Experience of rehearsing: acting or not acting

It is said that when Kitano Takeshi was a child, his family was poor and he was determined to earn a lot of money. Later, because I made a fortune making movies, I bought a Ferrari and drove it for two days. I felt unsatisfied, because I couldn't see it, so I hired a man to drive it in front, followed by a taxi, and proudly said to the taxi driver, "See that Ferrari in front?" It's mine. "

Leaving aside the mentality of the great director to show off his wealth, this joke actually reflects a dilemma of artists, that is, all arts are a combination of subjective and objective. If we regard the role as a Ferrari, the problem will arise: the performers can't see their own performances, and they can't objectively evaluate the effects of their performances. They always feel that they are performing well, but the actual effects will fall short of their expectations. This contradiction is not easy to reconcile, especially for amateur actors. Because amateur actors don't know much about themselves and the status of their roles, they often overestimate their performance ability.

Last week, I helped the student troupe arrange the third act of Hamlet. I can feel that the students' enthusiasm is very high, and the whole performance is like a bomb that will explode immediately. It is naturally good to have this kind of emotion, but how to convey this kind of emotion to the audience is the knowledge of performance.

It is an old dialectical question whether an actor "acts" or "does not act" on the stage. Many people misunderstand the word "acting" and think that "acting" is false, not from the bottom of my heart, so it is insincere. Therefore, the biggest problem of some amateur actors is that they can't let go, and they always feel that some performances are artificial. In fact, the actor's state on the stage can't be himself forever. First of all, an actor should be a role first on the stage, that is, he should be highly integrated with the character of the role. In some cases, the character of the role and the actor are very different, so the actor can only give way to the role and suppress the part of his character that conflicts with the character of the role. For example, Jiang Wen is a very opinionated and individualistic person, but Qin Shutian played in furong town completely suppressed his personality and became a timid intellectual. (It's a pity that there are too few such roles. Secondly, the role played by an actor lives in his specific environment, so the emotions on the role will be strengthened to some extent. Drama is a kind of art of conflict, and people's feelings in conflict are completely different from those in normal situations, so they can't be treated with normal feelings in daily life. Finally, the ultimate goal of an actor's performance is to gain the audience's recognition and * * *, which means that an actor can't live in his own small world of understanding and explaining the role, but should find some ways to take the audience's emotions with him and give the audience some opportunities to feel * * * with the role. In this sense, the actors are performing every second on the stage. Although there are various methods, whether naturalistic, instinctive or designed, they are all part of the characters and get the final performance effect.

Knowing this truth, an actor should learn to objectively measure the effect of his performance, and actively, do everything possible to strengthen and improve the effect on the stage. The commonly used means are as follows.

1。 Lines.

As the name implies, the lines of a drama come first, and the meaning of the lines themselves will have the most direct impact on the audience. But this involves a question of how to say it. For example, there is such a sentence in the famous "To be or not to be" in this scene.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make (With a bare bodkin? )

Otherwise, who is willing to tolerate all kinds of human torture, such as the tyrant's administration, the pride of the arrogant, the pain of lovelorn, the slowness of laws and regulations, the insult of corrupt officials, or the humiliation of ordinary people, if he can simply cut it off?

I have made three marks here (bold, italics and brackets). How to understand the relationship between these three parts? The boldface part is a story, that is, all kinds of troubles in life. Italic is a tentative determination, a desire, hoping to end these troubles. Of course, the method in brackets is not desirable, because for people of that era, suicide is a violation of Christian righteousness, so he will hesitate. When reading this sentence, the actor should be able to let the audience feel it through his own reading. This needs to be scrutinized by actors.

2。 Action.

Edward Albee said, "All lines mean action." Excellent and appropriate movements on the stage can effectively help the audience understand the mood of the characters at this moment and can vividly shape the characters. However, the scripts usually don't prompt the actors' actions on the stage (some scripts in Shakespeare's period were completely for the needs of recitation and would not be put on the stage at all, so there is no need for action prompts. Therefore, this involves the second creation of actors on the stage.

