Playing A Part Intheatre and Real Life

Playing a part: in Theatre and in Life
In life, people play many roles as parents, teachers, students, lawyers, and so on. Theatre often
depicts these roles.
Imitating role models
Public figures like Elvis Presley become role models whose dress, mannerisms, and other
characteristics are frequently imitated by other people. Such imitation is a form of acting in
ever day life. In this scene we have group of Elvis Presley imitators.
It may be surprising to realize how much “acting” is a part of our lives, beginning almost the
day we are born. Two forms of acting in daily life are imitation and role playing.
Imitation
Imitation occurs when one person mimics or copies someone else’s vocal patterns, gestures,
facial expressions posture, and the like.
Children are among the best imitators in the world; and we are frequently amused at a child
who imitates a parent or some other grown up: a 5-year-old girl, for instance, who puts on a
long dress, makeup, and high heels. For children, initiation is more than just play-acting; it is
also a way of learning-an aspect of education-and even a factor in survival. The child watches
a parent open a door or walk upstairs and learns by imitation how to complete the same
maneuver. Speech patterns, too, are imitated by children. Figures like Elvis Presley become
role models whose characteristics are frequently imitated by other people. Such lay life. In this
scene we have a whole group of Elvis.
In Everyday life
How much “acting” is a part of our lives, are born. Two forms of acting in daily life. Person
mimics or copies someone else’s vocal lesions, posture and the like. Best imitators in the
world; and we are free how imitates a parent or some other performance, who puts on a long
dress, makeup, imitation is more than just play- acting; it is aspect of education and even a
factor in a parent open a door or walk upstairs and impolite the same ever. Speech patterns, as
we grow older, imitation continues to be a part of our experience: in every class in school, from
elementary school through college, there is usually one person- clever mimic-who imitates the
teacher or the principal with great humor, and sometimes with cruelty. One familiar type of
imitation is an attempt to emulate the lifestyle of hero- a singer, a film actor, or some other
well-known personality.
Role Playing
A second type of “acting” prevalent in our daily lives is role playing. Much has been written
about role playing in recent years, and a currently popular term is role model, referring to
people whose lives, or “roles”, serve as models or guides for others. Broadly speaking roles
can be classified as social and personal.
SOCIAL ROLES: social roles are general roles recognized by society: father, mother, child,
and police officer, store clerk, teacher, students, business executive, physician, and so on.
Every culture expects definite type of behavior from people who assume social roles. For many
years in western culture, for example, the roles of women as secretaries or housewives were
considered subordinate to the roles of men. Even when women held positions similar to those
of men in business and the professions, they frequently received lower salaries for the same
job. In recent years, the women’s movement has challenged the notion of subservient roles for
women. So entrenched was the idea, however, that it took an entire movement to call it into
question. (One aspect of this movement was consciousness-raising: making people aware of
social attitudes towards women). Before changes could begin to be made in the subordinate
role’s women played, everyone had to understand that these were roles.
In role playing, anyone occupying a given position is expected to adopt a predetermined
attitude: a clerk in a store, for instance, or someone behind the counter in a fast-food chain is
expected to take care of customers patiently and politely and not bring individual frustrations
to the job. It is important to remember, though, that each of us fills not one but many social
roles. Young women in college, working part time, might have a number of roles: student,
employee, daughter, sister, and friend, not to mention female, young person, and citizen.
Personal roles: Aside from social roles, we develop personal roles with our family and friends.
For example, some people become braggarts, boasting of their (sometimes imaginary) feats
and accomplishments and embellishing the truth to appear more impressive than they are.
Others become martyrs, constantly sacrificing for others and letting the world know about it.
Still others are conspirators, people who pull their friends aside to establish an air of secrecy
whenever they talk. Frequently, two people fall into complementary roles, one dominates and
the other sub-missive, one active and the other passive.
Studies of “Acting” in Daily Life

Erving Goffman (Canadian Sociologist and writer) states in his book the presentation of self in
Everyday Life, “Life itself is a dramatically enacted thing. All the world is not, of course, a
stage, but the crucial ways in which it isn’t are not easy to specify” Goffman is saying, in effect,
that acting is so much a part of the real world that it is often difficult to identify it. Studies by
others attest to the importance of various kinds of “acting” in real life. Games people play, for
example, is about role playing in interpersonal relationships, and Body Language deals with
the gestures and movements we make to signal feelings, emotions, and responses to one
another.
In a more scholarly vein, writers have argued that only in our various roles do we have any
personality at all. Robert Ezra park s, in an important book, Race and Culture, notes a
relationship between the word’s persons and mask-the latter being closely associated with
theatre. He wrote: it is probably no mere historical accident that the word person, in its first
meaning, is a mask. It is rather recognition of fact that ever one is always, and everywhere,
more or less consciously, playing a role…. It is in these roles that we know each other. It is in
these roles that we know our selves.
Acting in Life versus Acting on Stage
For all the similarities between acting in daily life and acting for the stage, the differences are
crucial-and these differences reveal a great deal about the nature of stage acting.
Some of the differences between stage acting and in daily life are obvious. For one thing, actors
and actresses onstage are always being observed. In real life there may be observers, but their
presence is not essential to an event. Bystanders on a street corner where an accident has
occurred form a kind of audience, but their presence is incidental and unrelated to the accident
itself. Onstage, however, the performer is always on display and always in the spot light.
Generally, the roles we play in life are genuine. A father who accepts his responsibilities
toward his children does not just play a father; he is a father. A woman who writes for Magazine
does not just play a magazine writer; she is one. In real life, a lawyer knows the law; but
onstage, an actor playing the role of a lawyer may not know the difference between
jurisprudence and habeas corpus and probably has never inside a low school. Playing widely
divergent parts or parts outside their personal experience requires actors and actresses to
stresses to stretch their imagination and ability. For example, a young actress at one time or
another might be called on to play parts as dissimilar as the fiery, independent heroine in
Sophocles Antigone; the vulnerable, love-struck heroine in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet;
and the neurotic, obsessed heroine in Strindberg’s Miss Julie.
At times performers even have to double, that is, perform several parts in one play. In Greek
theatre it was customary for a play several parts, putting on different masks and costumes to
assume the various roles.

Playing A Part Intheatre and Real Life

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Playing A Part Intheatre and Real Life

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Playing A Part Intheatre and Real Life

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Playing a part: in Theatre and in Life

Studies of “Acting” in Daily Life

You might also like