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Heightened Acting
Building Character with Body and Voice
Cinematic Comparison of content and performance styles
Gone with the Wind, 1938
Gone with the Wind, 1938
These two movies were created from two different traditions of content and performance styles. Gone with the Wind utilizes Heightened style to create perfect moments; A Streetcar Named Desire, utilizing Realistic style is chaotic, messy and imperfect (however, some say its imperfection is what makes it "perfect").
Streetcar Named Desire, 1947
Streetcar Named Desire, 1947
Performance #1: Telenovelas
Performance #1: Telenovelas
High-stakes performance comes from the importance of the content to the role; high-stakes yield tension; if the audience feels tension, they are empathizing with you.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SCENES
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SCENES
Your content is life and death!
High expression of emotion: "I'm pregnant with Andrew's BABY!!" "NO!" Use your entire body, all that your voice can do
No subtext: all characters say what they mean. And if you lie, make sure you tell the audience right before or right after
Story structure: Inciting incident, truth then climax
Cheating & Projection
Building Character from the Outside / In: Stock Characters and Archetypes
Building Character from the Outside / In: Stock Characters and Archetypes
As a dancer is aware of the shape and movement of their body, Heightened Acting requires an awareness and control of the actor's body and voice to create performance.
Whether we are building character from the outside / in or the inside / out, the goal is the same: TRUTH.
To ideally perform in the Melodrama style - heightened acting - you need to be physically fit and have physical performance skills (that's strength, dance, gymnastics, juggling, fire-eating, swashbuckling).
STOCK CHARACTERS
STOCK CHARACTERS
You can either build your own character, or explore tradition: think of stock characters like ready-made outfits on the rack.
René Charles Guilbert de Pixécourt's Melodrama developed six stock characters, also with rules of performance:
1 Mean Villain (contrabass), 2 Sensitive Hero (trumpet), 3 The Persecuted Heroine (flute), 4 The Clown (bassoon), 5 The Faithful Friend, 6 The Villain's Accomplice
Commedia dell'arte has 13 stock characters, all with traditional rules of how to present Mask, Gesture, Voice, Shape:
1 Magnifico, 2 first actor, 3 first actress, 4 Pantalone, 5 Il Dottore, 6 the Witch, 7 Brighella, 8 Arlequino, 9 Columbina, 10 Il Capitano, 11 servants/clowns/zanni (12 second actor, 13 second actress)
"When what makes up story becomes so much a part of who we are and how we think that it permeates both our conscious and subconscious mind, then we’re talking about archetypes."
K.C. Hill"When what makes up story becomes so much a part of who we are and how we think that it permeates both our conscious and subconscious mind, then we’re talking about archetypes."
Archetypes, Stereotypes, and Tropes
Archetypes, Stereotypes, and Tropes
We build the role by objectifying its societal image. "An archetype fits fundamental human motifs" (Quora). Archetype tells an actor how to position body/voice so the audience can understand the role. An archetype brings us close in agreement over characteristics and can include signs of the Western Astrologic or Chinese zodiac, humorism, the four temperaments.
There's no defined role for the archetypes; the closest we've gotten is a trope, "a character that puts that archetype in a cultural context" (Quora). Traditionally, some tropes (sage = wizard, outlaw = criminal, ruler = politician) fit the archetype, but we don't need to be so rigid: the true archetype will be defined its motivations.
Examples: a politician that struggles for connection through intimacy would actually be a lover; a criminal that struggles for paradise through understanding would actually be a sage.
A stereotype, on the other hand, is a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image that is meant to harm, distance, and pull apart.
Daniel Day Lewis, an actor known for developing deep character work without use of the method, tells the story of an interaction between Dustin Hoffman and Sir Laurence Olivier on the set of Marathon Man. "Why don't you try acting, dear boy?"
ARCHETYPES
ARCHETYPES
Even larger than our understanding of stock characters is Carl Jung's work in psychological concepts, or archetypes. Similar to Western Zodiac or Chinese Zodiac, Jung believes there are 12 archetypes that, for our acting purposes, all characters boil down to:
The 12 Jungian Archetypes
Habitual Action
Habitual Action
Role is the collected basket of facts that, together, define the entity you're performing. It's NOT a human, it's a representation.
Character is what that entity does on stage. Before actors used the objective, they used the Habitual Action: the entity does the same thing, and only that thing, over and over until it gets what it wants. If it doesn't get it- or if the thing is kept from it- it's sad. If it gets it, it's happy. Think about the pursuit of habitual action like a hungry animal's pursuit of food: it ignores what isn't food, is displeased when food is kept from it, will fight relentlessly - life and death - for it.
