The Great Acting Blog: “Do We Need Great Acting Anymore?”
A strict form ( i.e. – precise script, blocking, actions) tests the actors skill and dedication. To fit himself into that form successfully, the actor needs to have superb technique. If everything is loose and open, then the performance will only be crafted to the extent that the actor wants it to be. We humans naturally look for the easiest way to do something, and so not enough pressure can mean horrible, sleepy, generalised results. That’s what pre-planning every moment of the performance is all about: making it easier, removing the challenge, whereas organic performances are harder to give, require more skill, are more frightening to do, but yield stronger results.
If we look at the work of a dancer, his script is the music, everything he does is in service to the piece he is working on, and he cannot be complacent or even attempt to do the work without caste-iron technique, otherwise he’ll fall flat on his backside, and then where will he be? It’s balmy that I’m even having to make this point, and a sure sign that acting is becoming less and less an art form, but a dancer can’t just slop up and knock out lines of dialogue while half asleep in the way that actors can (and do). If actors were presented with a form as strict as that faced by dancers, how many would come through such an examination?
Developments in acting tend to be ushered along by writers (Shakespeare, Chekhov, Mamet). Perhaps writers need to create scripts which demand sound technique on the part of the actor. If not, then actors need to take responsibility themselves.
Or, could it be that great acting is simply no longer required?
Subscribe to The Great Acting Blog
RECENT
The Toil And The Glory Of The Right Road
수면유도 피아노/ 09.10.2023
수면유도 피아노