For example, this dialogue between Hamlet and Ophelia

Hamlet: ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness: this Wassome time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. < P > Of course, beauty can ruin chastity and make it unhealthy; This is easier than chastity can influence beauty. This was unimaginable before, but now it has been confirmed by time. I once loved you, before.

Ophelia: Indeded, My Lord, You Made Me Believe So. Oh: You really made me think so, your highness.

HAMLET： You should not have believed me ; For Virtue Cannot So Inoculate Our Old Stock But We Shall Relish of It: I Loved You Not. < P > Ha: You shouldn't have believed me at that time: you can connect the branches of virtue with the stem of sin, but its fruit will still contain the bitterness of sin. That's not love.

The students read the past very quietly during the rehearsal. I added an action here, asking Hamlet to interrupt Ophelia quickly after she finished saying you made me believe so, and quickly finish saying You should not have believed me. At the same time, he leaned close to his body, stared into her eyes, stopped for a second or two, resumed normal distance, and said the following words. Here's the reason: In this scene, Hamlet needs to pretend to be crazy in front of Ophelia in order to know whether his uncle really killed his father. How can he show the mood of a madman? This action is actually emphasizing the temporary emotional loss of control that can occur at any time. This body movement will cause all the audience to be shocked, and it will also help the audience to understand Ophelia's helpless and desperate feelings in the face of Hamlet.

For example, the following paragraph

Get them to a nunnery: Why would you be a breeze of Sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,imagination to give them shape, or time to act themin. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father?

Go to buddhist nun! Do you want to be the mother of a bunch of sinners? I am still a moral person, but I can tell many of my faults, which makes me feel that my mother should not have given birth to me. I am arrogant, resentful and ambitious; The evil potential hidden in my heart is so huge that I can't imagine it, and there are so many that I have no time to practice. What's the use of a guy like me, living between heaven and earth? We are all bad guys. Don't trust us. Go to buddhist nun. What about your father?

According to Shakespeare's time, the sentence "be a breeder of sinners" is a great contempt and insult for an unmarried girl. The expression here must strengthen this attitude. Therefore, I ask the actor who plays Hamlet to walk past Ophelia, give her a head, smell it next to her shoulder, and then walk away in disgust. This frivolous behavior can echo the lines and reflect it.

In any case, these movements require the actors to exert their imagination on the basis of being familiar with the lines, fully mobilize their creative enthusiasm, and give the audience a complete character.

3。 Interaction

For beginners, the most difficult thing to do on stage is to take care of both the actors and the audience. When many actors are performing, they will completely face their partners and always give the audience a side or even a back (it is a taboo to be behind the stage for a long time, and the audience will be crazy! This kind of separation between the stage and the audience needs constant attention during the performance, constantly prompting the audience and maintaining the consistency of the process on and off the stage. Of course, this kind of hint should be clever and need to be designed.

For example, this monologue by Ophelia.

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;

The expectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mould of form,

The observed of all observers, quite, quite down! //

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,

That suck'd the honey of his music vows,

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,

Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;

That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth

Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Ah, this noble soul has completely lost his mind! The appearance of the courtiers, the martial arts of the sergeant, the eloquence of the scholars, the brilliant future of the king of a country, the graceful demeanor of the model of ten thousand people, and the outstanding supreme dignity are all ruined, all ruined! I am the saddest and most unfortunate woman. I have heard his kind words as sweet as honey, but now I have witnessed him lose his lofty reason, just like a string of bells, losing their harmony. The supreme model of youth was so destroyed in madness. Ah, what I have seen and what I see now make me sad!

In the rehearsal, the actress read aloud sincerely, and the rhythm and tone are very touching. However, there is a small shortcoming that she always seems to be talking to herself and completely forgets the audience. Such a performance is easy to distract the audience and affect the overall effect. This passage can be roughly divided into three parts. The first few words can be said with the head down, showing the admiration of girls for lovers. From I, of ladies most subject and wretched, you can tell the audience, show the role's accusation of your unfair fate, and even walk around Like sweet bells jangled, make sad movements, express the empty mind and have nowhere to talk, and enhance the audience's * * emotional mind.

Generally speaking, an actor's performance is a normalization process, and it is an externalization of drama information and feelings. The process of an actor getting used to and enjoying the stage often comes from his own performance.