The word actor refers to a person who acts regardless of sex, while actress refers specifically to a female person who acts; therefore a female can be both. The Oxford English Dictionary states that originally "'actor" was used for both sexes. 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. As actress is a specifically feminine word, some feminists assert that the word is sexist. Gender-neutral usage of actor has re-emerged in modern English,^[4][5] especially when referring to male and female performers collectively, but actress remains the common term used in major acting awards given to female recipients and is still common in general usage.

The gender-neutral term player was common 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 (though the changes in calendar over the years make it hard to determine exactly) 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, a 6th century BC poet, 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 honoured and popular profession and art.^[6]

Techniques

Method acting

Method acting is a technique developed from the acting "system" created in the late nineteenth century by Constantin Stanislavski in his work at the Moscow Art Theatre. In the twentieth century, "The Method" was first popularized by the Group Theatre (New York) in the 1930s, and subsequently advanced and developed in new directions by Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in the 1940s and 50s.^[7] In Stanislavski's "system" the actor analyses deeply the motivations and emotions of the character in order to personify him or her with psychological realism and emotional authenticity. Using the Method, an actor recalls emotions or reactions from his or her own life and uses them to identify with the character being portrayed.

Method actors are often characterized as immersing themselves so totally in their characters that they continue to portray them even off-stage or off-camera for the duration of the project. However, this is a popular misconception. While some actors do employ this approach, it is generally not taught as part of the Method. Stella Adler, who was a member of the Group Theatre, along with Strasberg, emphasised a different approach of using creative imagination.^[8]

Method acting offered a systematized training that developed internal abilities (sensory, psychological, emotional); it revolutionized American theater.^[8]

Presentational and Representational acting

Presentational acting refers to a relationship between actor and audience, whether by direct address or indirectly by specific use of language, looks, gestures or other signs indicating that the character or actor is aware of the audience's presence.^[9] (Shakespeare's use of punning and wordplay, for example, often has this function of indirect contact.)

In representational acting, "actors want to make us "believe" they are the character; they pretend."^[9] The illusion of the fourth wall with the audience as voyeurs is striven for.^[10]

As opposite sex

In the past, only men could become actors in some societies. In the ancient Greece and Rome^[11] 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.^[12] The British prohibition was ended in the reign of Charles II who enjoyed watching female actors (actresses) on stage.^[13] When an eighteen year Puritan prohibition of drama was lifted after the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear on stage in England. Margaret Hughes is credited by some as the first professional actress on the English stage.^[14] The first occurrence of the term actress was in 1700 according to the OED and is ascribed to Dryden.^[5]

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 women playing all the roles.

In modern times, women sometimes play the roles of prepubescent boys. The stage role of Peter Pan, for example, is traditionally played by a woman, as are the principal boy and dame in British pantomime. This is uncommon in film, however, except in animated films and television programmes, where boys are sometimes voiced by women. For example, in The Simpsons the voice of Bart Simpson is provided by Nancy Cartwright. Opera has several "breeches 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 dress as 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 overt cross-dressing, such as Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The movie A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum stars Jack Gilford dressing as a young bride. 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. Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams have each appeared in a hit comedy film (Tootsie & Mrs. Doubtfire, respectively) in which they played most scenes dressed as a woman.

Several roles in modern plays and musicals are played by a member of the opposite sex (rather than a character cross-dressing), 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. Occasionally the issue is further complicated through a woman acting as a man pretending to be a woman, like Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria or Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love.

Acting awards

• Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, for American film
• AFI Awards for Australian film
• Berlinale German film festival in Berlin (Golden and Silver Bear)
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for film and television; also known as BAFTA
• Cannes Film Festival Awards, international French festival for world wide films and documentaries
• César Awards for French film
• Emmy Awards for American television
• European Theatre Awards for the theatre
• FAMAS Awards for Filipino cinema
• Filmfare Awards honors excellence in the Indian Film Industry (Bollywood) - limited to Hindi language films only
• Genie Awards for Canadian film
• Gemini Awards for Canadian television
• Golden Globe Awards for American film and television
• Goya Awards for Spanish film
• IFTA's for the Irish Film and Television
• Indian National Film Awards for the Indian cinema
• Laurence Olivier Awards for the theatre (named in honour of actor Sir Laurence Olivier)
• Piala Citra (Citra Award) for Indonesian film
• San Sebastián International Film Festival Spanish film festival Celebrated in San Sebastián
• Screen Actors Guild Awards for American actors in film and television
• Tony Awards for the theatre (specifically, Broadway theatre)
• Volpi Cups at the Venice Film Festival, the oldest Film Festival in the world

