Actor Use Research Articles

Means of speech characteristics of the stage image in the context of decoding the signal space contemporary performances

The purpose of the article is to identify the features of speech characteristics in the context of the disclosure of the plot-content aspect of the performance of postmodern aesthetics. Methodology. A typological and systematic method is used to study the creative mechanisms of the actor's creation of the speech characteristic of the image in the context of the peculiarities of the aesthetics of postmodernism; cognitive method, thanks to which theoretical positions in the field of language psychology and speech therapy are extrapolated to the field of theatrical art; method oftheoretical generalization, etc. Scientific novelty. The influence of postmodernist theater tendencies on the process of the actor's voice work on the creation of the image – the development and implementation of speech features of the character; the peculiarities of the process of decoding the sign system of a modern production on the basis of the interpretation of the speech characteristic of the images created by the actors are analyzed. Conclusions. The verbal characteristic of the image contributes to the actor's representation of certain internal characteristics of the character, his emotional state, deep reaction to events and/or actions of other characters, changes in lifestyle and worldview, etc., and in the context of postmodern aesthetics, when stage texts double coding" – a complex phenomenon of postmodernism, artistic and aesthetic means of which in theatrical art is a synthesis of different languages and codes of literature and philosophy in a holistic hypertext of performance, contribute to the understanding and comprehension of semantic aspects of theatrical production. The actor's use of elements of speech characteristic contributes to the expansion of his professional speech competence, the diversity of speech sound of the stage word. The components of speech characteristics can act as expressive means that reveal important aspects of the character; the necessary form of revealing the internal content of the stage image; an important element of the psychophysical structure of the role; an artistic technique that enhances the expressive possibilities of the stage word, and, accordingly, helps to form verbal symbolic means of expressing the artistic meanings of the performance. In our opinion, for the organic process of forming the stage image in general and the speech characteristics of the character in particular, the actor must not only expand his attention, observation, and ability to understand and comprehend the psychological and social causes of human behavior, but also deepen knowledge of psycholinguistics and speech therapy. Because only the organic combination of these factors contributes to the design of optimal stage speech, which corresponds to the concept of each specific performance.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC CONCEPTS OF K.MUKHAMEDZHANOV

The article deals with the socio-linguistic concept of eminent writer, playwright and translator Kaltai Mukhamedzhanov in the field of state language status, its role as mother tongue, the normalization of the literary language, the purity of the language, language culture, language ecology, language policy. These problems are analyzed in the article dividing them into three areas. The first is the problem raised in the writer's dramatic works in the field of language purity and its ecology. The second is the writer's statements and concepts regarding the dramatic language of writers, the stage language, the scope of the actor's use of the language on stage, and the Director's responsibility for the language culture. The third is sociolinguistic concepts of a public figure regarding the role and significance of language in society, in the sphere of language policy, and in the development of language as a state language in the territory of our Republic.

The Limit of the Discursive: A Critique of the Radical Constructionist Approach to Family Experience

To date, the postmodernist approach to family experience which considers the actor's use of discourse rather than external sociocultural forces as primordial in constituting domestic reality has become an intellectual stream which sociologists can hardly ignore. Using the Gubrium–Holstein model as an exemplar for a “more sophisticated” postmodernist approach to constructing family experience, this article attempts to outline a critique of radical constructionism which overemphasizes the discourse of actors as artfully producing reality as featured in the notions of “doing things with words” and “talking reality into being.” The critique is mainly based on the works of Schutz and Garfinkel, of which Gubrium and Holstein claim their own model share “abiding concern,” and is further supplemented by the work of Bourdieu. This article carries a commitment to rebuking the postmodernist emphasis on the discursive by highlighting that the prepredicative structure of the lifeworld—which is nondiscursive in nature—constitutes the primordial, albeit insufficient, basis of the nomos pertaining to experience as constituted.

