|
The Art of the Actor
By Jean Benedetti
Methuen £16.99
245 pages
Dateline: 23rd May, 2005
Sharing an attractive cover with a massive amphitheatre, is the subtitle
"The essential history of acting, from classical times the present
day".
This large-format book is written by a man who spent seventeen years
as the Principal of the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. It
is very much a manual that will prove valuable to students of drama.
Whether it will attract many general readers is questionable.
Starting with Aristotle, the author tracks the history of acting, with
liberal extracts from masters of the art. For somebody who dislikes
reading the lengthy originals on their way to passing exams, this approach
will prove a delight. Some may also be tempted to read more by the authors
that they find the most interesting or valuable.
The early chapters can seem more akin to philosophy than acting especially
those on classical rhetoric and declamation in the French Theatre. The
key debate arose between those who believe that actors should be technical
geniuses who have no feeling for their characters and the opposite faction
who believe that it is necessary to become the person that you are playing.
The turning-point occurs in the chapter entitled Realism in
which Mikhail Schepkin has a revelatory experience which leads to his
30 year stint as director of the Maly Theatre in Petersburg. Talking
of the job of an actor he explains, "He must first begin by blotting
himself, his own personality, his own individuality, out and become
the character the author has given him; he must walk, talk, think, feel,
weep, laugh in the way the author once in it -and you cannot do that
if you have not blotted yourself out. You see how much more meaningful
this kind of actor is! The first kind merely faked, the second is the
real thing".
From there, it is a short step to the book's longest chapter, on a
man about whom the author has already written three books, entitled
Stanislavsky and the "System". Like Schepkin, Stanislavsky
sought to achieve the realism that both Gogol and Pushkin demanded in
order for their plays to be successful.
This chapter is then set off with one on the other key figure of the
Twentieth Century, Bertolt Brecht whose vision of theatre demands analysis
and debate of every possibility for each acting choice. The essay contrasting
Stanislavsky and Brecht is also one of the book's highlights.
The Art of the Actor should prove to be an invaluable manual
for students starting out on the road to becoming actors or directors.
Philip Fisher
Articles from 2005
Articles from 2004
Articles from 2003
Articles from 2002
Articles from 2001
Articles from 2000
Articles from 1999
Articles from 1998
Articles from 1997
|
