval traditions and Commedia dell’arte.
– Companies of players performed seasonally in various locations during the reign of Elizabeth I.
– The Puritan opposition to the stage led to a ban on all plays in London.
– The reopening of theatres in 1660 marked a renaissance of English drama.
– Restoration comedy, known for its sexual explicitness, introduced professional actresses.
Techniques and Gender Roles
– Classical acting integrates body expression, voice, imagination, personalization, improvisation, external stimuli, and script analysis.
– Stanislavski’s method involves drawing upon personal feelings and experiences to convey the truth of a character.
– Method acting, formulated by Lee Strasberg, uses personal experiences to develop emotional and cognitive understanding of roles.
– Meisner technique focuses on actors fully engaging with each other in the scene to create authenticity.
– Other acting techniques, such as those by Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner, are also based on Stanislavski’s ideas.
– In ancient Greece and Rome, women were generally not allowed to perform on stage.
– Women started appearing on stage in England after the Puritan prohibition of drama was lifted in 1660.
– The first professional actress on the English stage was Margaret Hughes.
– Women occasionally played the roles of boys or young men in different forms of theater.
– In modern times, women playing men in live theater is common in presentations of older plays.
– Ancient Roman theater allowed female performers, with some employed in speaking roles.
– Female performers in Rome achieved wealth, fame, and recognition for their art.
– Women began to perform onstage in Italy, Spain, and France from the late 16th century.
– Lucrezia Di Siena is considered the first Italian actress known by name.
– The profession of female performers seemingly died out in late antiquity.
– Many of Shakespeare’s comedies include instances of overt cross-dressing.
– Cross-dressing has been used for comic effect in theater and film.
– Women occasionally play male roles in opera, including mezzo-soprano breeches roles.
– In Japanese kabuki theater, men traditionally perform female roles.
– In Chinese drama, men traditionally performed all roles, including female ones in Beijing opera.
– Some modern roles are played by members of the opposite sex to emphasize gender fluidity.
– Examples include Edna Turnblad in ‘Hairspray’ and Lili Elbe in ‘The Danish Girl.’
– The audience may be aware of multiple levels of gender role obfuscation in certain scenes or plays.
– Gender fluidity in roles can highlight the versatility and diversity of actors.
– This concept challenges traditional gender norms and expands representation in the performing arts.
– The terms ‘actor’ and ‘actress’ were initially used interchangeably for female performers in England.
– Influenced by the French, ‘actress’ became the commonly used term for women in theater and film.
– ‘Actor’ is now preferred when referring to groups of performers of both sexes.
– The re-adoption of the neutral term ‘actor’ in the profession dates back to the post-war period of the 1950s and 60s.
– The use of ‘actress’ is considered obsolete and falls into the same category as other gender-specific terms.
Compensation and Types of Acting
– The gender pay gap in the United States’ film industry is significant.
– In 2014, only 21 out of the top 100 grossing films featured a female lead or co-lead.
– On average, white women earn 78 cents to every dollar a white man makes.
– Hispanic women earn 56 cents, black women earn 64 cents, and Native American women earn just 59 cents to a white male’s dollar.
– Forbes analysis in 2013 showed that the top-paid male actors made 2.5 times more than the top-paid actresses.
– Actors working in theatre, film, television, and radio require specific skills.
– Techniques that work well in one type of acting may not work well in another.
– Theatre actors need to learn stage directions, blocking, and stage combat.
– Film actors need to adapt to the presence of a camera and learn to find their mark.
– Film actors lack continuity and must perform well in screen tests.
– Multiple cameras are angled at the television set.
– New on-screen actors may struggle with determining which camera to look into.
– TV actors need to learn how to use lav mics (Lavaliere microphones).
– Understanding the concept of frame is crucial for TV actors.
– Different types of television roles include series regular, recurring, co-star, and guest star.
– Radio drama is a purely acoustic performance without a visual component.
– It relies on dialogue, music, and sound effects to engage the listener’s imagination.
– Radio drama gained popularity in the 1920s and 1940s but declined with the rise of television.
– Some countries still have thriving traditions of radio drama, while the US has minimal terrestrial radio presence.
– Audio drama can be found in various formats such as CDs, cassette tapes, podcasts, and webcasts.
Historical Context and Acting Profession
– In the past, women were opposed to performing on stage, and their roles were often played Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), literally "one who answers". The actor's interpretation of a role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. This can also be considered an "actor's role," which was called this due to scrolls being used in the theaters. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental performance art.
Formerly, in ancient Greece and the medieval world, and in England at the time of William Shakespeare, only men could become actors, and women's roles were generally played by men or boys. While Ancient Rome did allow female stage performers, only a small minority of them were given speaking parts. The commedia dell'arte of Italy, however, allowed professional women to perform early on; Lucrezia Di Siena, whose name is on a contract of actors from 10 October 1564, has been referred to as the first Italian actress known by name, with Vincenza Armani and Barbara Flaminia as the first primadonnas and the first well-documented actresses in Italy (and in Europe). After the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear onstage in England. In modern times, particularly in pantomime and some operas, women occasionally play the roles of boys or young men.