Sticks and Stones Can Break Your Bones But Names Can Really Hurt You: Justifying the Use of Force as a Defense Against 'Mere Words'

Words hurt! Beginning in the 1950's, courts have recognized that words, by their very utterance, can inflict injury and harm. The law redresses those who suffer injury from harmful speech through a series of seemingly innocuous remedies including financial remuneration or retribution through minimal criminal penalties. The law stops, however, at granting individuals the right to use any type of force to prevent against the use of harmful words. In other words, legislatures and courts have been unwilling to elevate an actor's use of harmful words, or a victim's defense against them, to the same jurisprudential echelon as they do the use of physical force. But new scientific studies confirm that a word or some types of emotional harm can inflict as much pain as a punch. Biological and neurochemical studies are rapidly advancing our understanding of human behavior. New knowledge supports the conclusion that one can experience physical pain in response to a tone or particular words. The law's failure to excuse those defending against harmful words is unjustified in light of these recent neuroscience findings. This paper will propose that the criminal law should extend the self-defense doctrine to permit one to protect him or her self from an imminent threat of bodily harm even if that bodily harm is inflicted through verbal or psychic abuse.

Leopold Jessner: Intendant der Republik: Der Weg eines deutsch-jüdischen Regisseurs aus Ostpreußen by Matthias Heilmann

MLR, I03.2, 2oo8 595 enabled him topropagate avant-garde work inhismagazine and through exhibitions abroad. Petra JennyVock sheds new lighton thismixture of avant-gardism and na tionalism, first,by exploring the rolesplayed by Walden's Swedish wife and hisDutch secretary,Sophie van Leer, and secondly, by paying attention to Walden's considerable output. Her superb reading of his essay 'Das Hohelied des PreuBentums' (pp. 149 64) shows howWalden drew a parallel between an individual's submission to social order inwartime and the artist's submission under the formal laws of thenew art. The next part of the book is devoted to six individual Sturm poets, exploring re presentations of thewar in theirwork. Given the complex mixture of art and politics thatpervades Der Sturm, Vock's careful readings suggest time and again that thewar poetry is equally complex and paradoxical. The section on August Stramm, whose poems Walden heralded as amodel of 'Wortkunst', exemplifies thiskind of reading. Vock is alert toStramm's tendency toeroticize fighting,and she detects inhis poems a psychic need to counterbalance the real horror ofwar with gestures towards order, duty,and conformity.Subsequent chapters, varying in length,deal with lesser-known Sturm poets. The most interestingof these are Franz Richard Behrens, whose futurist technophilia helped him develop amore constructivist style, and Otto Nebel, whose collage-text 'Zuginsfeld' (written in I9I8-I9, while he was a POW inColsterdale) is one of the better texts of post-war 'Wortkunst', inviting comparison with Karl Kraus's Die letzten Tage derMenschheit. Of the remaining poets, Thomas Ring and Wilhelm Runge are epigones of Stramm, while Kurt Heynicke was peripheral to the Sturm circle, but his laterwork suggests links between Expressionism and National Socialism. This book has a number of strengths: it covers the full range of available texts, includingmuch archival material; itconfronts extant scholarship in amost thorough (if at times tiring) fashion; and itofferswell-balanced assessments. The interpreta tions are always alert to the ambiguity of abstract poetry as well as the difficulties in pinpointing 'ideology' in literary texts.However, because the latter chapters are monographic in scope, the focus on the institutional context becomes somewhat blurred at times; a little less coverage would have been more in this case. And as Vock's discussion of theminor Sturm poets shows, it is difficult to see theirwork as significantoutside its immediate context. On thewhole, though, this isa valuable con tribution to the scholarship on Expressionism because itpositions Walden's Sturm and itsabstract 'Wortkunst' squarely in itshistorical and political context. Despite its length, itenables the reader todevelop a sense for the curious politics of theGerman avant-garde tornbetween nationalism and internationalism. GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ANDREASKRAMER Leopold Jessner - Intendant der Republik: Der Weg eines deutsch-jiudischen Regisseurs aus OstpreuJ3en.By MATTHIAS HEILMANN. (Theatron, 47) Tiibingen: Niemeyer. 2005. vii+445 pp. Ei I2. ISBN 978-3-484-66047-2. This magisterial volume is the first major academic study in any language of the pioneering German theatre director Leopold Jessner (i878-I945). It is founded on extensive archive research-crucial to accessing the numerous reviews of Jessner's productions, reflectingthe full range of political affiliations in theGerman press from far leftto far right-and concentrates on his work in the Weimar Republic. Heilmann discusses some fifty productions from the Weimar period, the most prominent drama tists in Jessner's euvre being Schiller and Shakespeare, but also gives due attention to Jessner's earlier work inHamburg and Konigsberg and his limited output while in exile during theNazi years. Jessner had a major impact on the development of 596 Reviews twentieth-centuryGerman theatre,and has been seen as thekey figure inestablishing 'Regietheater', or 'director's theatre'.He took theview that the theatredirector should shape all aspects of theproduction by identifyinga play's core thematic idea in relation tocontemporary social and political contexts, and radically reshaped theatrical space by abandoning the conventions ofNaturalism and illusionism in favour of represen tational abstraction. Jessner also rejected theecstatic and highly emotionalized acting style associated with lateExpressionist theatre, insisting that the actor's use of lan guage should embody clarity,pace, and rhythm rather than declamatory pathos. His best-known actorwas Fritz Kortner, with whom heworked on all his key productions...

