The requirements to future specialists in professional education accentuate the qualities of their adaptability, constant self-improvement, capacity to adjust to the new demand in the profession. These qualities are especially important for students of pedagogy and art preparing for the career of actors-instructors, i.e. instructors teaching…

Despite the amount of attention paid Adolphe Appia and Edward Gordon Craig, a misconception persists with regard to their ideas concerning the actor; namely, that Appia had the actor dominate all the elements of staging, and that Craig considered the actor less essential. However, to both, the actor was both essential and nonessential to the…

This discussion of the term "style" as it relates to the arts points to the need for reform in the terminology and the conceptual system of the drama profession. The paper first lists the basic tasks of conceptual and terminological reform and then outlines the steps necessary in reforming a particular term. These procedures are applied to a…

A survey of approximately 450 novice Shakespearean actors was undertaken to determine what could be learned from a careful study of the initiation of new performers acting Shakespeare that might be helpful to others. The findings revealed that the typical initiate perceives acting Shakespeare as different from other acting, indicates a definite…

This study was designed to test the effect of a director's expectation of a good or bad performance by his actors on the judged effectiveness of their performances. Thirty-two actors were randomly chosen from volunteers in an introductory course in communication theory at the University of Wyoming. The eight directors were students in an upper…

An organic approach to style in acting can lend credibility and power to performances and can enhance the clarity and extent of what is communicated to audiences about other social worlds. The organic approach is based on the following principles: mental experience and expressive behavior are inseparable and reciprocal; experience in either mode…

The paper describes a theater workshop for children with learning disabilities, and discusses its benefits, including improved oral and written language, self esteem, and self control. Comments of actors involved in the workshop are included. (CL)

An examination of Albert Camus' definition of the actor in "The Myth on Sisyphus" helps to illuminate the character and role of The Player in Tom Stoppard's play and, hence, to bring light to an understanding of the philosophy of the play itself. The actor, for Camus, reveals our mortality in the face of the absurdity of our mortality,…

Problems in the preparation of a school play for opening night are discussed in this paper for the benefit of directors who may not have had any previous experience in play production. The questions of what the director does, when he does it, and why he does it are all explored in sections on choosing a play, establishing command, casting, the…

Young people need a gymnasium for the expression of their passions: Shakespeare provides it. People who do not exercise their feelings cannot develop the strength to exercise their passions, and unexercised passions can seem to atrophy. It is even more likely that unexercised and unexpressed passions leak into pathways of the body chemistry where…

From the director's point of view, a "memorable monologue" is one in which the actor exhibits imagination and invention in role-playing. Memorable audition monologues require a measured degree of "risk taking" and uninhibited abandon--the first task is to select monologues that suit the type of script and the role being cast.…

This paper examines the career of Charles Macklin of London, an 18th-century actor/director/teacher, whose treatise on his performative approach and pedagogical techniques, "On the Science of Acting," was lost at sea in a 1772 shipwreck. Citing two letters Macklin received from his actress daughter, Maria, and fragments of his own…

Senior theater programs can act as catalysts for involvement of senior citizens, promoting self-confidence and fostering creativity. Myths about older people (concerning senility, incompetence, decline in intelligence, learning, rigidity, and retirement) should be recognized as inaccurate stereotypes and as barriers to active and productive lives.…

Noting that scholars have too willingly accepted Plato's assumption that one could not successfully be both an actor and a rhapsode (reciter or singer of epic poetry), this paper suggests that placing the "mixed style" of the rhapsode's performance art within the context of the Homeric sensibility and the cultural shift into literacy…

An acting teacher can train students to bring the reality of their personal lives to the various artificial structures that give form to playscripts and that can otherwise induce rigid or mechanical performances if not balanced by the vibrancy of the actor. A series of exercises allows students to discover how they may use their own impulses,…