Chapter 4 Theatre Vocabulary From Theatre The Brief Version 8Th Ed.

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Zadacha

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Primary to Stanislavsky's vision was that the actor must seek, in the act of performance, to resolve his or her "character's problem" (in Russian, zadacha), as opposed to his or her mere "actor's problem." often translated as objective, goal, intent, want.

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Virtuosity

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Greatness in acting, like greatness in almost any endeavor, demands a superb set of skills. virtuosity of dramatic technique.
Juggling, dancing, singing, versifying, declaiming, clowning, miming, stage fighting, acrobatics, and sleight of hand.

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Thespian

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Thespis, the first known actor (from whose name the word thespian, meaning "actor," derives), was the author of the dramas in which he appeared.

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The Paradox of Acting

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Denis Diderot, the famous encyclopedist who in 1773 directly confronted this issue in a brief but trenchant essay (in dialogue form) titled "The Paradox of Acting." A great actor ... must [be] an unmoved and disinterested onlooker—presentational.

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The Actors Studio

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The most influential school of acting in the United States has been New York's Actors Studio, which was founded by director Elia Kazan and others in 1947 and achieved prominence following the appointment of Lee Strasberg (1901­1982) as artistic director in 1951.

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Tactics

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The second element of the actor's approach is the identification of the tactics necessary to achieve goals and avoid defeats.

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Subtext

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Stanislavsky established the notion that the play's text was accompanied by a "subtext" of meanings (unspoken and undescribed character goals) hidden beneath the lines.
(Inner Monologue)

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Resonance

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One of the three basic elements of vocal production—breathing, phonation, and resonance. the tone is resonated in the empty cavities of the throat mouth and nose

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Representational Acting

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Representational (to feel yourself among the characters of his story) finding the truth and meaning through the intentions and goals

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Rehearsal

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During the rehearsal period the actor learns the role and investigates, among other things, the character's biography; the subtext of the play; the character's thoughts, fears, and fantasies; the character's objectives; and the world envisioned by the play and the playwright.
The director will lead discussions, offer opinions, and issue directives with respect to some or all of these matters; the director may also provide reading materials, pictures, and music to aid in the actor's research.

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Public Solitude

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Stanislavsky also created the notion of "public solitude" to indicate the way in which an actor must focus her or his attention on the events of the play rather than simply on the play's impact on the audience.

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Psychological Instrument

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Imagination, and willingness and ability to use it in the service of art, are major components of the actor's psychological instrument.

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Projection

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The basic elements of voice (breathing, phonation, resonance) and of speech (articulation, pronunciation, phrasing)—as well as their final combination, projection

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Presentational Acting

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Developed skill and technique.
All acting is both presentational and representational, both external and internal (and, we might say, both from the head and from the heart), and all great actors must learn, or somehow acquire, the ability to present their characters in a powerful and engaging manner and at the same time live their characters' lives fully and convincingly onstage.

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Presence

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Beyond conviction and virtuosity (though incorporating them) remains a final acting ingredient that has been called "presence," "magnetism," "charisma," and many other terms. We shall call it "magic." It is a quality that is difficult to define but universally felt, a quality we cannot explain except to say we know it when we are under its spell.

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Prepared Reading

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For the audition, the actor generally prepares two monologues of a contrasting nature

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Physiological Instrument

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The two elements of the physiological instrument are voice and movement

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Phrasing

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One of the main elements of speech—articulation, pronunciation, phrasing

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Phonation

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One of the three basic elements of vocal production—breathing, phonation, and resonance. The actual production of tone in the larynx

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Objective

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Translation of Stanislavsky's Zadacha (character’s problem) goal, intention, want

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Method Acting

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Invented by Stanislavsky and used by the American director Strasburg at the actors studio , this is generally considered the "internal" or "representational" notion of acting: "internal" because it begins within the actor and "representational" because it asks the actor to represent all aspects—emotional as well as physical and intellectual—of the character portrayed. In the United States, this internal notion of acting is often called Method acting, or simply "the Method,"

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Magic

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Beyond conviction and virtuosity remains a final acting ingredient that can be called presence, magnetism, charisma, and many other terms. We shall call it magic. It is a quality that is difficult to define but universally felt, the quality we cannot explain except to say we know it when we are under its spell.

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Lee Strasburg

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Lee Strasberg (1901 – 1982) was an American actor, director, and one of the best-known acting teachers in American theater and film. He cofounded, with director Harold Clurman, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was "America’s first true theatrical collective". In 1951, he became director of the non-profit Actors Studio, in New York City, considered "the nation's most prestigious acting school". He was the chief proponent of "Method acting" from the 1920s until his death in 1982.

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Konstantin Stanislavsky

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Constantine Stanislavski (1863 – 1938), was a Russian actor and theatre director. His innovative contribution to modern European and American realistic acting has remained at the core of mainstream western performance training for much of the last century.

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Imagination

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Imagination, and willingness and ability to use it in the service of art, are major components of the actor's psychological instrument.

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Emotion Memory

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Stanislavsky developed an acting technique known as "emotion memory" (or "emotional recall" or "affective memory"): by mentally substituting these remembered situations from his or her own life into the action of the play.

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Elocution

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The art of speaking clearly and well, with correct enunciation.

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Discipline

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Discipline is the fourth and final aspect of an actor's psychological instrument. The imagination of the actor is by no means unlimited, nor should it be. It is restricted by the requirements of the play, by the director's staging and interpretation, and by certain established working conditions of the theatre. The actor's artistic discipline keeps him or her within the established bounds and at the same time ensures artistic agility.

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Denis Diderot

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The Paradox of Acting (1773)
a great actor must be an unmoved and disinterested onlooker.... He is best when he imitates emotions. Actors impress the public not when they are furious, but when they play fury well."
Diderot explained, the actor who plays from thought ... will be always at his best; he has considered, combined, learned and arranged the whole thing in his head."

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Artistic Communion

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Stanislavsky insisted that an "artistic communion" must exist among the actors into which actors must invest themselves deeply, drawing heavily, therefore, upon their own personal feelings in establishing a rapport with their characters, their fellow actors, and the fictional events of the play.