Advanced Acting: Style, Character, and Performance (review)

Advanced Acting, Robert Cohen's latest performance textbook, builds on the foundation of ideas and techniques outlined in some of his previously published works, including Acting One and Acting Power. In Advanced Acting, Cohen further develops fundamental principles, such as the actor's use of self, to tackle problems of acting in plays from a variety of styles, genres, and historical eras. Cohen approaches these new challenges through a carefully organized series of exercises that range from simple games and improvised explorations to detailed scene study from a variety of works, including Oedipus, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Misanthrope.

Young Children’s Understanding of Emotions Portrayed by Puppets and Actors in ‘Sesamstraat’

An experiment was designed to investigate whether young children understood emotions portrayed by human actors better than emotions portrayed by puppets. Children (57 four-year-olds and 56 six-year-olds) watched either an actor version or a puppet version of the same story. The actor version was played by two human actors, whereas the puppet version was played by a human actor and a puppet. Both versions were professionally compiled by the producers of the Dutch version of Sesame Street, and acted by members of the regular cast. Immediately after each target emotion, children were asked how the actor or puppet felt. Responses were scored regarding their accuracy. A large percentage of the children did not understand even the simple emotions. Differences in understanding of emotions between the puppet version and the actor version favored the actor version. Inspection of the versions suggests that these differences could be ascribed to the actor's use of facial expressions. Older children understood the emotions of both actor and puppet better than younger children did.

Accounts and Other Interpersonal Strategies in a Credibility Detracting Context

The actor's use of the “account” has been emphasized as an important interpersonal strategy for maintaining smooth-flowing social interaction and for identity maintenance and negotiation. The purpose of the 3 × 2 × 2 factorial experimental design was to investigate the effects of accounts (excuse, justification, and confession only) and two other credibility-enhancing tactics— high and low eye contact, and high and low social status communicated nonverbally on three major variables thought to be affected by accounts—perceived credibility, responsibility, and remorsefulness. The context of the account presentation was a “credibility detracting” situation. Thirty-six male and 36 female undergraduates viewed a short videotaped interview of a male who told a story about a shoplifting episode. The observers then answered questions about their perceptions of the person in the videotape. The results generally indicated that for this particular context, the ability of the account to transform the meaning of an act has been overemphasized, but the account can be highly effective for communicating emotion.