Acting

Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play.
Definition and history
The word acting is derived from the Latin word agĕre meaning "to do", this is precisely what acting is. In acting, an actor suppresses or augments aspects of their personality in order to reveal the actions and motivations of the character for particular moments in time. The actor is said to be "assuming the role" of another, usually for the benefit of an audience, but also because it can bring one a sense of artistic satisfaction. The first actor is believed to be Thespis of Icaria, a man of ancient Greece. "Plays" of this time, called choric dithyrambs, involved a chorus of 50 who sang the story to the audience. Thespis stepped out of the chorus and spoke to them as a separate character in the story. Before Thespis, the chorus in all plays would sing in a narrative way, "Dionysus did this, Dionysus said that." When Thespis stepped out from the chorus, he said "I am Dionysus. I did this." And acting was born. This may only be a legend, but in his honor a word was crafted: thespian, meaning any sort of performer but chiefly an actor. The International Thespian Society, a society comparable to a fraternity (yet possessing the troop system of the Girl Scouts) for students involved in the arts has also been named in his honor.
Actors are generally expected to possess a number of skills, including good vocal projection, clarity of speech, physical expressiveness, a good sense of perspective, emotional availability, a well developed imagination, the ability to analyze and understand dramatic text, and the ability to emulate or generate emotional and physical conditions. Well-rounded actors are often also skilled in singing, dancing, emotional expressiveness, imitating dialects and accents, improvisation, observation and emulation, mime, stage combat, and performing classical texts such as Shakespeare. Many actors train at length in special programs or colleges to develop these skills, which have a wide range of different artistic philosophies and processes.
For history and other details, see actor, thespian, or Thespis.
Professional actors
Not all people working as actors in film, television or theatre are professionally trained. Chances of succeeding as an actor are greatly enhanced by studying drama at a university or college, or attending an acting conservatory. Conservatories offer two to three years training on all aspects of acting. Universities will offer three to four year programs, where a student can choose to focus on acting, while still learning about other aspects of theatre. Schools will vary in their approach, but in North America the most popular method taught is the 'inside out' technique, developed by Stanislavski in his early years and popularized in America by Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. Others may include a more physical approach, following the teachings of Jerzy Grotowski and others. Regardless of a school's approach, students should expect intensive training in textual interpretation, voice and movement. Applications to drama programs and conservatories are through auditions in the United States. Anybody over the age of 18 can usually apply to drama school.
Actor
An actor, actress, or player is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity. The ancient Greek word for an actor, hypokrites, when rendered as a verb means "to interpret"; in this sense, an actor is one who interprets a dramatic character.
Terminology
The word "actor" refers to one who acts, whilst "actress" refers specifically to a female who acts. The English word "actress" does not derive from the Latin "actrix", probably not even by way of French "actrice"; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "actress" was "probably formed independently" in English. The OED also points out that originally "'actor' was used for both sexes". This gender-neutral usage has re-emerged in modern English. As "actress" is a specifically feminine word, some feminist groups assert that the word "actress" is sexist. This is a minority view, almost unheard of outside of the United States. "Actress" remains a commonly used word; however, while "actor" was traditionally used in the context of the performing arts to refer to male performers only, it is now frequently used to refer to both men and women.
The gender-neutral term "player" may also be used. It was commonly used in film in the early days of the Production Code, but is now generally deemed archaic. However, it remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a theatre group or company (such as the East West Players).
History
The first recorded case of an actor performing took place in 534 BC when the Greek performer Thespis stepped on to the stage at the Theatre Dionysus and became the first known person to speak words as a character in a play or story. Prior to Thespis' act, stories were only known to be told in song and dance and in third person narrative. In honour of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians. Theatrical legend to this day maintains that Thespis exists as a mischievous spirit, and disasters in the theatre are sometimes blamed on his ghostly intervention.
Actors were traditionally not people of high status, and in the Early Middle Ages travelling acting troupes were often viewed with distrust. In many parts of Europe, actors could not even receive a Christian burial, and traditional beliefs of the region and time period held that this left any actor forever condemned. However, this negative perception was largely reversed in the 19th and 20th centuries as acting has become an honored and popular profession and art. Part of the cause is the easier popular access to dramatic film entertainment and the resulting rise of the movie star — as regards both their social status and the salaries they command. The combination of public presence and wealth has profoundly rehabilitated their image.
In the past, only men could become actors in some societies. In the ancient Greece and Rome and the medieval world, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to go on the stage, and this belief continued right up until the 17th century, when in Venice it was broken. In the time of William Shakespeare, women's roles were generally played by men or boys. The British prohibition was ended in the reign of Charles II who enjoyed watching female actors (actresses) on stage.
Techniques
General
Actors and actresses employ a variety of techniques that are learned through training and experience. Some of these are:
The rigorous use of the voice to communicate a character's lines and express emotion. This is achieved through attention to diction and projection through correct breathing and articulation. It is also achieved through the tone and emphasis that an actor puts on words
Physicalisation of a role in order to create a believable character for the audience and to use the acting space appropriately and correctly
Use of gesture to complement the voice, interact with other actors and to bring emphasis to the words in a play, as well as having symbolic meaning
Shakespeare is believed to have been commenting on the acting style and techniques of his era when Hamlet gives his advice to the players in the play-within-the-play. He encourages the actors to “speak the speech...as I pronounced it to you,” and avoid “saw[ing] the air too much with your hand” , because even in a “whirlwind of passion, you must...give it smoothness.” On the other hand, Hamlet urges the players to “Be not too tame neither.” He suggests that they make sure to “suit the action to the word, the word to the action”, taking care to “o'erstep not the modesty of nature.” As well, he told the players to not “...let those that play your clowns...laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too,” which Hamlet considered to be a “villainous” and “pitiful” tactic.
The English critic Benedict Nightingale discussed and compared great classical actors of the long dead past, and the present, and their magical effects upon audiences, in this 1983 article from the New York Times, available online.
As opposite sex
Historically, acting was considered a man's profession; so, in Shakespeare's time, for instance, men and boys played all roles, including the female parts. This was the case until the Restoration of the theater in 1660, the first occurrence of the term actress in the OED being by Dryden in 1700.
In Japan, men (onnagata) took over the female roles in kabuki theatre when women were banned from performing on stage during the Edo period. However, some forms of Chinese drama have females playing all the roles.
Today, women sometimes play the roles of prepubescent boys, because in some regards a woman has a closer resemblance to a boy than does a man. The role of Peter Pan, for example, is traditionally played by a woman. The tradition of the principal boy in pantomime may be compared. An adult playing a child occurs more in theater than in film. The exception to this is voice actors in animated films and television programmes, where boys are generally voiced by women, as heard in The Simpsons where the voice of Bart Simpson is provided by Nancy Cartwright. Opera has several 'pants roles' traditionally sung by women, usually mezzo-sopranos. Examples are Hansel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro.
Having an actor play the opposite sex for comic effect is also a long standing tradition in comic theatre and film. Most of Shakespeare's comedies include instances of cross-dressing, such as Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and both Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams appeared in hit comedy films where they were required to play most scenes dressed as women. The movie A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum stars Jack Gilford dressing as a young bride, among other slapstick comedy. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon famously posed as women to escape gangsters in the Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot. Cross-dressing for comic effect was a frequently used device in most of the thirty Carry On films. Several roles in modern plays and musicals are played by a member of the opposite sex, such as the character "Edna Turnblad" in Hairspray--played by Divine in the original film, Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway musical, and John Travolta in the 2007 movie musical. Sometimes the issue is further complicated through the role of a woman acting as a man pretending to be a woman, like Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria or Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love.
Srivenkat Bulemoni