The ability to get used to the character. How to improve your ability to get used to a role

In this lesson we will talk about these technologies. acting skills, we will try to show them as simply and clearly as possible for all those interested, and also give recommendations and exercises for developing your own art of experiencing and presenting.

The art of experience and the art of presentation as methods of acting creativity

An actor's performance can be realized through 3 technologies: craft, the art of presentation and the art of experience.

Craft- this is an external manifestation of internal feelings; a ready-made stamp on the basis of which any viewer can understand what emotion the actor wants to portray. For example, it is absolutely clear that walking from corner to corner, fussiness, increased gesticulation, and frequent changes of posture indicate excitement, impatience, and nervousness in a person, depending on the context.

The art of performance- reproduction of ready-made feelings, template, external drawing of the role. The essence of the technique is that in the process of working on yourself, independent studies and rehearsals, the actor experiences real emotions, remembers them and, on the basis of this, creates a form for their manifestation. During the performance he uses this ready-made form.

The Art of Experience- a technique when an actor experiences real feelings every time, finds internal motivation and explanation for his character’s actions and “experiences” them “here and now.”

In fact, the art of representation and the art of experience, as two main movements, are opposing methods. K. S. Stanislavsky was the first to clearly separate them and analyze what had big influence for the development of acting skills in the future. They are the foundations of the design of his system, which meant the reform of the theater. Researchers point out that at the time the theory was created (the beginning of the 20th century), the theater was in decline, and audiences gradually lost interest in it. The directors and actors faced a dilemma born of a conflict of approaches. The point is that in theatrical circles there was a debate regarding the essence of the artist’s play and what its nature should be: rational or emotionally inspired. Stanislavsky's merit in resolving this contradiction lies in the fact that he developed an integrated approach that included both views. He criticized the performance for its artisanal approach, but despite the elevation of experience as an indicator acting art, was confident in their relationship.

Let's take a closer look at the differences between the two schools. The main task of the art of experience is not to realize the external side of the hero’s life, but to convey it to the viewer inner world, which is intended to make the production itself more lively. To do this, the actor must be able to transfer and adapt his own to the needs of the character. This is achieved through mastering the proposed circumstances of the role, events, and the requirement to look for an emotional response during each production. This is what hooks the viewer.

In the art of representation, the authenticity of experiencing an image is important only once or several times - in order to develop mechanical form to repeat them. Obviously, in this case, the game is devoid of spontaneity and improvisation, which keeps the viewer in less tension and affects him less than experience, but at the same time it is more expressive and effective. The choice between the two trends is dictated by the nature of the play, the individual components of the production and, in addition, the style and preferences of the actor.

Thus, it is clear to draw a line in the division theatrical arts views are only conditionally possible, but when acting on stage, a good actor must be able to alternate elements of experience with elements of performance. On this occasion, K. S. Stanislavsky wrote: “All three indicated directions of our art (experience, performance and craft) exist in their pure form only in theory. Reality does not take into account any classifications and mixes acting conventions with genuine, living feelings, truth with lies, art with craft...”

The art of experiencing or how to get into character

The Art of Experience- the ability to get used to the role, understand the character, thoughts, emotions of your hero and recreate their true essence on stage. “The purpose of the art of experience is to create on stage the living life of the human spirit and to reflect this life in artistic stage form.” Experience is one of the main attributes of truthful play. If an actor masters this art, it means that he knows how to experience genuine feelings while acting on stage, and the audience loves him. This cannot be achieved through craft and rehearsal alone, although they are intended to help one get used to the role.

Developing the ability to experience is a complex path that runs through honing the skill of an actor’s external and internal techniques. It is most fully, and, at the same time, subtly tied to his. To create a true experience, he needs maximum concentration, creativity, a tendency to understand not only artistic power character, but also his human nature. These are the ones you can't do without.

In the art of experience, the main principle and requirement for an actor is the need to realize the role through “revival of the spirit.” He must show the life of his character through his own sensations and emotions, which are born in the role and are based on and comprehended by the actor “visual, sound and other images, experienced emotions, joys, sorrows, all kinds of mental states, ideas, knowledge, facts and events.”

To achieve this, the actor needs to go through several steps in his work on the role. creative stages. Already during the first reading of the play and getting acquainted with the image, he must try to recreate the circumstances of the role proposed by the author (director), understand and believe in them. This necessary condition for the further birth of the truth of the artist’s own experiences.

