on acting, a theoretical discussion
Sep. 5th, 2007 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseSomething I've been thinking a lot about lately, brought to the fore by a bunch of YouTube clips that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
maymargaret and I watched last night: What distinguishes a great actor from a good one?
What I mean is that I can look at a spectrum of actors who are, say, of similar age, who maybe even tend to get similar sorts of parts in productions of similar calibre, but there's just something... undefinable and distinct about the ones that I would call really great actors - the kinds of actors who leave me sitting back and wondering not "why did I ever stop doing that?" but more like... like brain-dead silence of fascination followed by, if I think about it, a frantic effort to figure out what exactly it is that they're doing that makes it so completely special. Am I crazy on this one, folks? Is this just a case of overthinkery, or is there something really different?
Maybe it's just because I never got to higher-level theory classes in acting, but I feel like, aside from gut reaction, I'm better equipped to analyze the quality of a piece of artwork than I am a theatrical performance, and that just annoys me. I can watch what the actor is doing, note the choices they're making and the ways they choose to use their body, face, voice... but I feel like there's something else that I'm just not catching, lately. Any theories?
maymargaret and I watched last night: What distinguishes a great actor from a good one? What I mean is that I can look at a spectrum of actors who are, say, of similar age, who maybe even tend to get similar sorts of parts in productions of similar calibre, but there's just something... undefinable and distinct about the ones that I would call really great actors - the kinds of actors who leave me sitting back and wondering not "why did I ever stop doing that?" but more like... like brain-dead silence of fascination followed by, if I think about it, a frantic effort to figure out what exactly it is that they're doing that makes it so completely special. Am I crazy on this one, folks? Is this just a case of overthinkery, or is there something really different?
Maybe it's just because I never got to higher-level theory classes in acting, but I feel like, aside from gut reaction, I'm better equipped to analyze the quality of a piece of artwork than I am a theatrical performance, and that just annoys me. I can watch what the actor is doing, note the choices they're making and the ways they choose to use their body, face, voice... but I feel like there's something else that I'm just not catching, lately. Any theories?