The 12 Archetypes and Action
"Jung defined twelve primary types that represent the range of basic human motivations" (Conor O'Neill). Not only do the archetypes describe what we see/hear, but also describe motivation, what they want/need. Further, each pursues a want/need in a different way:
Hero, Magician, Outlaw: Leave a mark on the world
Hero achieves a mark on the world through mastery
Magician achieves a mark on the world through power
Outlaw achieves a mark on the world through liberation
Caregiver, Ruler, Artist: Provide a structure to the world
Caregiver achieves structure through service
Ruler achieves structure through control
Artist achieves structure through creation
Everyman, Jester, Lover: Connect to others
Everyman achieves connection through belonging
Jester achieves connection through enjoyment
Lover achieves structure through intimacy
Innocent, Sage, Explorer: Yearn for paradise
Innocent achieves paradise through safety
Sage achieves paradise through understanding
Explorer achieves paradise through freedom
EVERY story is about a struggle for one of 12 things: mastery, power, liberation, service, control, creation, belonging, enjoyment, intimacy, safety, understanding or freedom.
The actor can use this tool in a few ways:
If you can identify your role as one of the archetypes, then you immediately know what it's trying to achieve and how it goes about it. For example:
The hero wants to be remembered, and its going to achieve that by winning.
The ruler wants structure, and it's going to do that by bossing taking control of the situation
The innocent wants comfort, its going to do that by doing whatever it can to feel safe
Traditionally, the archetypes' actions to achieve their goals have been even further specified by past tropes.
The magician- who wants to leave a mark through gaining power- does so through trickery and manipulation
The jester- who wants to connect through enjoyment- does so through entertaining others.
The caregiver- who wants to provide structure through serving others- does so by nurturing its ward.
K.C. Hill writes in Top 12 Character Archetypes about the difference between archetype and stock character: "Stock Characters are always Flat and Static. ALWAYS. Their behavior is predictable and so is their outcome... While it is possible for Character Archetypes to be Static (especially a supporting character), they should never be Flat. There must be a sense of depth to the character, otherwise we tend to think of it as a Stock Character."
K.C. Hill's Flat vs. Round & Static vs. Dynamic
"Round Characters have depth, they have multiple dimensions and aspects of them that are contrary – just like real people; ...Flat Characters are... one-dimensional, not fully developed into a character that feels real... You might not want a character that feels real...
Static Characters do not change, ever. They have no character arc whatsoever. Not all characters should be important, and if they are tertiary to the plot, they really don’t need an arc... Dynamic Characters means that their character changes in an important way. When a character learns something important and it changes the way they think, then that is a Dynamic Character" (Hill).
What do I do with my hands?
As a musician is trained to read and interpret musical notation, we have to be trained to read a play text for style, action and given circumstance.
Finding information on pre-Stanislavski script analysis is difficult [I invite you to school me], but Romanticism did glorify Aristotle and his Poetics sheds light on, if anything, they did to understand dramatic action.
I know how to perform an archetype,
I know how to efficiently portray a variety of human emotions,
Is it just moving around and talking onstage?
What do I do with my hands?
What do I actually perform?
What do I actually perform?
Create a scene using the steps of Campbell's Hero's Journey. The steps below are a summarized version of his 12 steps:
SCENE 11 Exposition: introduce the protagonist, antagonist, the environment.SCENE 21 Something starts the journey2 Protagonist's refusal
SCENE 31 Mentor steps in, trains the protagonist how to make it in the Special World (25% of your story)
SCENE 41 Scene/location change (violent shift). Threshold Guardians.2 Explore the New World; an issue highlights their tragic flaw
SCENE 5 1 TRUTH. Learns about flaw. (happens @ 50% of the story)
SCENE 6 1 Explore and "win" @ the New World2 Head back to ordinary world to TCB (violent shift, happens at 75% of your story)
SCENE 7 1 Climax, final battle w/ antagonist from #1. "Wins."
SCENE 8 1 Protagonist in ordinary world, but now complete/happy
Expression of Emotion using Voice, Gesture, Shape and Mask
Expression of Emotion using Voice, Gesture, Shape and Mask
For heightened acting, we must exaggerate the struggle and show the audience how we feel.
For a heightened actor performing "anger", the ideal is that your voice, gesture, shape and mask are presenting "anger" as efficiently as possible, in concert. So what happens if your shape/gestures are "anger" but your voice is "joy"?
Our person is our instrument, and it has many different parts to express our version of the musical note: emotion.
Many practitioners use different vocabulary and organization to explain our instrument. These 4 - voice, gesture, shape and mask - are Mr. Martinez' categories and descriptions.
