Acting - Qualifications and Training
By Michael Russell

The representation of a character on stage, in a motion picture, or in a television show is known as Acting. Acting is also a formulation of a play.

It is definitely a world wide cultural phenomenon. For years, times and places have been designated to perform these make-believe characters in front of audiences. Transforming themselves into humans, animals, etc. to entertain audiences all over the world.

The impulse to act is related to our natural development and imagination as children. Most play activities included: mimicry, disguise, imitation, fantasy and transformation.

So how do we know what is good acting and what is not? The ability to communicate dialog and to have a sense of the character in front of an audience is how an actor's talents are judged. Voice, movement and emotions are normally how this is accomplished. There are other qualities of the actor that are not so easy to describe: depth of feeling, charm, originality, plausibility and physical characteristics that attract audiences.

Acting is a very complex art. Mastering voice projection, speaking style, pronunciation, gestures, movement on stage and many other abilities is only part of the craft. Basic skills such as remembering lines and cues; also costumes, masks and stage properties; and the portrayal of a character by using class status, gender, age, nationality and temperament. It usually takes several years to learn these skills. For example: many years of studying the style of gestures, movements and facial expressions to master Indian dance-drama.

In the theater, an actor must speak and move with every environment on the stage, otherwise the whole dramatic production will fail. The actor must be believe he or she is the character they are portraying, which demands much concentration and inspiration. Great acting consists of being able to awaken the center of the brains creativity and great expression. An actor must be stimulated to great heights so that audiences are moved and intrigued by every moment of the play.

An actor's special creative problem is controlled emotions. Other types of artists such as, sculptors, painters, composers, or even novelists never are expected to complete a new piece of work night after night; yet the stage actor must be creative night after night in front of an audience. In other terms, an actor must portray a character night after night even though he may not feel any special inspiration or artistic impulse towards the character he is portraying. An actor must constantly inspire and replenish him or herself night after night, because theater performances are usually repeated for a series of nights and months.

Aristotle, through his Poetics (about 33 BC) became one of the first to discuss theater acting in the West. In the Greek theater, actors wore masks and very heavy garments that portrayed mythical and historical characters. Temperament and feelings were portrayed through speech and gestures that were very clear to the audiences. Speech training and vocal exercises were part of training that an actor would go through. Aristotle's written thoughts included, the human voice could portray passion and delight and distress and anger could be felt by feeling emotions at the time the actor expressed them. Finding true feelings at the right place and time on stage was one of the problems that Aristotle did not address well. In conclusion, Aristotle stated that acting was for the gifted or insane.

Greek actors were obsessed with crossing the boundaries of artistic abilities, emotions and imitations. Poles a Greek actor, (315 BC) actually carried the ashes of his deceased son in an urn so that it would stimulate grief while playing the character Electra who was mourning the death of her brother Orestes. (Many male Actor's during that time and hundred's of years later played parts of women.) By doing this, the audience was moved very deeply. However, his experiment was not easily duplicated and remains a curiosity in history.

By the third century BC, the Greek theater declined. In fact, acting had almost disappeared for a thousand years in the West. During the Roman Empire (1st century BC to 5th Century AD), theater existed and flourished and also during the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) in courts and cities. Actor's back then were thought to be unreliable and social outcasts and were very rarely credited with the status of a true artist. It wasn't until the 17th or 18th centuries did respect for the theater and acting change.