Actor

History

The first actor was the Greek Thespus (or Thespis) which would have played in -534 (probably the November 23rd) with the theater of Athens for the festivals of Dionysos and would have thus become the first to interpret words, separately chorus, in a play. Before him, the stories were told with dances or songs, with the third nobody, but no history was told with the first nobody.

This actor is single in the beginning and, only protagonist, it speaks with the chorus. The Greek Dramaturge Eschyle is the first to introduce a second character, then Sophocle utilizes some a third.

In France, the trades of the theater are a long time reserved to the often discredited men, and ; it is only in 1603, at the time of a theater tour of a troop Italy, only one woman, Isabella Andreini, obtains the right to go up on scene.

Definition

The actor is that which puts in act, in action, the text written by the Dramaturge, and the situations organized by the Director. It is him which acts and gives the life to the character. In certain cases it can be even the single creator of its role, for example in the spectacles of improvisation like the Commedia dell' arte .

Today, by the influence of English, the use tends to sometimes hold to the term “actor” with the interpreters of Cinéma and the term “actor” with the interpreters of Théâtre. Literally, the actor is an actor more particularly specialized in the comedy ( κωμῳδία ), just as the tragic actor is more specialized in the tragedy ( τραγῳδία ). However, the term of “actor” recovers especially a concept of state, of trade, while that of “actor” recovers a concept of role, of function.

The actor and his character

There exists a constant ambiguity between the personality of the role and that of its interpreter. This Paradoxe was in particular exposed by Diderot. It is told that a Roman actor of the name of Ésope, carried by the madness of the character of Oreste assassinated one of his partners; in the same way, the actor Genest would have converted, carried by the faith of his character, and was even sanctified (to have undergone martyrdom, and not for its passion of the theater…). The actor changes identity in order to be able to incarnate such or such other character, however the cases of mental confusion are extremely rare and the actor must remain itself to create a character artistically. The identification with its character is never total, under penalty of madness. The actor draws at the same time from its lived and his imaginary to create a role. The Catholic church, during centuries, saw of a fort evil eye this capacity to dissimulate or transform the major nature of its being: the actors were excommunicated as from the year 398. Molière was buried on the run, and the 20th century had to be waited so that an actress, like Sarah Bernhardt for example, can have state funeral.

Play of the actor

The play of the actor often intervenes in complement of an other Art. If he is integral part of traditional arts (Architecture, Sculpture, Peinture, Gravure, Musique), he can also exist alone (a reading of text, a spectacle of improvisation, for example) or be added to other arts, in particular those where interpretation is separated from creation: Theater, Television, Cinema.

Some call the play of the Acteur the the eighth art , place that others allot to the Télévision. The eighth art would be thus “the Art of the service”.

Thus, at the time of the cinematographic competitions, the prices of interpretation reward the eighth art whereas the others reward the seventh.

See too

comic Duet
List of course of dramatic art
Chronology of the actors and actresses of cinema

Simple: Actor

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