Rap and Hip Hop are an excellent arena for flexing those voice and language skills. A cypher- a face-to-face rap battle- uses everything described here to outdo the opponent with the sound of their voice, their content, their versatility with language, and rhetorical & literary devices. The content is typically self-referential or narrative-based; the consistent theme is how awesome the MC is.
rapping_deconstructed_best rhymers_edited.movAesthetic perfection Heightened style is not about how it would really happen. That's boring. In Heightened Acting our goal is to create- design- the perfect expression. Over there in Hamlet, The Prince of Denmark act 3 scene 1, we have an extraordinary role using extraordinary language to talk about extraordinary things (contemplating existence).
Below, we have Jay-Z MCing about how extraordinary he is, using extraordinary language to talk about extraordinary things.
Mic dropped.
VOICE
VOICE
You don't need words to communicate in person.
Our voice is our most versatile part of our instrument. In order to express thought (content) and emotion, we can augment the sounds we create through
Volume
Pitch
Rhythm / Duration
Placement of sound
Use of breath
Punctuation- the shaping of a worded idea into an understandable unit of communication- relies how we use our voice. Folio Technique
You need words to set context.
Romantic content is about the extraordinary: life & death, alien invasion, kings and queens. Aesthetic perfection was the aim, and playwrights used rhetorical and literary devices to achieve it:
Poetic Devices (another resource)
Dialects vs. Accents. "An accent is simply how one pronounces words—a style of pronunciation. A dialect includes not just pronunciations, but also one’s general vocabulary and grammar" (RosettaStone). Affected stage dialects fall in the voice category. Let's discuss dialects here.
GESTURE
GESTURE
Movement with meaning that has a beginning, middle and end. Like charades, we deliberately move to communicate and any unnecessary movement complicates what we're trying to say. We can communicate by making decisions regarding
size/volume
placement
repetition
duration
Further, some gestures are pedestrian (Behavioral) and others communicate a deeper meaning (Expressive). Anne Bogart and Tina Landau define the difference in their Viewpoints technique:
"Behavioral Gesture belongs to the concrete, physical world of human behavior as we observe it in our everyday reality. It is the kind of gesture you see in the supermarket or on the subway: scratching, pointing, waving, sniffing, bowing, saluting. A behavioral gesture can give information about character, time period, physical health, weather, clothes, etc... it can also have an intention or motivation behind it [that is, gestures in place of words]" (Bogart/Landau).
"Expressive Gesture expresses an inner state, an emotion, a desire, an idea or a value. It is abstract and symbolic rather than representational. It is universal and timeless and is not something you would normally see someone do in the supermarket or subway. For instance an expressive gesture might be expressive of, or stand for, such emotions of 'joy,' 'grief,' or 'anger'" (Bogart/Landau).
From Friends, David Schwimmer's mask and gestures working efficiently in concert to communicate "bring it down a bit... that's it/yay!"
Shapes create symbols When you make a shape, it makes the audience think of something. Either
SHAPE
SHAPE
The body is the largest part of our instrument available to communicate the expression. We can create lines or curves, and a combination of the two. We can communicate with our bodies by considering
size /volume
shape
level
weight
facing
physical proximity to objects and/or others (as they also make shapes)
Additionally, it can either be stationary or moving in space; then, we consider
tempo / duration
shape change over time
MASK
MASK
Mask is face. Sometimes it's a constant like a commedia mask, sometimes it morphs to broaden its expression. Although the entire body is responsible for re-creating an expression of emotion, the mask takes point.
Fake it 'til you make it. :)
Fake it 'til you make it. :)
Playing emotional qualities - pretending to be mad, sad, happy glad while people watch you - is another way to find TRUTH onstage and can yield a larger / theatrical / intense / bigger performance. Either we objectify them or we find one from experience, either technique requires you to internalize and truthfully feel the emotion.
Fake it: objectify your role by finding understanding
Make it: "artistic genius": subjectify your understanding. DEEP Pretend.
"A thief knocks down your door and you are flooded with fear. Your baby smiles up at you and you are filled with love. It feels like this is how emotions work: something happens, and we instinctively respond. How could it be any other way? Well, the latest research in psychology and neuroscience shows that's not in fact how emotions work. We offer you a truly mind-blowing alternative explanation for how an emotion gets made..."
"Can you discover an emotion? We travel to the jungles of the Philippines where an anthropologist named Renato Rosaldo lived with the Ilongots, an isolated tribe of headhunters. There he learns about legit, an emotion so intense, and varied, and scary to him, that he can't really map onto the usual palette of American emotions. It takes many years, and a shocking and tragic event, for Rosaldo to fully grasp legut..."
Emotions are Beautiful Things. Let's Objectify Them.
Emotions are Beautiful Things. Let's Objectify Them.
Emotional, irrational, intuitive; presentational; “artistic genius”, working from the outside in
Johann Jacob Engel’s Ideen zu einer Mimik was a visual record of human gesture and body language
Practical Illustrations of Rhetorical Gesture and Action Henry Siddons
Reminiscences by Michael Kelly
Emotion as authentic source of aesthetic experience: new emphasis on apprehension, horror and terror, awe.
