This is, thankfully, the final chapter of An Actor Prepares. Like Elena, I think that this chapter was mainly a lot of tying up lose ends and summing everything up; which is what a good final chapter does. It went further into detail about things such as the subconscious. I think that this is a good thing to explore, since there is little known about it. I also agree with Elena that maybe it would not be called the "subconscious" if you could tap into it at will, but I also do not think that this is what the book is telling us. I think that it is saying that we, as actors, can sometimes lose ourselves in a role (which sounds romantic, but probably isn't). I think that it is okay to lose yourself in a role, but only if it is for a very short space of time. If an actor becomes too consumed with a character that he is playing, he is sure to lose his own identity; which is never safe to do.
In conclusion, I have found this book to be helpful in most ways and am planning on keeping it and referencing it again in the future. I feel that it will be a great tool for my future acting career. I also hope that I have retained enough from it to start incorporating it into my acting style.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Stanislavski: The Super-Objective
The 15th chapter is about how each play has what is called a super-objective, or one major theme or goal to it. Every action, objective, or tactic should always work towards this one goal. To quote the book, "The common bond must be so strong that even the most insignificant detail, if it is not related to the super-objective, will stand out as superfluous or wrong." I thought that this sentence summed up the term super-objective pretty well. The better the play is written, the more of a super-objective it has; if a play is weak or bad, it may be up to the actors to create their own super-objective. The part that made me best understand the content of this chapter was the drawings done by the Director. I understood better that if an actor has a super-objective, they are able to move in a smooth line to get to that; but if they do not, they must go all over the place to find it, which just ends up in a mess.
Stanislavski: The Inner Creative State
Chapter 14 is about an actor's inner creative state, which is the mood that an actor is in to act. For example, if any actor says that he is "not in the mood" to perform, it either means that his creativity is not working correctly, or at all, or it has been replaced by mechanical habits. I get this feeling a lot in the rehearsal process. Unless I am deeply in love with the show (which is rare), I get bored with it about the week before it opens. But once the time get closer, I become more excited about it all. Having an audience really helps with this, too. The advice given by the Director about this very problem is that an actor should always refresh a role before every rehearsal/performance. If an actor does not do this, he is more than likely going to present the shell of a character to the audience. I thought that this advice was helpful and hope to be able to incorporate it into my acting.
Theatre Management Vocabulary
· Agit-prop production: created to disseminate propaganda by theatrically agitating an audience and thereby moving it to take future action.
· Guerilla theatre: political in content and propagandistic in purpose.
· Mission statement: serves as the standard by which a venture is ultimately judged to be a success or failure.
· Theatre or arts manager: any person who plays a part in bringing together or facilitating two or more of the four elements (performer, material, place, audience).
o Any person who helps bring labor and capital together in order to produce an end product (economist)
o May be anyone who has influence over the organizational behavior of a given internal and/or external theatre environment (sociologist)
· General manager: someone who supervises the entire process from beginning to end.
· A manager may be anyone involved in the following functions:
o Planning
o Organizing
o Staffing and casting
o Supervising
o Controlling
· Commercial producer: someone who decides on a property to produce (a play, a musical, a one-person show) and a venue in which to perform it.
· Trustees: responsible for the legal, fiscal and overall conduct of not-for-profit organizations.
· Impresario: an outdated term for producers who rarely own their own theatres.
· Shelled space: a space that is left as a raw, unfinished space to be completed at a later time when more funding is available.
· Pro forma: describing something provided in advance to prescribe form.
· Backers’ audition: commercial theatres will invite investors to come and see a staged reading or song to sell shares.
· Stop clause: a weekly box office gross amount that is agreed to in the license.
· White contract: a contract used for principle actors.
· Pink contract: a contract used for chorus actors.
· Showcase code: a code that permits producers to collect contributions from the audience or charge them a limited ticket price, but restricts the budget, the number of performances to 16, and the size of the theatre to fewer than 100 seats.
· Fiscal agent: can serve as the recipient of contributions on behalf of the group.
· Artistic board: a board that is often comprised of established artists who wish to support a company but are unable to do so financially.
· Enhancement money: given in the form of a contribution to help develop a particular property that the producer hopes will transfer to Broadway.
· Presenters: theatres and administrators who concern themselves almost exclusively with presenting productions that have been produced by others.
