WHAT IS CLASSICAL ACTING?

Classical acting is not a technique on its own. It encompasses different complementary acting
techniques. This school of acting brings together whole-body movements, imagination,
different voice qualities, personalization, improvisation, external stimuli and script analysis. It is
quite broad, therefore.
HISTORY OF CLASSICAL ACTING
Classical acting is attributed to Constantin Stanislavski and Michel Saint-Denis, who were both
actors directors and theorists. Stanislavski authored ‘An actor prepares,’ one of the most
invaluable books an actor can read. At the time of this death, the book had been translated into
English and was in circulation.
Michael was a drama teacher in London who taught students including the legendary Alec
Guinness. He even directed the Royal Shakespeare Company at some point in his life. Do not
get confused when you hear somebody referring to this school of acting as Shakespearean,
British or English acting. This is because classical acting has widely embraced the techniques of
its famous founders.
Stanislavski believed that an actor must first identify with the audience before they do the
same, which is one of the fundamental principles of classical acting. To identify with the
audience, the actor must employ his experience, memorability, play analysis,
compartmentalization, research or rely on the famous Creative If.
‘Creative If’ is a belief that an actor can leave the ordinary world, transport him or herself and
get deeply immersed in the creative world. Other techniques include focusing on the objective
of the character.
WHAT CLASSICAL ACTING FOCUSES ON: THE CLASSICAL ACTING TECHNIQUE
VOICE AND THE BODY
Drama schools employ physical training to achieve body control, which is essential for creating
expressions, a necessary part of acting. Most of the exercises target your awareness and ability.
Classical acting is not that different. It uses the body to express a character and action. If you
are a bit lost, try and visualize what dancers do. A classically trained actor has heightened
awareness and control of his or her body, which he uses to tell a story.
Just like most drama schools do, classical acting also concerns itself with voice quality. This
involves vocal ability and expressiveness. A classically trained actor is subjected to several
exercises aimed at strengthening the range of his or her voice to achieve clarity and improve
overall voice performance.
A good example would be the controversial Othello, a play by Laurence Olivier. It explains how
a classical actor is required to change his or her body and voice performance. You will see this
from the way the actor moves his body in different scenes.
Classical acting targets both the voice and the body, which are two powerful vessels in an
actor’s craft.
PERSONALIZATION AND IDENTIFICATION
One of the most powerful means of engaging your audience and drawing them in is by
identifying with a character. Classical acting handles memory and personalization with care and
precision. In case you are wondering how the second part(identification) acts, then here is
something for you. ‘
Identification requires that you relate events and your life experiences to help you understand
action and do it better.
On the other hand, personalization requires that an actor share his or her feelings with a
character. These feelings will guide them as he or she acts.
Therefore, classical acting draws from real-life experience. In short, actors use real-life
experiences to deliver a powerful performance. The only problem is that a scene may seem
unbalanced if classical actors do not make good use of personalization and identification.
IMPROVISATION AND EXTERNAL STIMULI
By now, you obviously know how improvisation is essential to an actor. Unfortunately, you will
not apply it during a classical performance. Classical acting only employs improvisation to test
your level of preparedness in relation to your character, which also entails his or her
behaviours. This can be achieved through exercises that involve games.
You will be required to play ‘in character’ and subject your characters to extreme versions of
events. On the other hand, external stimuli refer to how foreign objects and forces can
influence an actor, including the actor’s mental and emotional world. Classical acting, therefore,
focuses on how external factors can affect an actor emotionally.
SCRIPT
Classical acting is dependent on the script. You should know that this diverse school introduced
new words into the acting scene, such as unit, objective, and motivation. Back to our main
subject, this field of acting ensures that actors use the script to locate and follow their
character’s objectives.
The actor and the director usually decide this. What then, is an objective? An objective can
either cover the entire play or exists for just a while, maybe a scene. There can also be shorter
objectives to serve one super-objective. The unit, on the other hand, refers to the period of
action in the script, which is set by the actor and the director doing rehearsals. It is not the
writer’s work to compose the different scenes in the units. Both the actor and the director will
partition the scene, name them differently, and rehearse the segments individually.