The proposed circumstances are studied through a detailed analysis of the internal and external living conditions of the role, through determining the attitude of the artist himself to the events of the play, through his ability to revive the hero with his own. To better understand everything, you need to mentally transport yourself to the very thick of events and try to imagine them as real as possible. Described in words, this may seem like a simple task, but in reality, solving it requires a long training of physical and mental techniques. But this cannot be avoided, because the actor must know (and if they are not stated in detail, invent) all the circumstances in which his character finds himself. Without their knowledge, emotions will look feigned and unfinished.

For the convenience of determining and subsequent work with the proposed circumstances, the following classification is proposed:

Type of proposed circumstance: place of action, time of action, manner of action.

The scene is the physical organization of the space where events take place.
Time of action - the time (from an epoch to part of a day) in which the actions of the play unfold.
Mode of action - the behavior of a character in a specific case.

“Circle” of proposed circumstances: small, medium, large.

Small “circle”: the hero’s actions in this moment(I came home from work, took off my coat, put the kettle on, and started checking my mail).
Middle “circle”: the hero’s general life situation (what job he came from, what his social status, position in society, age, social circle).
Large “circle”: global situation (era, world events - for example, the action takes place on the eve of the First World War).

Do you remember how in childhood, after watching a cartoon or movie, we played, imagining ourselves as its heroes? This is a useful acting technique. When preparing for a role, make a selection of books and films where the main characters have something in common with your image. When reading or viewing them, try not only to professionally evaluate the game, but also to internally worry about the hero, to put yourself in his place.
Many writers, like other artists, often look to reality for inspiration. Charles Dickens charmed English readers with his manner - true images, written off from life. He simply went out onto the streets of London and observed everything: the pronunciation of cab drivers, the behavior of visitors to bakeries and pharmacies, ordinary passers-by, and transferred it to paper. An actor should do the same. Only by communicating with real people in real life situations, you can understand real life and create it on the stage.
Speaking about a good actor, we pointed out that he must be ambitious. Without effort sincere desire It will be difficult to play the role perfectly, and not to “serve the number”; it will be difficult to evoke even a semblance of life-like emotions. Need it for real
Don't be afraid of criticism. Ask your friends to evaluate your performance, record your performance on camera and watch it after some time, determining how well or poorly you are doing. Based on this, you will understand what you should pay more attention to.
Often anxiety causes stupor and prevents the expression of emotion or, conversely, exaggerates its expression. Learn
Experience and representation are interdependent. argued that biomechanics is more important than internal experiences. Therefore, try to imitate the movements, manner of speaking, everyday life, and clothing style of your character. Let's talk about this in more detail below.

Exercises

1. To better understand how all of the above works in practice, you can refer to quite simple exercise to the proposed circumstances that everyone practices theater studios. The point is to “put” yourself in a fictitious situation and work it out in detail. Usually the conditions are set by the partner, but it is not forbidden to do this yourself. Imagine, for example, the following: you found out that tomorrow you are being called to the front. There is one evening to get ready, complete all your work, and go say goodbye to your beloved girl. Think over the logic of your actions, their practical content, and feelings. Then analyze your actions and feelings.

2. An excellent exercise for developing imagination and understanding the character and motives of your hero’s actions. When you are walking down the street or in public place you can look at other people and think whether they would be suitable for the role of your character’s environment (friends, acquaintances, employees) or not. It is important to look for some features in gestures, posture, facial expressions, manner of speaking, and logically explain the connections between these random people with an image.

3. D. Hoffman got a role in cult film"Midnight Cowboy" in an interesting way. He dressed up as a beggar, waited for director J. Schlesinger to return home from work, and followed him, begging for a couple of cents for a loaf of bread. The director, known for his callousness, gave in, and when the actor opened up, he took him on main role. For another film, Hoffman lived as a homeless person for a couple of days and slept in a park. This example confirms that in order to better understand the nature of a character, one must not only try to think and act like him, but also place himself in an environment close to the hero.

