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Style For Actors Chapter 1

This document provides notes and questions from a chapter about style for actors. It discusses style as the relationship between internal beliefs and external manifestations, and how style is perceived differently by individuals and groups. Questions are posed about how beliefs influence style for Latter-day Saints and Americans. The chapter asserts that style involves strategic choices within certain limits and contexts, and that truly understanding a style allows one to expand upon it in a play or performance.

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105 views3 pages

Style For Actors Chapter 1

This document provides notes and questions from a chapter about style for actors. It discusses style as the relationship between internal beliefs and external manifestations, and how style is perceived differently by individuals and groups. Questions are posed about how beliefs influence style for Latter-day Saints and Americans. The chapter asserts that style involves strategic choices within certain limits and contexts, and that truly understanding a style allows one to expand upon it in a play or performance.

Uploaded by

Izabelle
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Style for Actors

Chapter 1
Spring 2020

Notes and Questions:

Style is a way of entering the world through understanding:

 Q - If Style is the relationship between what you feel and what you believe, what do you think is
an external manifestation of an internal belief in our culture as LDS people? As Americans?

 Q - If style is the way things are done rather than the core act, what have we made stylish
through our belief as LDS people? As Americans?

 C – A belief held by enough people is perceived as the dominant style.

 C - Bad theatre is poor manifestation of the way things are done with firm belief or good
manifestation of the way things are done with poor belief. You must examine the motivations,
but you must also practice the activities.

Style is what is shared by characters in a play (or people in a group), while characterization is what
makes them distinct from one another.

 C – Style is the “balance between interesting, idiosyncratic, even quirky character work and
consistent, detailed style work is what makes for an exciting production”.

 C – “We want our humans clearly defined so we won’t confuse them, but we also want them to
share enough to tie the play together. “

 C – “We want to be part of the neighborhood but not mistaken for our neighbors.”

 Q – Can you think of any plays, books or movies not about “style wars?” (Wars over differences)

Style is what works in a group.

 C – “Membership is a social necessity, a tool for survival. Style is an ongoing struggle rather
than an accomplishment as we keep trying to fit in.”

 Q – Have you had a situation where you changed your style to fit into a situation?
Style involves strategic choices. It is a latitude, with some limits, but much creative space.

 C - Habits are style choices that may or may not work any longer. The “group” punished or
rewards behavior according to a group of circumstances (according to what the group has
decided to be the style).

 Q – How do we fit into the “O.K.” space as theatre professionals within our culture, within our
nation without giving up our core belief system?

Style is behavior perceived by the individual as natural, while others (of unlike style) are perceived as
artificial and contrived.

 C – “As each person views his own behavior as normal, so does each era.” (The Homeschooler,
the Jock, the Popular Girl, Molly Mormon, Peter Priesthood, The Theatre Geek, The Computer
Nerd, The Grumpy Old Man, the Scary Old Lady,). (The 60’s, the 70’s, the 80’s, the 90’s, the
2000’s, after 911).

 Q - What do you think After Covid-19 will look like?

Style for the theatre artist is the journey from tourist to native. It is living in the world of the play
--- not just visiting it. (Visiting it is the audience’s job!)

 C – “Rehearsal are psychic relocations.” (This isn’t just actors alone. EVERYONE including the
designers, directors, crew are on this journey.)

 C – “The rehearsal is the journey; the performance the destination.”

 C – “The audience always know which actors feel like aliens, which are not entirely foreign but
still haven’t gotten their papers, and which have decided they belong. These last actors own
the stage. . .. The basis for the power involved is the willingness to believe. . .. You are a prince,
sage, monster, or even god if you are available to your own imagination and courage.”

 Style is being good enough at being good to get away with being bad

 C – “When you understand what works in a culture, then you can begin to play with it. If you
know how to charm, impress, inspire, intimidate, move, amuse and seduce, you can get away
with almost anything.”

 C – “In performance, the long hours spent learning the customs of the period give you the
confidence to expand, realizing that there are many ways to do it, some yet to be invented—by
you.”
Style is knowing what play you’re in.

 C – “In the theatre, you need to know what play you’re in, and in life you need to know what
game you’re in. Otherwise, survival is unlikely and success impossible.”

SIGHT AND SOUND: First style impressions

 I – Snap judgments (60 seconds):


o Way you look
o Way you dress
o Way you speak
o Q – What things can you name about yourself that may cause people to judge you one
as something other than you are? (maybe not have them do this out loud?)
 This is our culture. Ignore these things to your peril.

RITUALS AND LIFESTYLES: Finding Patterns

 I – Stylized events in our lives


o Q – Can you name 10?
o C - People feel cheated if an important experience or event is not stylized into ritual.

 C - People have gone about the same fundamental acts, {over the periods of time and in our
time} in different ways. “The acts and the people are not really different. The style is. This
knowledge makes it easier to stop judging others for surface issues and to take the time to find
out who they are.”

GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS: Your own style

 C – “While style is associated in groups, it is embraced by individuals.”

 Q – Of which groups do others “think” you are a member, whether it is so or not?

 Q – What single article of clothing would others most likely associate with you? What kinds of
people wear this kind of clothing?

 Q – What do you work hardest at altering about yourself before you present yourself out in the
world each day?

 Q – When you have traveled, where have you felt most at home and most like an alien?

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