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Theatre Arts for Advanced Secondary Schools

order to read the screenplay, communicate feelings and intentions to the audience
and perform well for a movie or a television drama. To get the intended result,
it frequently requires several takes, rehearses and collaboration with other cast
and crew members. Actors require a talent different from, but equal to, that of
performers in the stage play.
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Though there are different movements in the production of screen plays, the
performing approaches have remained the same. Actors have always been
demanded to perform the roles very close to realistic. Movements in screen
plays are specific trends and reflection of time, culture, people, and politics
of particular region from which they emerge to shape the direction on artistic
productions. In film, for example, popular movements include formalism,
classicism, expressionism, impressionism, futurism, realism, neorealism and
Third Cinema. These movements influence editing to provide the works produced
within particular movement to feature the look the movement demands. Editing
so as other technologies are mostly utilised to influence the quality of the artistic
products, in this case, film. The basic two approaches to acting include realistic
and animation. In the following section, you will learn the implications of realism
movement on performing for screen.

Implication of realism approach on screen performances

Realist approach demands the actor to portray fictional characters and the
characters’ situation as realistic as possible. Realist acting demands actors to
create a real and truthful behaviour within imaginary circumstances of the screen
medium such as film or television. It is mainly influenced by two acting methods
which are Sanford Meisner’s technique and Lee Strasberg method acting.

(i) Sanford Meisner’s Technique: This acting technique is based on
imagination of the performer. Meisner believed that actors’ imagination is
all that is needed to emotionally prepare for a role. The technique wants the
actor “to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances”. His technique
was influenced by Kostantin Stanislavski’s actor training method which
demanded actor’s to ‘think and feel’ when acting before camera as if they
were thinking and feeling in real life.

(ii) Lee Strasberg Method: This method requires actors to recall event from
their past and use those truthful emotions to play the emotions of the
character in a scene. The technique is informed by three strategies which
are actors’ relaxation, concentration and affective memory. It challenges
actors to use experiences from their own life to motivate a character’s

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