The art of performance

The purpose of performance art is " creation of the life of the human spirit and reflection of this life in artistic and scenic form" Just as in the case of the art of experience, the task is to create a reliable and truthful feeling, but it is achieved in a different way. Experience means feeling Here and now", while independent work both rehearsals and performances, and performance is a honed skill, a feeling experienced earlier and polished to perfection, a kind of memorized form. The actor reproduces it on stage.

Thus, the main principles and differences of the art of performance are as follows:

The actor lives on stage with repeated feelings, realizing them through techniques and means of expression;
The experience is not strong enough artistic medium, which, moreover, is difficult for the viewer to perceive;
Recreating genuine feeling on stage is naturalism, not art.

Here, in no case should one get the impression that the followers of the performance school defend artificiality, that artists of this direction do not worry about and do not strive to recreate the naturalness of existence. This is not true. This is how Stanislavsky described the situation: “The role is experienced by the artist once or several times in order to notice the external, bodily form of the natural embodiment of feeling. Thanks to the sharpness of motor (muscle) memory, characteristic of people In our profession, the artist remembers not the feeling itself, but its visible external results; not the feeling itself, but the form created by it; not the most internal state of mind, and the bodily motor sensation that accompanies it; not the best emotional experience, but its physical embodiment." In other words, artists of this direction also strive to experience and understand a genuine feeling, but not every time they play a role, but only during rehearsals, and in an amount sufficient to create a stable form of representation about the external expression of feeling. Speaking to the viewer later, they no longer turn to the feeling itself, but to the mechanics of its manifestation.

This is done because practitioners of the school of representation are confident in the intimacy of nature human feeling, which is not publicly manifested in its original form, and therefore cannot be true. True experience is possible only alone with oneself, during a solitary rehearsal. Public creativity does not contribute to the truthfulness of emotions due to the imperfection of “the architecture, the acoustics of the theater, the exciting and dissipative conditions of public creativity and other obstacles that kill the living feeling on the stage.”

Also, this confidence is born from the reluctance to copy reality in the theater, for which naturalism is alien, since it has nothing to do with the sublimity of art. The task of the director and actors is not to photograph everyday life and convey its nuances on stage. “Art, according to the second movement, should be better, more beautiful than the most modest nature, it should correct, ennoble reality. What is needed in the theater is not the most authentic life with its the real truth, but a beautiful stage convention that idealizes this life.”

From similar beliefs, the “conventional theater” and biomechanics of V. E. Meyerhold were born. He was sure that internal transformation entirely depends on the external one, that feeling is secondary, since only the ability to correctly find and create a pose, gesture, intonation in the smallest detail determines the perception of the image by the viewer and the final success of the performance.

As a summary, here are the words that ended K. S. Stanislavsky’s book “”: “ Just knowing the system is not enough. You have to be able and able. This requires daily, constant training and drill throughout the entire artistic career. Singers need vocalises, dancers need exercises, and stage performers need training and drills according to the instructions of the “system”. If you want it strongly, do this kind of work in life, know your nature, discipline it, and if you have talent, you will become a great artist».

Indeed, in life, unlike in the theater, we cannot constantly drill and rehearse. Therefore, in order to improve your own art of experiencing and presenting, you need not only to follow the collected recommendations and perform individual exercises, but also to look at the world as an actor, constantly observe, expand your emotional horizons and your feelings.

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on a topic this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. For each question, only 1 option can be correct. After you select one of the options, the system automatically proceeds to next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on completion. Please note that the questions are different each time and the options are mixed.

Actors are representatives of an amazing profession. They know how to plausibly tell from the stage about the fate of their hero, make the viewer believe every word and gesture, cry and smile, rejoice, empathize and laugh from the heart.

Believable acting

Acting professionalism depends not only on how much knowledge a person has received at university or in special courses while studying this type of skill, but also on the presence of talent, personal qualities - determination and perseverance. “I don’t believe it!” - this statement was often repeated Stanislavsky for those who failed to transform into their character. Creating a convincing image is not an easy task. To be truly believable in acting, a person needs some skill and experience. Good actor must have the ability to think imaginatively and be able to quickly transform to perform different characters. To get used to a role, an actor often has to overcome long haul and achieve impeccable performance through backbreaking labor. Innate abilities help an actor get rid of the problem of how to get used to the role according to Stanislavsky . However, such talent is characteristic only of a select few. How to make sure that the actor is believed and no one in the audience can doubt the veracity of what is happening on stage?

