Acting & Actor Training

Subject

The training of actors and performers operates in a variety of ways according to the contexts for which they are being trained. Historically, Western actors and performers, previous to the twentieth century, trained in companies, often whilst touring. This kind of ‘training’ was based on serving an apprenticeship, and so the preparation required for professional practice was acquired whilst the performer was working in some capacity in a professional theatre or performance context. In Western countries where the state provided funding for theatre, more formal systems of integration into companies existed. Historically, certain European performance modes such as commedia dell’arte required specialist training, but again, until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this happened through observation and application in the company itself. In non-Western performance traditions, such as Kathakali, training in technique and practice is more formalised, often conducted through rigorous and arduous long-term commitment to a programme of training from a young age.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, actor training in Western practice became more theorised and formalised. In Britain, the first drama school, LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art), was established in 1861. In Russia, practitioners such as Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vsevolod Meyerhold developed training and rehearsal systems for actors that were predicated on the building of technique and methodology. Later in the twentieth century, a number of training systems for actors developed, and many of these involved techniques and practices appropriated from non-Western performance, ideas developed in fields such as gymnastics and psychology, and more formalised methods and techniques for dealing with issues specific to professional performance practice such as muscular and physical training, voicework and systems of cognitive training. Training for actors who will work predominantly outside of the commercial or subsidised sectors tends to borrow from non-Western practices more, is built on an agenda to develop mind and body control, and is often predicated on the belief that actor training is a continuous and lifelong activity.

Image: Katharina Seyferth in white shorts and dark t-shirt. Photo by Celeste Taliani

Acting

Acting is the art of performing in theatre, especially using the actor’s voice and body. It is intentional, social and theatrical, and often aims to be mimetic – to copy a recognisable reality.

Acting subject list — Acting

Acting is the art of performing in theatre, especially using the actor’s voice and body. It is intentional, social and theatrical, and often aims to be mimetic – to copy a recognisable reality.

Biomechanics

The term biomechanics indicates the suite of training exercises used by Vsevolod Meyerhold to train his actors in the new post-revolutionary theatre he pursued.

Biomechanics list — Biomechanics

The term biomechanics indicates the suite of training exercises used by Vsevolod Meyerhold to train his actors in the new post-revolutionary theatre he pursued.

Improvisation

Improvisation is the spontaneous invention of performance. But while it specifies a particular form, elements of improvisation are intrinsic to all performance and the quality of liveness it produces.

Improvisation list view — Improvisation

Improvisation is the spontaneous invention of performance. But while it specifies a particular form, elements of improvisation are intrinsic to all performance and the quality of liveness it produces.

Movement & Body Work

Movement training or the aestheticised enactment of movements in performance requires discipline and rehearsal practice, and more heightened attention than we give our body in everyday life.

Movement subject list — Movement & Body Work

Movement training or the aestheticised enactment of movements in performance requires discipline and rehearsal practice, and more heightened attention than we give our body in everyday life.

Performer Training

Performer training assumes skills can be developed to make communication clearer and the experience of performing easier. It often sees the performer practising the integration of voice and body.

Performer Training subject list view — Performer Training

Performer training assumes skills can be developed to make communication clearer and the experience of performing easier. It often sees the performer practising the integration of voice and body.

Postmodern Acting

Postmodern acting has interrogated the idea of a unified subject and individual agency in a variety of ways. Its avoidance of characterisation means it is often understood more broadly as performance.

Postmodern acting subject list — Postmodern Acting

Postmodern acting has interrogated the idea of a unified subject and individual agency in a variety of ways. Its avoidance of characterisation means it is often understood more broadly as performance.

Psychophysical Acting

As part of his research into the nature and processes of performance, Stanislavsky invented the term ‘psychophysical’ to describe acting focussed equally on the actor’s psychology and physicality.

Psychophysical list — Psychophysical Acting

As part of his research into the nature and processes of performance, Stanislavsky invented the term ‘psychophysical’ to describe acting focussed equally on the actor’s psychology and physicality.

Rehearsal

The substance of rehearsal time is mainly contingent on the requirements made of actors: to learn lines; to enter into roles; to establish movements and interactions; to create the ‘world of a play’.

Rehearsal subject thumbnail — Rehearsal

The substance of rehearsal time is mainly contingent on the requirements made of actors: to learn lines; to enter into roles; to establish movements and interactions; to create the ‘world of a play’.

Text Analysis

The text is the actor’s starting and end point when creating a character, requiring a certain forensic analysis to transform the page into flesh-and-blood character. This process is often intuitive.

Text analysis subject list view — Text Analysis

The text is the actor’s starting and end point when creating a character, requiring a certain forensic analysis to transform the page into flesh-and-blood character. This process is often intuitive.

Voice

The voice – its use, production and health – is arguably the most vital aspect of the actor’s instrument. That the word ‘audience’ is used so commonly indicates the aural and oral signifiers involved.

Song list — Voice

The voice – its use, production and health – is arguably the most vital aspect of the actor’s instrument. That the word ‘audience’ is used so commonly indicates the aural and oral signifiers involved.