Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 55
unimaginable. The actor’s imagination must be a playground
for expressive fantasy and darkly compelling
motivations.
At the third and deepest level, the actor’s imagination
must become a creative force that makes characterization
a high art, for each actor creates his or her role
uniquely—each Romeo and Juliet is like none other
before them, and each role can be uniquely fashioned
with the aid of the actor’s imaginative power. The final
goal of creating a character is to make it fresh by filling
it with the pulse of real blood and the animation of real,
on-the-spot thinking and doing. Although characters are,
in a sense, immortal, acting makes us reckon with the
specific character as he or she appears right now, in the
present, as a fully realized and unique human being.
The liberation of imagination is a continuing process
in actor training. Exercises and theatre games designed
for that purpose are part of most beginning classes in
acting, and many directors use the same exercises and
games at the beginning of play rehearsal periods. Inspiration
for acting can arrive from anywhere, and so an actor
must always be curious, aware that anything could spark
her imagination. Because the human imagination tends
to become subdued as we get older, veteran professional
actors have trained themselves to look at their roles, and
the world, with the fresh eyes of a child.
THE ACTOR’S DISCIPLINE
The fourth aspect of the actor’s training is simply learning
how to keep a job after you’ve got it, in other words
the actor’s discipline. The late actress Maureen Stapleton
once put it, “Actors are the only people, good or bad, hot
or cold, who show up on time.” This remains true today.
Artistic discipline keeps an actor within the established
bounds and at the same time ensures artistic agility. The
actor is not an independent artist, like a playwright, composer,
or sculptor. The actor works in an ensemble and is
only one employee in a large enterprise that can succeed
only through collaboration. Although actors are sometimes
considered by the public to be egotistical or “divas”
(temperamental), the truth is almost always the opposite:
professional actors are among the most disciplined of artists,
and the more professional they are, the more disciplined
they are.
The actor, after all, leads a vigorous and demanding
life. Makeup calls at 5:30 a.m. for film actors and both
nightly and back-to-back weekend performances for stage
performers make for exceedingly challenging schedules.
In addition, the physical and emotional demands of the
acting process—the need for extreme concentration in
both rehearsal and performance, for physical health and
psychological composure, and for deep, attentive interaction
with fellow performers—do not permit casual
behavior among the members of a professional cast or
company. Despite what you might read online about
“star” behavior, the discipline of professional actors is
always at a very high level, and arriving on time at one’s
“calls” (for rehearsals, costume fittings, photographs,
makeup, auditions, and performances), along with learning
lines and memorizing stage movements well before
stipulated deadlines, are absolute requirements for anyone
hoping to have—and to maintain—a career in this
highly competitive field. Even remaining healthy is
essential, for as the phrase goes, “The show must go on.”
The Actor’s Routine
In essence, the actor’s professional routine consists of
three stages: audition, rehearsal, and performance. In the
first, the actor gets a role; in the second, the actor learns
the role; and in the third, the actor creates the role, either
night after night in a theatre or in one or many “takes” in
a film or video.
AUDITION
Auditioning is the primary process by which acting roles
are awarded to all but the most established professionals,
who may be offered roles. In an audition the actor
has an opportunity to demonstrate to the director (and/
or producer or casting director) how well he or she can
fulfill an available role. To show this, the actor is usually
asked to present either a memorized monologue or (more
often) a reading from the play being produced, often with
other actors reading the other roles. Every actor who is
seriously planning for a career in the theatre will prepare
several monologues to have ready when such opportunities
arise. For the most part these will be one- or twominute
speeches from plays. Each monologue must be
carefully edited for timing and content (altering the text
to make a continuous speech out of two or three shorter
speeches is generally permissible), after which the piece
is memorized and practiced. Any “staging” of the monologue
should be flexible enough to adjust to the size of
the audition space (which might be a stage but could just
as well be an agent’s office) and should not rely on costuming
or the use of large props or furniture. More general
auditions—for a repertory theatre or Shakespeare
Festival company for example—will usually specify two
contrasting monologues (perhaps one in verse and one in
prose, or one classical and one modern).
Readings from a script present different opportunities
since the actor will be reading aloud from the actual play