The Nature of Acting

The nature of acting

An aesthetic view

Summary

This book is the first attempt of a theoretical insight into the art of acting considered as an independent system of art. What is the stage taken as a metaphysical space, and how is the live presence of the actor as a person implemented as a state of secondary importance, a sort of a game and an aesthetic purpose? The research covers not merely the external aspect of the acting, but its internal organization and its basically persistent though historically changing components.

The introduction of the book is an ethical, psychological and aesthetic research of the actor’s pursuit, considering him to be the carrier of the theatre art specifics. Personally, the actor is taken as a substantial base, a unique entity of form and substance, in aesthetic goal. The point is that how well he associates with the literary background and how self-dependent he appears to be under symbolic acting conditions. His public behaviour makes the means and the purpose, the substance and the form replete. Literature being the basis of this form of art is eliminated on the part of the art of acting in terms of its form, thus changing into a totally different poetic reality. The six chapters of the book reveal the determining conceptions of this very reality.

The first chapter contemplates the metaphysics of the stage, i.e. the problem of the real and conditional dimensions of space and time, the interrelationship of the stage and the audience, as well as the position of the actor under the conditions of supposed reality.

The stage is considered to be out of the actual dimensions of space and time. It is a separate condition suggested by the play thus creating mystical emotions in the audience and behind the scenes. Here things are introduced and apprehended symbolically. What is placed in the space and what is used to force the time to move on, the latter considered as time in time (as a second dimension of time), is the supposed realty of acting, a so-called subjective condition of sense. The stage space is not confined to its visible frame. It also embraces the supposed realty away from the actual stage space. This is conditioned by the behaviour of the dramatis personae, i.e. where they are coming from, what they are intended to do and what they see in their imagination. The same is whit the stage time. It is conditional, too, even if it is identified with the actual time of which the audience is aware. The supposed period of time covered in the play exactly corresponds to the actual period of time, and the public takes it for granted. Whereas in another performance the sun rises, and then it gets dark, and the audience is observing all this, and this is also, conditionally though, taken for granted. Time is motionless on the stage before acting, it moves on during the play, as well as during the intervals, behind the curtain, and at the end of the play it vanishes, evaporates and fades away. This is also called a condition, of which both parties are subconsciously aware.

Space and time are conditions for both the actor and the audience to get into silent consent. They are pure forms in their unity, never mind whether they are mediated by things or situations or self-consciously perceived. This works in the course of acting as a live presence of the person, which is physical and suggests a meaning, which is not-physical.

The second chapter considers the state of acting as a current instant and personal presence in public.

The conception of stage occurs whenever a human faces the public and is expected to justify the absurdity of his situation. The art of acting is accomplished by the fever of the current instant and the personal presence. Here is the inherent relation-ship between the reality and the stage as a state of being and an affinity of situation. One keeps being introduced to himself and the people around him and gets an approval of his own identity, regarding himself as an object of contemplation. He is constantly searching or contriving reasons for his situation, a sort of justification, the latter being both an inner form and a basis of external revelation. Situations that he faces away from the stage are often conditioned by societal prejudices, manners or the mask and the acting behavior he is doomed to accomplish.

Conditioned situations on the stage are based on their counterparts in real life aesthetically arranged. The art of acting occurs where personal presence in public gets sense, and where a human is comprehended In terms of his ethic and aesthetical value. The definition brings forward the inner condition – what is man escaping from, and what is he intended to do? (according to Aristotle).

It dictates definite appearance, i.e. a sign of will, which is determined to be the smallest unit of the stage behaviour. It is called an element of acting. A sign of will can be found away from communicative situation involving the use of language, although their background quite often appears to be the inner speech, a word or a phrase that is not pronounced aloud. The silent appearance of a person gains a particular meaning only this way. This image is never lost in the crowd on the stage.

Another essential of theatrical presence is the so-called “fourth wall”. This invisible bar is permanently in game as a major condition for conditionality. Its being real is closely associated with the reality of the interrelationship between the stage and the audience. The role of the “fourth wall” is dual: it can be present in one case and in another case it can be not. This condition is being realized and only during the performance, but also at the rehearsal as everything here is being done with a full awareness of the existence of the audience.

