Talk:Out of Character

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"Out of Character" is also a dramatic term. An actor (especially in live theater) will sometimes "stop acting". There are a couple of ways this could happen:

-- When the actor breaks character improvisationally. I heard a story that there was a theater in which the play Dracula was scheduled to begin. The week before, a different play was in one of its final performances. Suddenly, a lost bat flew into the theater and around the stage. One of the actors (possibly John Barrymore or Raymond Massey, IIRC) called to the bat "Not now! Next week!"

-- When the actor breaks character outside of the performance; for instance, I saw a performance of a musical where at the end of intermission, the lead actor came onstage to announce that some members of a nearby music school were filling in for orchestra members who were out sick.

-- As part of the plot; this is also part of Breaking the Fourth Wall, except the actor is playing "himself" instead of his character addressing the audience direclty.

ShawnVW 15:24, 24 January 2006 (UTC)