PLAYING THE ACTION

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PLAYING THE ACTION
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WHAT IS PLAYING THE ACTION?

• In order for an audience to understand any piece
  of Theatre in performance the action they see
  must be consistent with the words spoken.

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WHAT IS PLAYING THE ACTION?

• You should be able to tell your story clearly
  with
• Posture
• Gesture
• Facial expression
• Tone of voice
• (what we call KINESIC elements)

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WHAT IS PLAYING THE ACTION?

• And by
• Grouping and movement around the stage
• (What we call PROXEMIC elements)

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WHAT ISPLAYING THE ACTION?

• Which is to say that an audience should be able
  to understand what is happening on stage even if
  they cannot speak a word of your language!

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QUALITY OF ACTION

• Each action or utterance (remember, speech is an
  action) performed by an actor must be integral to
  the whole show and have definite, controlled and
  meaningful quality.

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QUALITY OF ACTION

• Each action has three basic qualities
• Weight,
• Space and
• Time.

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QUALITY OF ACTION

• Each quality has two contrasting forms
• Weight can be either light or heavy
• Space can be either direct or indirect
• And Time can be either sustained or sudden.
• These qualities can be used in speech as well as
  action.

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QUALITY OF ACTION

• The great choreographer, Laban, separated these
  qualities under simple headings to make the
  quality of movement more easy to understand.

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QUALITY OF ACTION

• Heavy-Direct-Sudden describes punching
• Heavy-Direct-Sustained describes pushing
• Heavy-Indirect-Sudden describes slashing
• Heavy-Indirect-Sustained describes wringing

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QUALITY OF ACTION

• Light-Indirect-Sustained describes stroking
• Light-Indirect-Sudden describes flitting
• Light-Direct-Sudden describes dabbing
• Light-Direct-Sustained describes smoothing

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QUALITY OF ACTION

• It is worthwhile becoming familiar with this idea
  because you may find a character changes their
  actions between heavy and light, sudden and
  sustained, but

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QUALITY OF ACTION

• Is always INDIRECT in their approach and never
  DIRECT.
• What would this show about a character?

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STAGE DIRECTIONS

• One way playwrights help actors and directors to
  discover important actions to play is through
  Stage Directions.

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• Most scripts you receive will have instructions
  to the director, designers and actors contained
  in the form of stage directions.

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• What follows is a brief guide to understanding
  Stage Directions as set out in most modern texts.

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• At the head of a scene there are Stage Directions
  which give the time and location and describe the
  scene, noting any useful props and features of
  set which will be used in that scene.

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• These will be written in italics and have no
  brackets.

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• After that there will usually be a brief
  explanation of the opening action. Any
  characters named will be named in capital letters
  so the actors can recognise their actions more
  easily.

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• This will also be in italics and without brackets.

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• Instructions to individual actors are usually
  placed after the name of the character they play.
• These Stage Directions are in brackets and
  written in italics .

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• They follow a simple set of rules to let you, the
  actor, know when to play the action.

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• (If the stage direction starts with a capital
  letter and ends with a full stop you should do
  the complete action BEFORE you speak.)

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• (If the stage direction starts with a capital
  letter but does not end with a full stop you
  should start the action BEFORE you speak but then
  CONTINUE to do it as you speak)

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• (if the stage direction starts with a lower case
  letter and does not end with a full stop you
  should do the action as you speak or speak in the
  way described by the Stage Direction)

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• If a stage direction stands alone from the text
  the playwright wants it to be given as much
  weight as any spoken line because it is meant to
  be noticed by the audience.

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USING STAGE DIRECTIONS TO HELP PLAY THE ACTION

• This is true even if the word is simply
• (Pause.)

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GOING BEYOND THE STAGE DIRECTIONS

• Of course, as an actor, you will need to do more
  than just follow the stage directions to make a
  moment come alive on the stage.

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GOING BEYOND THE STAGE DIRECTIONS

• The whole time you are on stage your actions, or
  lack of them, will be seen by an audience and
• TAKEN
• AS
• SIGNIFICANT.

