Acting training in contemporary theatre

ACTING IN CONTEXTS: BODY, PERFORMANCE AND THE SYSTEMS OF ACTING TRAINING IN CONTEMPORARY THEATRE.

Drama is an important visual art which deals with the real life and interacts directly with an audience. An actor is the only artiste who uses his own body to represent life on the stage.  In the staging of a play, actor is the most important factor. The duty of a director is to interact with the audience through the medium of an actor. It is precisely because of this it is said that a director’s most powerful tool is actor. In the very important stages of world theatre, an actor’s position was crucial.  So for an actor it is inevitable to have a scientific practice in order to perform his skills with ease.  These days actors undergo rigorous practice that makes use both of eastern as well as of western acting method.  This makes it possible and easy for the actor to represent the new features of the theatre.  Except for a few those who have not practiced scientifically, though they have innate talent in them, is observed to be following a lifeless acting pattern.  Body, Voice, Mind and stage settings are the tools of an actor.  With in it is his body, voice, mind which could be used creatively by an actor.  So as different from other artistes, for an actor he himself is the medium, using this actor is bound to perform, not according to his personal choices but in tune with the audience’s needs, in the sense that an actor is confined to the occasions. A painter can paint whenever and wherever he wants to.  Same is the case with a poet,  But to an actor in the theatre, as he needs audience, time and place is crucial for him.  So is necessary for an actor to perform this developing a mental and physical structure which will enable him to perform serving the needs of the time.  To achieve such a condition along with the inborn talents practice is needed scientifically.

 

     We can see that it is not an added quality but very important and inevitable.  We will understand the relevance of the practice when we look at the difference of attitudes towards the stage and drama and the style of acting.

 

      Any performance needs practice to enact any performance in its totality, be that Western of Eastern, an actor needs to have full control over his body.  To attain control over the body it should be subjected to rigorous exercises,.  In the modern modes of staging, for the creative enactment of a play, an abundance of visual images is very important.  In this process when the body itself needs to bring these images on the stage the body becomes all the more important,  The eradication of the tightness of the muscles, which hinder an actors from, is only possible through the work on one’s body.  The movements and gestures can be brought under the control of an actor in the same way.  Modern theater offers a whole set of possibilities which enable an actor to use his body in various creative ways.  Methodical practices enable an actor to use the sculptural beauty of one’s body to facilitate the communication through an actor’s body.  The Nritya- Natya arts forms of Kerala like Kathakali and Koodiyattam, the martial art Kalari for example provide strong support to this argument while analyzing the one can see that the performing artist of these art forms subject their body to perseverant practices.  Without a spectacular setting of mechanical external devises, it has been proved than an actor can express himself using the body powerfully. These facts point to the significance of the scientific practicing methods.  This, something which the Indian theater knew right from the ancient times, has been recognized by the western theatre in the modern times.  In the Western Scenario, Stanislavisly, Mayerhold, Antoine Arthaud, Michel Chekov and Grotovsky are the important theoreticians who gave structure to such training methods using western as well as eastern methods which provide an analysis based scientific foundation to acting gives life and energy to the performance.

 

     As it is normally accepted, that requires practice, some talented dramatists along for a change in the methods.  They have valid reasons many of the training systems have been prevailing for quite a long time.  Some of the methods are quite obsolete but they are dragged on to the stage and are unable to provoke any response.  It became more obvious in an interaction with artists who are quite active even today.  They call for a new theatre culture, which gives one room for new visual images at the expense of the right ones.  For this, a new method has to be invented.

 

      In the case of acting, the ability to practice or perform is very important.  One might be able to learn how to move on stage, how to control his voice and such things with the study of a short span.  Then also it remains as the ability to perform.  It doesn’t become creative.  Bharata’s Natyasastra very well describes the technical methods and systems, which could even be used in the modern theatre.  As the result of the meditation for reaching unexplored heights of acting many theories have been formulated many theories of acting where he has assembled the former theories and his own theories derived from the experience.  Mayerhold and Micheal Chekov, who came up with new theories were his colleagues and disciples.  Grotovsky, who believed that the sublime realm of acting is through self- sacrifice also had his start in Stansilavisky.  One needs to give a rethought about all these eastern and western theories, including the Natyasastra’s and Stansilavisky perspectives and according to the needs of the day.

 

    The contemporary society is characterized by the mechanization, isolation (or alienation) a feeling of insecurity and meaninglessness and speed which are direct outcome of the new changes that has plagued the world.  These changes have staged leaving its traces on literary texts as well as in theatre.  So training systems, which can reflect these, should evolve.  For this a distinct method should be worked out which is different both from Natyasastra’s and from Stansilaviskyan methods.  It is better to formulate a method, which creates the foresaid mental condition consciously, and merging with it evolves new training systems of its own. This does not mean that old methods can be rejected abruptly.  But one should assimilate the finer elements of them with the new ones.

 

     The process of the acting is determined by practical, mental and physical training systems.  Theatre can shape human culture by waking up the creativity dormant in it.  Though theatre has moved far ahead of its initial difficulties people still expect stale symbols and images from the theatre.  This calls for a new stage language based on the actor making use both of Eastern and Western traditions of acting placing it in the socio- political and cultural ethos.  The new discipline should be rooted in the tradition, but as the same time, should also be viable to change and organic.  The critique of consumer society, rather than being an object of it should be combined with the critique of mechanization.  The scientific methods rather than being an end in itself should be used for the improvement of the process.  An actor’s energy can thus be used against the dominant ideology.  An actor’s duty in the contemporary world is to develop a life style that can explore the creative aspect of his body and mind through practice.

 

. Bibliography :        

        1. Oida, Yoshi and Marshall, Loana  : The Invisible Actor,

                                                                         Routledge,London 1995.

2.      Gillett, John                                     :  Acting on Impulse,

                                                              Methuen Drama 2007.

3.      Zinder, David                                  :  Body Voice Imagination,

                                                                         Routledge,London 2009.    

4.      Suzuki ,Tadashi                                : The Way of Acting,

                                                             Theatre Communication Group 1993.

5.      Goodall, Jane                                   : Stage Presence,

                                                             Routledge,London 2008.   

6.      Merlin, Bella                                     : Acting the basis,

                                                            Routledge,London 2010.  

7.      Senelick, Laurence                         : Theatre Arts on Acting,

                                                             Routledge,London 2008

8.      Loui, Annie                                     : The Physical Actor,

                                                            Routledge, London 2009.

9.      Barba, Eugenio                             : A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology,

                                                          Routledge, London 1991.

10.    Bharathamuni                             : Natyashastram,

                                                         Translation by K.P. Narayana Pisharody

11.    Stanislavski, Constantin             : Building a Character,

                                                          Theatre art book, New York 1949