Actor

An actor or actress (see terminology) is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity.[1] The ancient Greek word for an "actor," ὑποκριτής (hypokrites), means literally "one who interprets";[2] in this sense, an actor is one who interprets a dramatic character.[3]

Contents

Terminology

The word actor refers to a person who acts regardless of gender, while actress refers specifically to a female person who acts; therefore a female can be referred to by either term. The Oxford English Dictionary states that originally "actor" was used for both sexes. The English word actress does not derive from the Latin actrix, probably not even by way of French actrice; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, actress was "probably formed independently" in English. As actress is a specifically feminine word, some groups assert that the word is sexist. Gender-neutral usage of actor has re-emerged in modern English,[4][5] especially when referring to male and female performers collectively, but actress remains the common term used in major acting awards given to female recipients and is common in general usage.

The gender-neutral term "player" was common in film in the early days of the Motion Picture Production Code with regards to the cinema of the United States, but is now generally deemed archaic. However, it remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a theatre group or company (such as the East West Players).

History

Actors Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin performing in The Big Voice: God or Merman play.

The first recorded case of an actor performing took place in 534 BC (though the changes in calendar over the years make it hard to determine exactly) when the Greek performer Thespis stepped on to the stage at the Theatre Dionysus and became the first known person to speak words as a character in a play or story. Prior to Thespis' act, stories were only known to be told in song and dance and in third person narrative. In honour of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians. Theatrical legend to this day maintains that Thespis exists as a mischievous spirit, and disasters in the theatre are sometimes blamed on his ghostly intervention.

Actors were traditionally not people of high status, and in the Early Middle Ages travelling acting troupes were often viewed with distrust. In many parts of Europe, actors could not even receive a Christian burial, and traditional beliefs of the region and time period held that this left any actor forever condemned. However, this negative perception was largely reversed in the 19th and 20th centuries as acting has become an honoured and popular profession and art.[6]

Techniques

Method acting

Method acting is a technique developed from the acting "system" created in the early 20th century by Constantin Stanislavski in his work at the Moscow Art Theatre and its studios. The Group Theatre (New York) first popularised the Method in the 1930s; it was subsequently advanced and developed in new directions by Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in the 1940s and 50s.[7] In Stanislavski's "system" the actor analyses deeply the motivations and emotions of the character in order to personify him or her with psychological realism and emotional authenticity. Using the Method, an actor recalls emotions or reactions from his or her own life and uses them to identify with the character being portrayed.

Method actors are often characterized as immersing themselves so totally in their characters that they continue to portray them even off-stage or off-camera for the duration of the project. However, this is a popular misconception. While some actors do employ this approach, it is generally not taught as part of the Method. Stella Adler, who was a member of the Group Theatre, along with Strasberg, emphasised a different approach of using creative imagination.[8]

Method acting offered a systematized training that developed internal abilities (sensory, psychological, emotional); it revolutionized American theater

Presentational and representational acting

Presentational acting refers to a relationship between actor and audience, whether by direct address or indirectly by specific use of language, looks, gestures or other signs indicating that the character or actor is aware of the audience's presence.[9] (Shakespeare's use of punning and wordplay, for example, often has this function of indirect contact.)

In representational acting, "actors want to make us 'believe' they are the character; they pretend."[9] The illusion of the fourth wall with the audience as voyeurs is striven for.[10]

As opposite gender

In the past, only men could become actors in some societies. In the ancient Greece and Rome[11] and the medieval world, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to go on the stage, and this belief continued right up until the 17th century, when in Venice it was broken. In the time of William Shakespeare, women's roles were generally played by men or boys.[12]

When an eighteen year Puritan prohibition of drama was lifted after the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear on stage in England. Margaret Hughes is credited by some as the first professional actress on the English stage.[13] This prohibition ended during the reign of Charles II in part due to the fact that he enjoyed watching actresses on stage.[14] The first occurrence of the term actress was in 1700 according to the OED and is ascribed to Dryden.[5]

In Japan, men (onnagata) took over the female roles in kabuki theatre when women were banned from performing on stage during the Edo period. This convention has continued to the present. However, some forms of Chinese drama have women playing all the roles.

In modern times, women sometimes play the roles of prepubescent boys. The stage role of Peter Pan, for example, is traditionally played by a woman, as are most principal boys in British pantomime. Opera has several "breeches roles" traditionally sung by women, usually mezzo-sopranos. Examples are Hansel in Hänsel und Gretel, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.

Women in male roles are uncommon in film with the notable exception of the film The Year of Living Dangerously. In this film Linda Hunt played the pivotal role of Billy Kwan. She received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Having an actor dress as the opposite sex for comic effect is also a long standing tradition in comic theatre and film. Most of Shakespeare's comedies include instances of overt cross-dressing, such as Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The movie A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum stars Jack Gilford dressing as a young bride. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon famously posed as women to escape gangsters in the Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot. Cross-dressing for comic effect was a frequently used device in most of the thirty Carry On films. Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams have each appeared in a hit comedy film (Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, respectively) in which they played most scenes dressed as a woman.

