● Questions
○ Can you name the most notable teacher of the rhetorical method? (Marcus
Fabius Quintilianus)
○ Can you name a shakespear play(Hamlet)
○ Can you name the french singer and actor who studied at the paris
convention(Delsarte)
○ What did Stanislavasky do to try to improve acting techniques on stage?
(Teaching on the creative mood or the creative state of mind)
○ Can you name a play by Anton Checkov(The seagull)
○ Can you define affective memory?(This where actors are called upon to draw
upon a memory of a strong emotional reaction and use it in their preformance)
○ Who labled the term method acting?(Stanislavsky)
○ What does Morgan Freeman say about his acting method?(I think it’s a craft. I
come at it from the point of view I need a writer.)
○ Can you name a tennessee williams play?(A streetcar named desire)
○ What does meryl streep say about her acting method?(Acting is not about being
someone different, it’s about finding the similarity in something different than
finding myself there.)
○ Who wrote the poetics(Aristotle)
● Acting is a job
○ Actors must prepare for and attend auditions in order to maintain the status of
being a working actor
○ This is one of the few fields that requires someone working prior in order to book
a gig by researching and studying for a role.
○ How is the theatre actor different than the film or television actor? Theatre acting
does not include the multiple takes and edits that actors of those other mediums
benefit from
● Auditions
○ Actors need to find work, this is done through auditions
○ Actors have to attend a bunch of auditions before finding work
○ Auditions are done to show what an actor can do
○ Actors must constantly hone their acting skill
○ Casting directors and agents use auditions to determine if an actor is right for the
part
○ Regular employment is hard to find.
● Important assets for the theatre actor
○ Headshot
■ Important tool to market the actor
■ An 8x10 photo that features a close up of the actor’s face
■ Is intended to showcase their appearance and personality
○ Headshots are a memory tool
○ Tells a casting agent what an actor looks like
○ It acts as a connection
○ The picture must look like the actor and be current
● Resume
○ Like the headshot, is important for the actor
○ Says what the actor has done
■ Performances-plays, films, television, commercials, voiceovers, print, etc.
○ Special skills that make the actor unique
■ Juggling, swimming,riding a horse, driving stick, skating, cooking, etc
● Types of casting calls
○ Open Call
■ All actors are welcome to attend
■ Typically a monologue audition
○ Callbacks
■ Actors must be invited to this audition
■ Typically a cold reading from the script
■ Directors get to see the chemistry between the actors.
○ Closed call
■ Specific Actors are invited to read for various rolls
■ Usually the director or casting director is familiar with their previous work.
○ Monologue audition
■ Actor present a prepared and memorized audition piece
■ This is typically a solo performance
○ Cold read audition
■ Typically just a read from the show the actor is auditioning for.
● Double Consciousness
○ Actors have the propensity towards double consciousness
○ Actors have a special gift for double consciousness, the unique ability to remain
themselves and the character they are portraying simultaneously.
○ While giving the audience the appearance of truth, actors must also meet
technical demands
■ Articulating:the ability to speak coherently and fluently
■ Projecting:Speaking in a way that their voice can be heard by the
audience over the theatre
■ Applying voice and phsysicality in the proper way for their characters
● Emotional or affective memory
○ Stanislavasky believed that an actor needed to take emotion and personality to
the stage and apply it to their character.
○ Emotional memory asks the actor to to draw from their personal experiences in
life to create a believable character on stage
○ Essentially the actor is regenerating the feelings from the past in order to impart
these emotions into a current acting situation.
● The Magic If
○ According to Stanislavsky, the actor lives on the stage as the character they are
portraying and also as the actor who creates the character
○ The Magic if allows the actor to carry themselves into the imaginary
circumstances by asking
■ What would I do if i were this character
■ What actions would I take to reach this objective?