Why is this process necessary? Dividing a scene into smaller units makes it easy to examine and
manage a character throughout the play.
SHAKESPEARE
Here is something that you ought to know. Classical acting uses Shakespeare in combination
with a strict system to handle dialogue in most of the plays, which helps teach actors the right
type of language classic acting dictates. This includes having an in-depth insight into what the
prose and the structure of a verse entail in Early modern plays. Classical acting also calls for
exactness since actors are not allowed to alter the script, which can be seen from the pattern of
Shakespearean lines.
You will realize that classical plays treat lines as poetry, with a high level of precision. Some of
the things that actors must be aware of include the verse. Shakespeare used both rhymed and
unrhymed poetic forms to achieve different effects in his plays and creations. His verses are
structured so that the lines do not extend to the margins of the page. Classical actors are
therefore trained to pay close attention to the rhythm and the music of language, which plays
an essential part in delivery.
Classical actors are also taught to identify prose by looking whether a section of a play runs to
the margin of the page. This does not, however, change the tone and the music of the words.
Assonance is also essential in Shakespeare’s delivery. What is assonance? Assonance is simply
the repetition of vowel sounds in a text, which can be seen in Shakespeare’s works in King John.
There also exists consonance, where only consonants are repeated instead of vowels. You can
check this up in Henry V.
Shakespearean delivery also includes alliteration, which is an important type of consonance. For
alliteration to occur, the repeated consonants must appear at the beginning of the words. It is
easy to identify. Lastly, actors are taught to look out of onomatopoeia, which uses sound to
portray an object. Onomatopoeia is diverse and includes imitative words such as bark and
words that suggest an imitation of a sound.
IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN METHOD AND CLASSICAL ACTING?
I hope that you have quite a clear understanding of what classical acting is by now. If you do
(which I know you do), we can now differentiate these two based on their theories and
practices. Here are the differences:
Classical acting is more concerned with precision and action, whereas method acting deals with
emotional response and realism. Classical acting is, therefore, more decent and respectful than
method acting. Christopher Plummer once referred to the method acting as Italian Street acting
because of actors such as Robert De Niro, which I know you have heard of.
Classical acting involves the personalization of a character through analysis to bring him or her
to life in strict adherence to the script. It does not provide room for improvisation. Method
acting is quite relaxed. Actors can improvise and typically live the life of the actor.
Method acting goes deep, especially if it is a heightened scene or situation. You can even refer
to it as self-indulgent. It is therefore suited for extreme characters in tight or heightened
situations. On the other hand, classical acting does not go all that deep. You will not see the
experience you expect when a situation is quite heightened.
An excellent hack that would help you compare these two is by reading some of the plays by
Bertolt Brecht, such as the Caucasian Chalk Circle. You will get to see how his style goes against
several classical acting beliefs.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF CLASSICAL ACTING?
You should know some of the advantages you will enjoy when you choose to be a classical
actor. Classical acting requires powerful skillsets to help you capture and make an impression
on your audience. It also makes you diverse. You can, therefore, take up different roles in
several projects and make a powerful delivery. You are also made ready to play roles that the
average actor cannot. It opens you up to the acting scene.
WHAT AVENUES DO CLASSIC ACTING OFFERS?
Classic acting is not only chained to a style of delivery. It is quite diverse. Most classic actors
work on stage and require a lot of rehearsal time. They also must discuss the parts they play in
the film. Most people believe that this school of acting only limits you to Shakespeare and
Roman or Greek, which is false. Some of the plays that employed classical acting techniques
include London Road. Classical actors are trained and prepared for different circumstances,
which makes them all-rounded.
The only problem comes with film and Television shows. Schools such as method acting permit
script modifications during a performance, which is not a luxury to classical actors, who are
trained to stick to the script no matter what happens.