The third chapter discusses the notion of action taken not as a succession of events but as an implemented will, the personal behavior under conditioned circumstances in response to the supposed situation. The two aspects of action are considered: the real and unreal conditions. The real conditions are observed in the circus where everything seems to be physical. Real is the dramatic state of a person which tends to gain a metaphysical meaning (a subconscious state for the performer of the action).The circus is the deformation of human life, it stands above the reality of human life and shows an irony towards that reality. A physical action at the circus pursues a not-physical goal. At the theatre of drama in the logic of action is the same, while the suggested conditions are different. The action is seemingly real, the conditions are supposingly suggested, the substantial reality is rejected. Things are not introduced as things, they are merely symbols serving as conditions. Thus, an action is a relation with an imaginary evidence occurring in an emply space and motionless time. The action is composed separate steps (deeds) and signs of will, which gain sense in a verbal context or in a space of silence. The obviousness of the action is determined by particular specific details with the help of symbolic meanings and it is a also psychologically justified.

This chapter covers the concept of the “little role”, too. The famous saying “…there are no little roles, there are little actors” means the role can be little in terms of the period of the actual time it can be seen on the stage. The good part of its life is over there, in the outer world, and it’s going on, and only a tiny episode is displayed on the stage. The example of the “little role” comes to elucidate a very important principle of acting: much more can be supposed in the background, i.e. the past life is incomparably richer, and the ultimate is  supposed  to be in the prospective, rather than in the obvious presence of the character.

The textual base is viewed in terms of stage action. This means that the drama is the projection of the stage action. The dramatic speech (the language of drama) is recognized as a sort of clothing for supposed, while the situation is it inner form. The situation occurs in the speech in the present tense and in the first person suggesting the following “grammatical pattern of the narrative genre, i.e. “He was, <…>.” The pure form of drama is modified by the famous fable about the two goats who all of a sudden meet on a narrow bridge: the two forces face each other and appear to be in opposition not on their subjective will. Both tempers are reluctant to give way, and the situation is objectively irretrievable. The person, the condition and the behaviour are a single entity and the speech is a situation itself. The characters enter the action in one state of being and leave in another state of being . The situation gains more importance in dramatic speech, as it is the main reason for this very speech, it has no wording and is the driving force of the stage action. However. Words are words in their inner ecstasy, independent of the situation. In this respect the action is subject to the dominance of logos, and words are valued never depending on the situation and having impact on the situation. This is the inevitable paradox of literature and theatre, which has occurred throughout ages. So, the text becomes a source of theatrical inspiration independent of the situation. Being a complete poetic reality, the force of speech leads to poetic emotions thus   eliminating the role of emotions occurring in real life situations in a stage action. Therefore, the stage acting can also be fruitful in terms of the speech ecstasy, which in its turn eliminates the notion of  “pure” action.

The concept of theatrical speech (chapter five) relates to the stage action on the one hand and the specifics of the drama on the other hand. The speech covers a rather wider space in a literary form than the supposed background situation is. While with the theatrical form it’s just on the contrary. This is the universal doctrine. The poetics of theatrical speech can be characterized as a paradox and a confluence of literary and theatrical forms. The silent reality created by the insubstantial paintbrush of words is beyond the borders of space and time, but it gets confined when the word is taken out of the sea of silence. The monotonous reading in a low voice, which is the beginning of the dramatization of the speech, touches upon the literary form and serves as an invisible bridge leading to live situations. The speech itself is the progenitor of the situation and is subject to situations on the stage thus being accomplished as a state of being, an action, a mise en scene. In this absolutely exstra- linguistic environment words acquire the most unexpected tone of utterance, unforeseen shades of meaning, even with meta-semantic colouring. The power of the speech may have an influence as well. It’s the quality developed by the tone, the sounds, the rhythm and the prosody. Thus the declamation becomes an aesthetic goal itself. The behaviour of the actor carried out on the stage in term of its appearance is not the result or the accomplishment of his speech. It’s another laver in the artistic pattern. The synchronous and diachronic states of speech and motion are taken into consideration. But there is also the originality and the independence of plastic movements when the text becomes irrelevant and is thrown away. This is another example of a principal opposition of literature and theatre, which seems to be inevitable.

All the components of the actor’s behaviour  (performance) bring to the ecstasy of play. The sixth chapter of the book is about this. The theories of play are generally and historically considered, starting with Schiller’s theory of play up to modern theories as the famous “Homo Ludens” by Johann Huizinga in particular. Play is defined as an aesthetic form of human freedom, a self-sufficient activity, an utmost passion, and the stage is regarded to be a product of art, which is ultimate and perfect. The ultimate goat of play itself, as art is created for art’s sake, and the product of the relationship is the form serving as a procedure developing a meaning in the theatre. In this chapter the incarnation, the ecstasy, the trance are rejected. And the idea of artistic inspiration is confirmed. The play is looked upon as a dominated, state as an inspiration and exact production, pathos and moderation, artistic balance, a realization of aesthetic emotions.

Translated by   Astghick H.Hovhannissian