Style for Actors is an award-winning handbook and the definitive guide to roles in historical drama. Anyone who has ever struggled with capes, fans, swords, doublets and crinolines should make this third edition their constant companion. The past is a foreign country, and this outstanding book is concerned with exploring it from the actor's point of view. Specific guides to each major period give readers a clear map to discover a range from Greek, Elizabethan, Restoration and Georgian theatre to more contemporary stylings, including Futurism, Surrealism and Postmodernism. New material in this edition covers Commedia dell'arte and non-Western forms of theatre, theatrical fusion and developments in musicals and Shakespeare. The book's references, images, resource lists and examples have all been updated to support today's diverse performers. Robert Barton takes great care to present the actor with the roles and genres that will most commonly confront them. Containing a huge resource of nearly 150 exercises, suggestions for scene study and applications not only for theatrical performance but also for stylistic challenges in the reader's own offstage life, this book is an invaluable resource for students and practitioners of acting and drama.
Author(s): Robert Barton
Edition: 3
Publisher: London, UK; Oxford, UK: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 416
City: London
Tags: theater, style, style for actors, textbook, performing arts, shakespeare, greek, restoration, theatre
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii
PART I Finding style 1
1. Recognizing style: the eyes of the beholder 5
Defining style 5
Style is what works in a group 7
Sight and sound: first style impressions 12
Conventions 15
2 Analyzing style: survival questions 21
The world entered 21
Keys to the world 29
Finding the world 32
3 Mastering style: the classical actor 35
Tests of time 35
Period style actors 36
Common threads 39
Physical lives: dignity and simplicity 41
Vocal lives: crispness and clarity 45
Period combat mastery 60
Moving into scripts 62
PART II Achieving style 65
4 Greek period style: three generations of tragic vision 69
The world entered 69
The interview 70
Values 74
Keys to the world 89
Plays and playwrights 94
Scenes 94
5 Elizabethan period style: theatre of earth and stars 101
The world entered 101
Sight 114
Elizabethan language guide 119
Keys to the world 125
The open scene: us and them 134
Plays and playwrights 135
Elizabethan scenes 135
Shakespeare scenes 139
Comparing Greeks and Elizabethans 161
6 Restoration period style: decadence as one of the fine arts 165
The world entered 165
Sight 180
Fans, corsets, trains, and other traps 184
Snuffing: taking snuff 186
Handkering: handkerchief as weapon 186
Typing: playing into your image 187
Descending: sitting and reclining 187
Reverence: bowing and curtsying 187
Men’s bows 187
Women’s curtsy 188
Sound 189
Music and dance 191
Keys to the world 192
The production 195
The perfect audience 196
Contemporary parallels 197
Plays and playwrights 198
Scenes 198
7 Relatives of restoration period style: morals, manner, and madness 205
Crusty uncle, conservative grandchildren, and crazy cousins 205
Molière: moral lessons sweetened with laughter 206
Keys to the world 217
Plays 221
Scenes 221
Commedia dell’arte: anything goes 223
Audience as the actor’s partner 230
To mask or not to mask? 231
Georgian: theatre welcomes the middle class 233
Scenes 249
Comparisons of manners styles 254
PART III Exploring style 255
8 Fusion style: imagination and innovation 257
Casting now 257
The musical breaks out 262
Shakespeare and musicals, performance siblings 264
Spirit of the stairs, l’esprit de l’escalier 265
Fusion’s father 265
Displaced plays 270
Displaced scenes 272
Periods and plays less chosen 277
Adaptations and editions: can this be the same story? can this be the same sentence? 278
Translations: can this be the same script? 279
Placing vs. displacing 286
9 Global style: worldwide influence and invention 297
Sanskrit 297
Xiqu 300
Noh 301
Kabuki 302
Kunqu: Chinese Opera 305
Kathakali 307
Beijing opera or Chinese jingju 308
Takarazuka 309
African “orature” 310
Global blends 313
Global at a glance 314
Eastern vs. Western theatre: style checklist 316
Global visual aids 319
Genre styles: the ISMs 319
Romanticism 320
Naturalism 325
Impressionism 327
Symbolism 329
Expressionism 331
Futurism 333
Dadaism 335
Constructivism 336
Surrealism 338
Didacticism 340
Absurdism 343
Feminism 346
Postmodernism 348
Works 351
ISMology: tacking qualifiers onto the ISMs 351
10 Personal style: creating reality 353
Defining your own style 353
Your period style self 357
Period style days 359
Models: styling yourself on someone else 363
Presentation choices 364
Adapting vs. adopting 368
APPENDICES 371
Appendix A: Group exercises for chapter 1 372
Appendix B: Group exercises for chapter 2 376
Appendix C: Group exercises for chapter 3 381
Appendix D: Group exercises for chapter 4 389
Appendix E: Group exercises for chapter 5 392
Appendix F: Group exercises for chapter 6 395
Appendix G: Group exercises for chapter 7 397
Appendix H: Group exercises for chapter 8 402
Appendix I: Group exercises for chapter 9 405
Appendix J: Group exercises for chapter 10 408
INDEX 413
