QUESTION TO MATTHEW: What are dynamics in acting? The dynamics of a scene are a result of the actor being fully connected to the scene…it is a part of the scene that will happen naturally if the actor is fully immersed in the story. In acting, the words for Dynamics have been borrowed from music terminology. Terms like: - sotto voce: to speak in a quiet voice, not quite a whisper - staccato: to hit the words of the dialogue in short bursts - legato: to speak the words in a languid, liquid way - crescendo: to grow louder and louder as you speak - decrescendo: to grow quieter and quieter as you speak - accelerando: to get faster and faster in your speech Most monologues generally crescendo and accelerando as the tension progresses, resulting in the climax. Most sentences drive to the end of the sentence. Sentences naturally have an energy push to the last word. That’s why sentences are designed the way they are. The reason why the sentence ends where the sentence ends is because it ends when we’ve made our point. Reading this sentence out loud, the reader would naturally be driving to the end of the sentence with small crescendos/accelerandos. To be, or not to be, that is the QUESTION. It’s very strange to give up energy half way through and throw away the end of a line. It is, in fact, a way to elicit a laugh in comedy - because half way through the sentence the character will become aware of the fact that they don’t believe in what they are saying - and cue laughter. When an actor is falling out of the natural dynamics of life in their acting, it is an indication that the actor is falling out of the scene. An actor with training and experience will permit for the possibility of all sorts of natural dynamics. In fact, a professional and disciplined actor will also spend time listening to real people converse and notice the dynamics that exist. They will also read scripts, then watch the great actors perform on film, and listen for the beautiful and accidental dynamics that occur in acting. When the professional actor can tell that their dynamics are off, they see this as an indicator that they had better get back on the rails of the scene. Matthew Harrison actorsfoundry
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 03:35:28 +0000
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