· Open-ended run: a production will continue at a theatre as long as it earns a minimum weekly amount at the box office.
· Fixed run: a production is booked into a theatre for a specific, limited run, usually ranging from one to twenty-six weeks in length.
· Budget: a financial estimate of future income and expenses.
· Financial statement: documentation of past expenses and revenues over a finite time period: monthly, quarterly, or annually.
· Break-even: weekly operating cost.
· Business manager: a person whose daily routine is keeping financial records, paying bills, making deposits, or supervising such activities.
· Petty cash fund: a separate cash – loan or advance – fund set up to cover small expenses.
· Cash float: the time between when the charge is incurred and the time it must be paid (using a credit card).
· Independent contractor: a person or group paid by a fee from which no tax deductions are made.
· Depreciation: the proportional part of the cost of an asset that has been allocated to a particular period, such as a year.
· Hard tickets: tickets reprinted by a ticket printing house.
· Soft tickets: ticket stock; used in ticket printers kept in the box office for a computer-based system.
· Point of purchasing printing: this computer system mentioned above.
· Hardwood ticket: a numbered blank form on which authorized managers or treasurers may fill in the appropriate seating information to issue to the customer in lieu of an actual ticket.
· Deadwood: all unsold tickets that remain after the performance for which they were valid.
· House seats: seats held for the use of the landlord or producer or company as authorized.
· Press seats: seats for opening nights and other performances as authorized by the press agent or publicity director.
· Dead seats: seats that may not be used at all because they have obstructed views of because they have been removed to make space for musicians or some other purpose.
· Agency seats: seats permanently assigned to be sold by ticket agents, which are paid for by the agency or released for general sale at a specified time prior to each performance.
· Special seats: tickets held until a specified time by the star, the director, or others and to be paid for by them or by the persons authorized to claim them.
· Go clean: to sell every seat in a house.
· Contributed income or unearned income: grants, contributions, and in-kind gifts.
· Grants: contracts to buy specific services.
· Foundation: an incorporated nonprofit organization set up to distribute funds or grants to people or projects that meet certain, and very exacting, criteria.
· Contribution: the generic term for all types of unearned income.
· In-kind gifts: a type of corporate support; they may be in the form of goods or equipment.
· Marketing: all the functions required to get goods or services from the production stage to the final user.
· The Marketing Mix or The Four P’s: product, price, promotion, and place.
· Three More P’s: positioning, packaging, and people.
· Advertising: any type of promotion that is paid for in increments of time; such as a newspaper ad or billboard space.
· E-Marketing: all online activity, such as website, email marketing, and e-newsletters.
· Personal sales: all non-media personal contact, such as telemarketing, or a table set up at a mall or fair.
· Merchandising: all commercial type communications, such as t-shirts, cups, and other merchandise that carries the logo of a particular company or show or institution, when those items are given away for their promotional value as opposed to those sold in theatre.
· Unpaid promotion: those that leverage, or generate free media coverage.
· Publicity: any mention or coverage about an organization or its products in the media that is not paid for.
· Public Relations: general efforts over a period of time that attempt to increase public awareness, interest, and support for an organization and its products.
· Sponsorships: can generate considerable free coverage.
· Customer profiling: the process of using relevant and available information to describe characteristics of a group of customers and to identify what discriminates them from other customers or ordinary customers.
· Publicity Plan: must be an integrated component of the overall marketing plan, from selling tickets to supporting fundraising efforts to increase visibility.
· Press interview: a one-on-one question-and-answer session between a media representative and someone else.
· Public Service Announcement (PSA): contains much of the same information and wording as a press release written for the print media, except that it is intended to be read over the air.
· News tip: simply a memorandum sent in writing or emailed to appropriate media people, informing them about some special activity that they may consider newsworthy enough to cover in person.
· Video News Release (VNR): a video clip, approximately a minute or two in length, usually produced commercially, and made available to television stations and networks by satellite feed.
· Logotype (logo): when a trademark incorporates the name of the product.
· Signature (sig): when the logo (or name) of the product is used in combination with the symbol of the product.
· Display advertising: any printed promotional piece that uses composition and layout that go beyond straightforward reading material.
· Precanceled stamps: stamps that are purchased at the post office and affixed individually by the sender.
· Postage meter: stamps that the sender must purchase in meter from a manufacturer who also supplies a license application.