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GOING BEYOND THE STAGE DIRECTIONS

• The audience will be looking at everything you do
  to help them understand
• The truth of the world you are creating on stage,

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GOING BEYOND THE STAGE DIRECTIONS

• The meaning and reality of the actions you show,
• And the honest portrayal of the people who create
  or suffer those actions.

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GOING BEYOND THE STAGE DIRECTIONS

• EVERYTHING YOU DO WILL BE ASSUMED TO HAVE MEANING
• THEREFORE
• EVERYTHING YOU DO MUST HAVE MEANING.

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GOING BEYOND THE STAGE DIRECTIONS

• So how do you choose or discover the right action
  to play to make a moment clear and understandable
  to an audience?

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GOING BEYOND THE STAGE DIRECTIONS

• The first questions you must ask yourself are
• What is the truth explored in the play?
• What reality do I need to show an audience to
  understand this truth?
• What form of honesty will connect me to these
  truths and realities?

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TRUTH

• The first thing you must do is understand your
  text fully, using critical thinking and reading
  any reviews or criticism you can find to help
  answer the following questions.

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TRUTH

• On what truthful understanding of the world,
  politics, human motivation, etc does the play
  rest?
• What is the ideology of the playwright?
• Is it explicit or implicit?

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TRUTH

• It is obvious that Stanislavskis truth is
  different to Brechts, is different to Becketts,
  is different to Grotowskis, is different to
  Brooks.

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TRUTH

• Stanislavski aims to serve the audience a slice
  of life, as truthfully and believably presented
  as possible, so they can understand the
  characters as if they were real people moving in
  a real, externally verifiable, true and
  consistent world.

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TRUTH

• Brecht aims to show the audience a truthful piece
  of Theatre which explores the truth of the way
  power operates in society so the audience can
  gain an understanding of how they can affect
  issues of power in the real world.

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TRUTH

• Beckett aims to show the emptiness of meaning
  from human life the only truth is what we make
  and any attempts to find meaning are meaningless.

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TRUTH

• Grotowski aims to show the truth of the
  individual subjective human experience and make
  that universal.

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TRUTH

• Brook aims to uncover the truth hidden in the
  relationship between the text and the world which
  created that text, and then translate that
  textual relationship into a meaningful
  relationship with our world .

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REALITY

• Once you have located the Truth of the
  performance piece you can start to look for the
  realities presented on stage.

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REALITY

• For Stanislavski and the realists, everything on
  stage should be as real as possible so that the
  audience feel they are actually looking in on the
  world of the play and watching real events unfold
  with real people in front of them.

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REALITY

• For Brecht the audience must never forget that
  this is really a piece of theatre played by
  actors, who are not really the parts they play.
  The social world is created by people and people
  can really change it. The only things that need
  to be real on stage are things that are used to
  show truthful relationships. This is what he
  meant in his cry to Make it real!

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REALITY

• For Beckett Theatre provides a metaphor for
  reality which can explore the difficulties of
  finding a meaning for existence more effectively
  than logical, rational discourse can.

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REALITY

• For Grotowski the reality lies in the actual
  power of the emotion generated and communicated
  by the performer.

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REALITY

• For Brook reality is created by the demands of
  that texts need to communicate to our world.

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HONESTY

• Once the truth of the piece (style) and the
  realities demanded by the presentation
  (conventions) have been discovered, all that
  remains is for you to do is-

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HONESTY

• approach these discoveries with the attitude of
  honestly becoming a real part of the
  performance to

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HONESTY

• convey the truths of the piece effectively to an
  audience.

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HONESTY

• Each major theatre practitioner has either
  written themselves about the role and function of
  the performer or had their ideas explored and
  explained by others.

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HONESTY

• An informed performer will read, explore and seek
  practical guidance on the different functions of
  an actor as defined by each major practitioner.

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HONESTY

• Just as a musician will practice scales and learn
  to play a range of different styles of music, so
  should you, as an actor, practice not only your
  basic skills

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HONESTY

• Fitness
• Flexibility
• Coordination
• Voice control
• Focus
• Determination
• Resilience

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HONESTY

• But also practice your ability to read,
  recognise, acknowledge and apply the appropriate
  skills to realise honestly the truth of a piece
  of Theatre in front of an audience.

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Thank you and good luck