Friday 19 January 2018

Thoughts on Acting and Production


Mulling over an upcoming stage production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.  Who to cast in the role of Shylock is always a tough call.  Getting an actor who cannot balance the comedic aspects with the grim tragic overtones of the role would diminish the role,  one of the more complex characters Shakespeare has created,  particularly for a modern audience. Unintended it may have been, but the Bard’s play probably poses more questions and challenges for modern audiences than those of his time. I can think of no better question to summarise the play than that asked in Act Four Scene One by Portia in one of her more politically correct and lucid (read as not blinded by love) moments, “Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?”



Being me,  thinking of the role triggered other thoughts on acting and interpretations. In a way, part of the attraction of acting and indeed, part of the dynamics of acting,  lies in the element of conviction.  This element is a part of good salesmanship and being a good liar; to convince your target,  it is often necessary to convince oneself.  As much as that smacks of drinking the Kool-aid,  it is necessary to project the confidence.  A Korean actor, Gong Yoo,  said in an interview in 2017 https://youtu.be/ungTrlhrJa8 that part of the liberating attractions of acting lay in the ability to lose oneself in the character.  That is the double-edged sword of the art of acting. That is the reason why some actors go into a deep funk during and after a certain role; losing oneself in a role is both liberating and stifling.  That said,  each actor injects a part of him or herself into the character they play, that is why the same lines emerging from the mouths of different actors have different impact (or effects) and constitute different interpretations.


Acting in that sense is a dialectic;  a tug-of-war between how much of one's self to lose and how much to assert.  That is also why relationships are easily formed (and sometimes lost easily) in the entertainment industry.  Apart from the proximity factor (being thrown together constantly and intensively in a relatively short period of time),  there is the character immersion imperative.  Of course,  no one is denying the existence of physical attraction or real emotion, after all,  most actors tend to be more physically attractive than the general population. LOL stating the obvious is a necessity at times.


Lol the myriad of thoughts from one role….

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