· Permit imprints: a permit number that is supplied by the local post office and printed directly onto the mailing piece at the same time that the rest of it is printed.
· Advertorial: a section of a newspaper or special edition of a magazine that has approximately fifty percent editorial selections and fifty percent advertising.
· Guerilla theatre: political in content and propagandistic in purpose.
· Mission statement: serves as the standard by which a venture is ultimately judged to be a success or failure.
· Theatre or arts manager: any person who plays a part in bringing together or facilitating two or more of the four elements (performer, material, place, audience).
o Any person who helps bring labor and capital together in order to produce an end product (economist)
o May be anyone who has influence over the organizational behavior of a given internal and/or external theatre environment (sociologist)
· General manager: someone who supervises the entire process from beginning to end.
· A manager may be anyone involved in the following functions:
o Planning
o Organizing
o Staffing and casting
o Supervising
o Controlling
· Commercial producer: someone who decides on a property to produce (a play, a musical, a one-person show) and a venue in which to perform it.
· Trustees: responsible for the legal, fiscal and overall conduct of not-for-profit organizations.
· Impresario: an outdated term for producers who rarely own their own theatres.
· Shelled space: a space that is left as a raw, unfinished space to be completed at a later time when more funding is available.
· Pro forma: describing something provided in advance to prescribe form.
· Backers’ audition: commercial theatres will invite investors to come and see a staged reading or song to sell shares.
· Stop clause: a weekly box office gross amount that is agreed to in the license.
· White contract: a contract used for principle actors.
· Pink contract: a contract used for chorus actors.
· Showcase code: a code that permits producers to collect contributions from the audience or charge them a limited ticket price, but restricts the budget, the number of performances to 16, and the size of the theatre to fewer than 100 seats.
· Fiscal agent: can serve as the recipient of contributions on behalf of the group.
· Artistic board: a board that is often comprised of established artists who wish to support a company but are unable to do so financially.
· Enhancement money: given in the form of a contribution to help develop a particular property that the producer hopes will transfer to Broadway.
· Presenters: theatres and administrators who concern themselves almost exclusively with presenting productions that have been produced by others.
· Open-ended run: a production will continue at a theatre as long as it earns a minimum weekly amount at the box office.
· Fixed run: a production is booked into a theatre for a specific, limited run, usually ranging from one to twenty-six weeks in length.
· Budget: a financial estimate of future income and expenses.
· Financial statement: documentation of past expenses and revenues over a finite time period: monthly, quarterly, or annually.
· Break-even: weekly operating cost.
· Business manager: a person whose daily routine is keeping financial records, paying bills, making deposits, or supervising such activities.
· Petty cash fund: a separate cash – loan or advance – fund set up to cover small expenses.
· Cash float: the time between when the charge is incurred and the time it must be paid (using a credit card).
· Independent contractor: a person or group paid by a fee from which no tax deductions are made.
· Depreciation: the proportional part of the cost of an asset that has been allocated to a particular period, such as a year.
· Hard tickets: tickets reprinted by a ticket printing house.
· Soft tickets: ticket stock; used in ticket printers kept in the box office for a computer-based system.
· Point of purchasing printing: this computer system mentioned above.
· Hardwood ticket: a numbered blank form on which authorized managers or treasurers may fill in the appropriate seating information to issue to the customer in lieu of an actual ticket.
· Deadwood: all unsold tickets that remain after the performance for which they were valid.
· House seats: seats held for the use of the landlord or producer or company as authorized.
· Press seats: seats for opening nights and other performances as authorized by the press agent or publicity director.
· Dead seats: seats that may not be used at all because they have obstructed views of because they have been removed to make space for musicians or some other purpose.
· Agency seats: seats permanently assigned to be sold by ticket agents, which are paid for by the agency or released for general sale at a specified time prior to each performance.
· Special seats: tickets held until a specified time by the star, the director, or others and to be paid for by them or by the persons authorized to claim them.
· Go clean: to sell every seat in a house.
· Contributed income or unearned income: grants, contributions, and in-kind gifts.
· Grants: contracts to buy specific services.
· Foundation: an incorporated nonprofit organization set up to distribute funds or grants to people or projects that meet certain, and very exacting, criteria.
· Contribution: the generic term for all types of unearned income.
· In-kind gifts: a type of corporate support; they may be in the form of goods or equipment.
