Amateur Dramatics- Theory

Imogen Latto
Jan 11, 2018
2 min read

Amateur Dramatics are a theatre performance group who work with improvisional and acting skills. They are a very different community to a professional acting group becuase of the way they perform what they are perfoming for e..g to raise money for charity. I feel that an amateur dramatic group is the best way for anyone to start with becuase you can learn a variety of skills and techniques that can help you to persue acting.

There are few theatre practitioners that have helped me to develop my own understanding of amateur dramatics. I think that researching these two methods of acting have helped me to develop my ideas on what I would like my images to portray to the audience. These methods have allowed me to learn more about theatrical approaches as well as thinking about how the methods might be identifiable in my portraits.

Konstantin Stanislavski

Stanislavski is a Russian theatre practitioner who created an acting method that many actors use now a days to develop their skills. His method used is for actors to vividly identify their character by conveying emotions that make it believable and realistic for the audience. I think that this method helps the audience to imagine the play, which allows them to feel part of the play too. I feel that this method strongly links to west end musicals becuase the actors are being their characters rather then themselves for the performance.

Bertolt Brecht

Brecht is a German theatre practitioner who created the idea of breaking the fourth wall between the actors and audience. He thought that the audience should be part of the performance and should be able to contribute ideas to help the overall performance commence. I feel that this was a very interative way to get the audience to be part of the performace and would create the idea of improvisation for the actors. This is becuase the actors wouldn't neccessarily be able to predict what was going to happen as every performance is different.

I feel that both performance methods work well within theatrical acts becuase they both show a variety of skills and create two completly different atmospheres for the audience. I think that the most effective method that works in most performances is Staniklavski's method. This is becuase every actor has to relate and feel the emotion of their character in able to create a realistic performance.