Occasionally the issue is further complicated, for example, by a woman playing a woman acting as a man pretending to be a woman, like Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria, or Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. In It's Pat: The Movie, filmwatchers never learn the gender of the androgynous main characters Pat and Chris (played by Julia Sweeney and Dave Foley).

A few roles in modern films, plays and musicals are played by a member of the opposite sex (rather than a character cross-dressing), such as the character Edna Turnblad in Hairspray—played by Divine in the original film, Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway musical, and John Travolta in the 2007 movie musical. Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously. Felicity Huffman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Bree Osbourne (a man in the process of becoming a woman) in Transamerica.

Acting awards

See also

  • Acting
  • Bit part
  • Body double
  • Cameo appearance
  • Character actor
  • Charisma
  • Child actor
  • Drama school
  • Dramatis personæ
  • Extra (actor)
  • GOTE
  • Improvisational theatre
  • Leading actor
  • Lists of actors
  • Master of Fine Arts
  • Matinee idol
  • Method acting
  • Meisner technique
  • Mime
  • Movie star
  • Pornographic actor
  • Practical Aesthetics
  • Presentational acting and Representational acting
  • Q Score
  • Stunt work
  • Supporting actor
  • Thespis
  • Understudy
  • Vaudeville
  • Viewpoints
  • Voice Actor

References

  1. ↑ "Actor: Job description and activities". Prospects UK. http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?state=showocc&pageno=1&idno=465. Retrieved 2009-02-12. 
  2. ↑ Hypokrites (related to our word for hypocrite) also means, less often, "to answer" the tragic chorus. See Weimann (1978, 2); see also Csapo and Slater, who offer translations of classical source material that utilises the term hypocrisis (acting) (1994, 257, 265–267).
  3. ↑ This is true whether the character than an actor plays is based on a real person or a fictional one, even themselves (when the actor is 'playing themselves,' as in some forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, as in John Malkovich's performance in the film Being John Malkovich); to act is to create a character in performance: "The dramatic world can be extended to include the 'author', the 'audience' and even the 'theatre'; but these remain 'possible' surrogates, not the 'actual' referents as such" (Elam 1980, 110).
  4. ↑ dictionary.com actor retrieved 13 November 2007
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Linden, Sheri (18 January 2009). "From actor to actress and back again". Entertainment. Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/18/entertainment/ca-actress18. Retrieved 2009-03-14. "It would be several decades before the word "actress" appeared -- 1700, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, more than a century after the word "actor" was first used to denote a theatrical performer, supplanting the less professional-sounding "player."" 
  6. ↑ Wilmeth, Don B.; Bigsby, C.W.E. (1998). The Cambridge history of American theatre. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. pp. 449–450. ISBN 978-0-521-65179-0. 
  7. ↑ Hornby, Richard (4 May 1987). "Where the Gurus of Method Acting Part". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/04/opinion/l-where-the-gurus-of-method-acting-part-811787.html. Retrieved 2009-03-28. 
  8. ↑ Flint, Peter B. (22 December 1992). "Stella Adler, 91, an Actress And Teacher of the Method". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/22/obituaries/stella-adler-91-an-actress-and-teacher-of-the-method.html. Retrieved 2009-03-28. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Trumbull, Dr. Eric W. "Introduction to Theatre -- The Actor". novaonline.nv.cc.va.us. http://novaonline.nv.cc.va.us/eli/spd130et/acting.htm#rep. Retrieved 2009-03-28. 
  10. ↑ Field, Mary. "What is the Theatre?" (rtf). Shared Learning Objects. Mid South Community College. http://learn.midsouthcc.edu/LearningObjects/Fine%20Arts%20Theatre/rtfs/whatisthetheatre.rtf. Retrieved 2009-03-28. 
  11. ↑ Women Actors in Ancient Rome 27 December 2002, BBC
  12. ↑ Neziroski, Lirim (2003). "narrative, lyric, drama". Theories of Media :: Keywords Glossary :: multimedia. University of Chicago. http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/narrativelyricdrama.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-14. "For example, until the late 1600s, audiences were opposed to seeing women on stage, because they believed it reduced them to the status of showgirls and prostitutes. Even Shakespeare's plays were performed by boys dressed in drag." 
  13. ↑ Smallweed (23 July 2005). "Smallweed". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1534673,00.html. Retrieved 2009-03-14. ""Whereas women's parts in plays have hitherto been acted by men in the habits of women ... we do permit and give leave for the time to come that all women's parts be acted by women," Charles II ordained in 1662. According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the first actress to exploit this new freedom was Margaret Hughes, as Desdemona in Othello on December 8, 1660." 
  14. ↑ "Women as actresses" (PDF). Notes and Queries. The New York Times. 18 October 1885. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980CEED7153FE533A2575BC1A9669D94649FD7CF. Retrieved 2009-03-14. "There seems no doubt that actresses did not perform on the stage till the Restoration, in the earliest years of which Pepys says for the first time he saw an actress upon the stage. Charles II, must have brought the usage from the Continent, where women had long been employed instead of boys or youths in the representation of female characters." 

Sources

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