Techniques to help you get used to a new role

The following techniques will help you get into the character's role: experienced actors, and for beginners:

studying the role prototype. After reading the script, the actor should find a suitable subject to study the character of his character. manner of behavior, characteristic movements and properties of temperament, the smallest details in the form of voice timbre and tone, gaze, facial expressions and gestures - what will help, as I said Stanislavsky , “get into the soul.” Having become infected with the image of a new hero, the actor puts his own personality in the background. Experts advise avoiding complete identification with the hero in order to avoid unpleasant consequences. If any difficulties arise in “entering” the role, the actor can turn to a psychologist who will help analyze the character’s personality and analyze his emotions under various circumstances;
organization of everyday life that is as similar as possible to the life of the character being performed. By creating the right conditions before filming begins, the actor can get a feel for his character in just a few days.
creating a compelling appearance. This point involves working on in a scenic manner, suit and accessories. An actor should look at himself through someone else's eyes and try to channel his emotions into words and actions;
obtaining the necessary for new role skills and abilities. Considering the fact that this profession obliges a person to learn quickly and master the essence of the subject well; an actor sometimes needs to get used to the role of two or more characters. Working on each image requires certain knowledge, experience and life philosophy. Sometimes for successful game you need to master the game musical instrument, new dance direction or artist's skills;
broadcast emotional background characteristic of a hero. To make your performance more convincing, it’s worth creating authentic experiences. Sad and sorrowful memories will help you cope with a melancholic role. Emotions are strong, bright and charismatic personality can be conveyed by remembering the feeling of confidence and energy from a successfully completed task;
sincere faith and living one's imagination. It is not necessary to prepare a speech in advance for this. To achieve success, it is important for an actor to feel like a truly different person, who has different thoughts, feelings, dreams and experiences. Improvisation will be a great help in this matter. For a brilliant performance, it is important for an actor to be focused on his alter ego and remember that without faith in himself, he will not be able to capture the attention of the viewer.

How to improve your ability to get used to a role

The person who is to get used to the role needs to prepare for future game a certain character not only informationally and physically, but also morally. This procedure is familiar to everyone professional actor. For example, if a person gets used to the role historical character, it is worth taking an interest in his entire biography, memories, experiences, photographs and speeches of the hero. Re-reading the script every day, memorizing your own and other people’s lines will help you fully understand the idea of the performance and feel its atmosphere. The actor preparing the role must also act as a strict analyst who will understand the essence of the role and its main purpose in the performance.

When attending rehearsals, it is important to give your best full force, demonstrating all the character’s emotions as authentically and deeply as possible. Sincere faith in yourself, honing every gesture and word, intonation and movement will help you achieve incredible believability. Developing the ability to sense the feelings and moods of others will become useful skill for those who don’t know how to get into the role of an actor. High level empathy in combination with spiritual and ethical self-improvement can influence the success of an acting career.

Getting into character for actors is not an easy task. Even comedy, seemingly simple roles are not as simple as for us, ordinary people, Seems. In order to flawlessly fulfill their role, stars have to suffer and endure real hardships. Some actors are ready to part with everything they have acquired through backbreaking labor in order to get used to the role.

For example, actor Adrien Brody, in order to get used to the role of the poor Polish pianist, crushed by the Nazis, sold his Manhattan apartment, car and mobile phone. After this, he hired a music tutor and learned to play Chopin flawlessly. Set cried, and the director appreciated his efforts.

Dustin Hoffman spent the night in a city park for two days for his role in the film Marathon Man. The efforts were not in vain - the hero is tortured Nazi criminals looked very realistic. And in order to develop the perfect limp, the actor placed a sharp pebble in his shoe. Some time later, Hoffman achieved the iconic role of Razo Rizzo in the film Midnight Cowboy, after setting up a meeting with the producer by dressing up as a beggar on a Manhattan street corner. The producer, not prone to sentimentality, immediately reached into his pocket for a penny for a crust of bread. And when the actor revealed himself, he received a million-dollar contract instead of a penny.

For the role of a boxer in the film “Knockdown,” Russell Crowe trained for a whole month with Muhammad Ali’s trainer. The coach helped Russell quickly learn to box, but did not expect that Crowe would become so passionate about this sport that he would even earn himself a typical “boxing” shoulder injury.