· Marketing: all the functions required to get goods or services from the production stage to the final user.
· The Marketing Mix or The Four P’s: product, price, promotion, and place.
· Three More P’s: positioning, packaging, and people.
· Advertising: any type of promotion that is paid for in increments of time; such as a newspaper ad or billboard space.
· E-Marketing: all online activity, such as website, email marketing, and e-newsletters.
· Personal sales: all non-media personal contact, such as telemarketing, or a table set up at a mall or fair.
· Merchandising: all commercial type communications, such as t-shirts, cups, and other merchandise that carries the logo of a particular company or show or institution, when those items are given away for their promotional value as opposed to those sold in theatre.
· Unpaid promotion: those that leverage, or generate free media coverage.
· Publicity: any mention or coverage about an organization or its products in the media that is not paid for.
· Public Relations: general efforts over a period of time that attempt to increase public awareness, interest, and support for an organization and its products.
· Sponsorships: can generate considerable free coverage.
· Customer profiling: the process of using relevant and available information to describe characteristics of a group of customers and to identify what discriminates them from other customers or ordinary customers.
· Publicity Plan: must be an integrated component of the overall marketing plan, from selling tickets to supporting fundraising efforts to increase visibility.
· Press interview: a one-on-one question-and-answer session between a media representative and someone else.
· Public Service Announcement (PSA): contains much of the same information and wording as a press release written for the print media, except that it is intended to be read over the air.
· News tip: simply a memorandum sent in writing or emailed to appropriate media people, informing them about some special activity that they may consider newsworthy enough to cover in person.
· Video News Release (VNR): a video clip, approximately a minute or two in length, usually produced commercially, and made available to television stations and networks by satellite feed.
· Logotype (logo): when a trademark incorporates the name of the product.
· Signature (sig): when the logo (or name) of the product is used in combination with the symbol of the product.
· Display advertising: any printed promotional piece that uses composition and layout that go beyond straightforward reading material.
· Precanceled stamps: stamps that are purchased at the post office and affixed individually by the sender.
· Postage meter: stamps that the sender must purchase in meter from a manufacturer who also supplies a license application.
· Permit imprints: a permit number that is supplied by the local post office and printed directly onto the mailing piece at the same time that the rest of it is printed.
· Advertorial: a section of a newspaper or special edition of a magazine that has approximately fifty percent editorial selections and fifty percent advertising.
Stanislavski: The Unbroken Line
Chapter 13 is about how each character an actor portrays must have what is called an unbroken line. Actors are sometimes only given a few lines to convey an entire group of emotions. The actors typcially have little information on the characters they are playing and therefore must create histories or stories using their imagination. Once again, it is pointed out in this chapter that paying attention (or giving attention) to the audience is an acting flaw and should be banished from any actor. There needs to be a constant flow from object to object, which may include imaginative thinking.
Stanislavski: Inner Motive Forces
The 12th chapter of An Actor Prepares is about how we all act with our mind, feelings and will. These three things live in balance and in harmony, each actor having their own. The Director describes some of Shakespeare's famous roles, pairing them with one of the three inner motive forces. Romeo or Othello emphasize the emotional side, Macbeth is very willfull, and Hamlet depends on intelligence. I thought that this was pretty interesting and wonder which type of actor I am. If I had to guess, I would probably go with emotional, but I'm not too sure about it.
Stanislavski: Adaptation
Chapter 11 of An Actor Prepares is about Adaptation. The chapter is about being able to adapt your emotions to what is happening on the stage, just like the real life. Even though you already know what is coming next in the script, you need to be able to fake it well enough to fool the audience (and your scene partner) into believing that this is all very real. These actions need to appear as they would in real life. One way for this to go wrong is if an actor pays too much attention to the audience's reaction, as opposed to his scene partner's; which I have seen happen too many times in my experience.
And as a final thought on this chapter:
"Finally there are actors whom nature has maltreated by endowing them with monotonous and insipid, althought correct, powers of adjustment. They can never reach the full rank of their profession."
^^ Keanu Reeves, anyone? :)
And as a final thought on this chapter:
"Finally there are actors whom nature has maltreated by endowing them with monotonous and insipid, althought correct, powers of adjustment. They can never reach the full rank of their profession."
^^ Keanu Reeves, anyone? :)
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