The Great Acting Blog: “Actor As Individual Creative Artist”

The Great Acting Blog: “Actor As Individual Creative Artist”

The notion of the actor as an individual creative artist, is a notion I often advocate on this blog. That is; the actor taking responsibility for his work, defining an aesthetic, not “standing around in the dark, hoping to be picked”. The benefits of such an approach are myriad, not least among them is that the actor can build the body of work he wants, work with people he likes and who share his concerns, and also, the actor can maintain self-respect by being self-reliant and rewarding himself for his efforts. In short: the actor-auteur.

It’s difficult to find a better exemplar for this approach than the great Steven Berkoff, who went and wrote and staged his own plays, and the plays of others, back when nobody was striking out on their own. Berkoff’s aesthetics are his own, strikingly individualistic. And so it is then, I have decided to publish some take-aways, from Berkoff’s recent five minute interview with the BBC, in order to further the conversation on this matter.

• Berkoff says that theatre matters,
  that it’s the last form of communication between people, where you
  can express the most fundamental thoughts, ideas, and emotions, and
  do so instantaneously.

• Althought Berkoff writes and
  directs, he’s says he is first and foremost an actor, because acting
  is something he can do immediately, and because he can also dip into
  other writers. If he was only a playwright, then he couldn’t express
  himself in Shakespeare, Wilde, Sheridan etc.

• He says that acting, writing and
  directing are all part of the same tree.

• Says all actors should, at one
  time, be writers and directors – Shakespeare was an actor and a
  writer. He says it makes a richer compost if people are expressing
  the three elements together.

• Says that when you’re directing
  yourself you’re not actually directing yourself, but that the
  audience response, ie – their attitudes, their silence, their
  laughter, will tell you and teach you.

• Says he did one man plays because he didn’t want to wait until he gathered a whole group of actors
  together, with attendent costs and logistics, casting, agents, and
  dealing with the temperaments of 8 or 10 actors. He says a one-man
  show is a unique communication – it gives the actor greater scope
  because he doesn’t have to deal with other actors.

• Says his own plays are poetic and
  expressionistic, not naturalistic.

• Says “Total Theatre” is use of
  the imagination. Modern theatre has returned to Victorian theatre
  with huge sets and flying people. Says that Total Theatre is the
  ability of the actor to express the genius of the body, express the
  story without set.

• Says you need to be a good actor
  to play a villain. Says the best actors play villains.

   

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  Actor As Auteur – Woody Allen