Actress Renee Zellweger, in order to successfully play the role of a fat loser, had to gain a fair amount of weight, and then... spend the entire fee from filming on fitness and dieting. But everyone already knows this story. But for the role of Bridget Jones, the actress also anonymously hired herself to work at the publishing company Picador. To get into the role of a philologist trying to break into the publishing industry, she had to lose her Texas accent and change her hair. Renee turned out to be a master of transformation - in a new workplace famous actress no one found out.

Preparing for the role of Howard Hughes in the film “The Aviator,” Leonardo DiCaprio re-read all the books about this millionaire and memorized his biography. In life, Howard Hughes suffered from a manic obsession with certain objects or actions. Therefore, during filming, for the authenticity of Leo’s image in a certain way went out through the same doors, stepped on the same chewing gum on the asphalt several times and walked trying not to step on the joints between the tiles. To complete the picture, Leo sat at the controls of the plane and began taking flying lessons. In between takes, the actor secluded himself and tried not to talk to anyone, just like his neurasthenic hero. It’s good that the habit of getting used to the role came to Leo recently. It remains to be seen what he would start doing before his role in the film “ Full eclipse", where DiCaprio played homosexual writer Arthur Rimbaud.

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is one of the greatest masters at getting into character. When Cohen decided to become a comedian after college, he began picking up acquaintances on the street and strangers and parody them. For example, the prototype of the impudent rapper Ali G was a DJ, the son of a priest, who really wanted to be like a gangster. Sasha bought sports suit with lurex, huge gold chain, glasses with yellow lenses and went out into the street... For the role of the ignorant Kazakh journalist Borat, Cohen did not have a haircut or shave for 6 weeks, caused a brawl in a hotel room in Manhattan, and quarreled with the authorities near the White House. To play an Italian hairdresser in the musical Sweeney Todd, Sasha had to learn how to hold a razor for 14 hours. Cohen claims that he has nothing to do with his characters, they have separate life. Sasha (unlike Borat, Ali G and Bruno) almost never gives interviews, but his heroes are happy to do so. And in conversations with journalists, the characters scold their “master” at all costs. Some colleagues are sure that Cohen has schizophrenia, while others consider him a genius.

Instructions

Study the situation in which your hero will act. A lot depends on the event context: outfit, presentation style, active vocabulary. Evaluate what behavior would be appropriate for your character, what words he might use and with what intonation he would pronounce them. For example, the count will behave intelligently, speak slowly and, perhaps, slightly dismissively and...

Think over the character's costume. It should blend seamlessly into the background of your social environment and at the same time demonstrate your individuality. If you are playing a person who goes against the grain of society, choose an appropriate setting. Start from the character of your hero, his aspirations, and outlook on life. Who is he - an active revolutionary or a romantic dreamer? A seductive Don Juan or a gentle, tactful intellectual? To truly get into the character, you need to put together a lot of defining little things. Also think about makeup and accessories.

Imagine what the hero's voice should sound like. Think about what intonations are characteristic of him, how his facial expressions and gestures will differ. Speech can be smooth and intermittent, lively and monotonous, calm and excited. Build your speech pattern based on what events preceded the monologue, what idea you want to convey to the audience, what emotions the speech can be filled with.

Extremely important aspect the character is his internal state. Dissolve yourself in the image of a hero, try it on yourself personality traits. Depict the character's experiences with exaggeration and grotesqueness. If it is joy, let it be unbridled; if it is melancholy, show the world's sorrow. Grotesque will be a great workout for you.

Rehearse to get comfortable with the character you are playing. Repeat the hero’s lines, maybe even mentally, to yourself. Close your eyes and act out the scene. It can be helpful to “review” the script before going to bed. Try to practice the character's gait, get into character during regular walks. It’s interesting to fantasize that it’s not you who is going to the store, but Napoleon himself. Just be careful, don't break away from real life until you lose orientation.

The ability to get into character helps in various life situations. So, sometimes you need to show self-confidence, will and firmness, and sometimes you need to play a riddle, flirtatiousness, gaiety. It is especially useful for timid and shy people to get used to the characters. Be the person you want to be, and when you feel insecure, firmly tell yourself: “I am an actor! It's a game!". There are no winners here, but you can easily lose by succumbing to your weaknesses and retreating.