See also

Further reading

• An Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavski (Theatre Arts Books, ISBN 0-87830-983-7, 1989)
• A Dream of Passion: The Development of the Method by Lee Strasberg (Plume Books, ISBN 0-452-26198-8, 1990)
• Sanford Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner (Vintage, ISBN 0-394-75059-4, 1987)
• Letters to a Young Actor by Robert Brustein (Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-00806-2, 2005).
• The Alexander Technique Manual by Richard Brennan (Connections Book Publishing ISBN 1-85906-163-X, 2004)
• The Empty Space by Peter Brook
• The Technique of Acting by Stella Adler
• Acting Power by Robert Cohen, (McGraw-Hill, 1987)
• Acting Professionally: Raw Facts About Careers in Acting by Robert Cohen (2003). (McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-072-56259-5, 2003)

Works cited

• Elam, Keir. 1980. The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. New Accents Ser. London and New York: Methuen. ISBN 0416720609.
• Weimann, Robert. 1978. Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theater: Studies in the Social Dimension of Dramatic Form and Function. Ed. Robert Schwartz. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801835062.

References

1. ^ "Actor: Job description and activities". Prospects UK. http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?state=showocc&pageno=1&idno=465. Retrieved on 2009-02-12.
2. ^ Hypokrites (related to our word for hypocrite) also means, less often, "to answer" the tragic chorus. See Weimann (1978, 2).
3. ^ This is true whether the character than an actor plays is based on a real person or a fictional one, even themselves (when the actor is 'playing themselves,' as in some forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, as in John Malkovich's performance in the film Being John Malkovich); to act is to create a character in performance: "The dramatic world can be extended to include the 'author', the 'audience' and even the 'theatre'; but these remain 'possible' surrogates, not the 'actual' referents as such" (Elam 1980, 110).
4. ^ dictionary.com actor retrieved 13 November 2007
5. ^ ^{a b} Linden, Sheri (18 January 2009). "From actor to actress and back again". Entertainment. Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/18/entertainment/ca-actress18. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. "It would be several decades before the word "actress" appeared -- 1700, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, more than a century after the word "actor" was first used to denote a theatrical performer, supplanting the less professional-sounding "player.""
6. ^ Wilmeth, Don B.; Bigsby, C.W.E. (1998). The Cambridge history of American theatre. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. pp. 449-450. ISBN 978-0-521-65179-0.
7. ^ Hornby, Richard (4 May 1987). "Where the Gurus of Method Acting Part". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/04/opinion/l-where-the-gurus-of-method-acting-part-811787.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-28.
8. ^ ^{a b} Flint, Peter B. (22 December 1992). "Stella Adler, 91, an Actress And Teacher of the Method". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/22/obituaries/stella-adler-91-an-actress-and-teacher-of-the-method.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-28.
9. ^ ^{a b} Trumbull, Dr. Eric W. "Introduction to Theatre -- The Actor". novaonline.nv.cc.va.us. http://novaonline.nv.cc.va.us/eli/spd130et/acting.htm#rep. Retrieved on 2009-03-28.
10. ^ Field, Mary. "What is the Theatre?" (rtf). Shared Learning Objects. Mid South Community College. http://learn.midsouthcc.edu/LearningObjects/Fine%20Arts%20Theatre/rtfs/whatisthetheatre.rtf. Retrieved on 2009-03-28.
11. ^ Women Actors in Ancient Rome 27 December 2002, BBC
12. ^ Neziroski, Lirim (2003). "narrative, lyric, drama". Theories of Media :: Keywords Glossary :: multimedia. University of Chicago. http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/narrativelyricdrama.htm. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. "For example, until the late 1600s, audiences were opposed to seeing women on stage, because they believed it reduced them to the status of showgirls and prostitutes. Even Shakespeare's plays were performed by boys dressed in drag."
13. ^ "Women as actresses". Notes and Queries. The New York Times. 18 October 1885. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980CEED7153FE533A2575BC1A9669D94649FD7CF. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. "There seems no doubt that actresses did not perform on the stage till the Restoration, in the earliest years of which Pepys says for the first time he saw an actress upon the stage. Charles II, must have brought the usage from the Continent, where women had long been employed instead of boys or youths in the representation of female characters."
14. ^ Smallweed (23 July 2005). "Smallweed". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1534673,00.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-14. ""Whereas women's parts in plays have hitherto been acted by men in the habits of women ... we do permit and give leave for the time to come that all women's parts be acted by women," Charles II ordained in 1662. According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the first actress to exploit this new freedom was Margaret Hughes, as Desdemona in Othello on December 8 1660."

External links

• Actors' Equity Association (AEA): a union representing U. S. theatre actors and stage managers.
• American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA): a union representing U. S. television and radio actors and broadcasters (on-air journalists, etc.).
• British Actors' Equity: a trade union representing UK artists, including actors, singers, dancers, choreographers, stage managers, theatre directors and designers, variety and circus artists, television and radio presenters, walk-on and supporting artists, stunt performers and directors and theatre fight directors.
• Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance: an Australian/New Zealand trade union representing everyone in the media, entertainment, sports, and arts industries.
• Screen Actors Guild (SAG): a union representing U. S. film and TV actors.

Categories: Actors | Entertainment occupations | Acting | Theatrical professions

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