Intuition and emotion over rationalization
Final Performance: Song Lyrics
Final Performance: Song Lyrics
You will be graded on a rubric. This will not translate into a final grade. Rather, this will quantify critique and show you the next steps. For your final performance, I'll be looking for:
Archetype. After reading your lyrics, what type of character is saying these words? A rebel? A leader? A lover? (Use the lyrics, not the performance).
Habitual Action. Is it clear what you're going after?
Your use of Mask, Voice, Gesture and Shape: can we understand how hard your struggle is?
Action/Activity. Having something to do onstage is a vehicle to show how you feel
Choose a song with lyrics and perform it dramatically, like a monologue, in a heightened state. Rules:
Although you can choose any song, be prudent of appropriateness.
1:00-minute minimum, 2:30 maximum.
May include repeated chorus/stanzas.
May be in different language
This assignment is asking you first to acknowledge the difference between the performance of the artist and the text. The original artist's performance may assist in understanding your performance, but it also may distract you from finding your own performance.
Instead of singing / "talk-singing" it...
Instead of singing / "talk-singing" it...
Use the text to get something done: decide on an action and struggle to get it. You may get it, you may not. If your lyrics don't indicate, decide for yourself.
Perform IN-PERSON between Dec 12 - 15
Perform IN-PERSON between Dec 12 - 15
You will be graded on a rubric. This will not translate into a final grade. Rather, this will quantify critique and show you the next steps. For your final performance, I'll be looking for:
Understanding the rubric. Below is how your performance will be evaluated. I've broken down assessment of performance into FOUR parts, each part worth up to 5 points (20 pts total).
Participation: in addition to your weekly participation points, this describes the quality and quantity of your involvement in the final.
Application: this describes your understanding and use of improvisation technique
Theatrical technique: beyond theatre style, this describes your mastery and application of technique that allows being seen and heard
Reflection: beyond theatre style, this describes your process of growth as an artist
Given Circumstances: Non-deniable facts of the play; the rules that keep the action in play. Each designer looks for the rules that pertain to their design.
Given Circumstances: Non-deniable facts of the play; the rules that keep the action in play. Each designer looks for the rules that pertain to their design.
time period (contemporary vs. period)
temperature/weather
aesthetic style
specific given circumstance of roles throughout play
Romantic Design: An Actor's Perspective
Romantic Design: An Actor's Perspective
An actual art teacher like Mr. Fennewald could absolutely school me here, as there are many established rules about color (hue and saturation), composition, angle; additionally, my knowledge of technical direction {TBA}. Lighting design?? I love it, but I'm not trained.
To explain visual aesthetic I've always pictured a spectrum...
Expressionistic (Blatant) Impressionistic (Subtle)
...where design choices in Romantic Theatre fall tend toward the expressionistic. A theatre audience handles pretense and abstraction than a film audience; we're allowed artistic interpretation. Dreamlike, heightened, exaggerated, symbolic, ornamented, passionate, emotional, erratic, moody (shadowy, extreme light), special effects. Gothic, dark, passionate. Invokes emotion. I've specified a few aesthetic characteristics in the categories below:
Set: GCs communicated through color, texture, material; set design can help establish value/worth/class. Realistic sets tend toward the complicated, layered, busy; could include objects that don't get locked up (and sometimes they're glued down). Tableaux: held moment to appreciate how cool everything looked/sounded. Moments of spectacle (stagecraft, plot) that would leave the audience aghast. Playwrights try to out do each other.
avalanches, erupting volcanos, ruined castles, frothing waterfalls
Dionysius Boucicoult: playwright. Exploding riverboat!
The stage was to present an illusion of reality, with many details, and was to be historically and geographically accurate. Special effects focused on the supernatural/mysterious; visual over verbal, sensational over intellectual
Lights: Use of color must be justified by GCs; all light justified by practicals (a lamp, for example, or an open sunny window). Whites @ different temperatures/ambers for light, blues/purples used for contrasting night or transition.
Costumes/Hair/Make-Up: GCs communicated through clothing style, age, color, material, texture, value/class
Properties: GCs communicated through material, object, value/class. Pieces actors touch, small enough to be locked up. Typically built/salvaged/bought
Sound: Music and SFX justified by practicals (a stereo, for example). Music used as a transition can help communicate tone/mood; can communicate GCs if delivered as a role's preference
Projection: Liberties can be taken to loosen the impressionistic hold on Realistic Theatre; projectors can provide efficient scenery changes as well as, in the case that we get a little abstract, deliver analogy/antecedent (big deal in the Brechtian tradition).
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
Q2 Heightened Acting Playlist
Q2 Heightened Acting Playlist
Here's my YouTube playlist of all the videos we watched throughout the quarter. Enjoy!
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