ADVANCED ACTING: THE ACTOR'S JOURNEY:

Teacher: Aaron Gotzon

In any sort of performance setting, from the classics to musical theater and everything in

between, the actor is set up against a monumental task: the actualization of a journey in the

human experience.  In order to engage the profound experience of acting fully, it is essential for

the student-actor to cultivate a familiarity with the wide variety of styles, approaches, and texts

in the world of theater.  In this course, students of performance will be immersed in a

chronological actor’s journey, from ancient Greece to modern realism and beyond.  Weekly

discussions will draw an approach to acting (realism, the “elevated” style of the classics, etc.) in

preparation for a workshop style approach to text analysis. Over the course of our journey,

students will return again and again to one text and will be able to see how the text changes yet

remains the same when different styles of reading are applied to it. This will culminate in a

showcase presentation consisting of acting scenes drawn from the passing sites (the historical

periods) along our journey’s path. This course is recommended for those students who have

taken a basic acting course as a prerequisite or have had prior acting experience, though any

student possessing a strong interest in the subject matter is welcome to enroll.

WEEKLY CLASS FORMAT

Opening Exercise – Warm-ups (vocal and physical), improvised scenes, tabula rasa cold readings

(stock dialogues open to actor interpretation; an exercise in sceneplaying), etc.  These segments

will be not unlike the exercises one might undertake at the beginning of show rehearsals.

The Journey – Weekly discussions over our historical periods will allow the students to draw

approaches typifying various styles and apply them to “re-readings” of a text familiar to students
(not unlike the intellectual exercise of exposing a single text to various forms of criticism, for

example, a feminist critique of the Book of Job, or a post-modernist reading of the Hippocratic

Oath). Through these dynamic discussions and exercises, students will gain insight into what it

means to be effective actors and readers of dramatic literature.

The Practicum – Initially, students will practice (in a master-class situation) effective acting

emotionally and physically, playing with scenes representing different periods of theatrical

thought. Students eventually will select and rehearse pieces of their own, the culmination of

which being the showcase performance.

WEEK 1

Opening Exercises:

- Physical warm-ups: Activation of the whole body.

- Vocal warm-ups: Maximizing primary resonance chamber (the facial mask).

The Journey:

Greek Theater

- Acting: Presentational, high energy, sweeping movements and grand voices.

- Reading: A selection from Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus.

Workshop:

Highly dramatic (performative) re-reading of Psalm 23 (New International Version)

WEEK 2

Opening Exercises:
 - Physical warm-ups: Physical tics; their use and misuse.

- Vocal warm-ups: Nasality/denasality, stridency, vocal fry, throatiness/hoarseness.

The Journey:

Medieval Theater

- Acting: Pedestrian, unpractised, self-conscious, performative (yet, effective!).

- Reading: A selection from The Apple Tree.

Workshop:

Gutteral and allegorical re-reading of Psalm 23 (New International Version)

WEEK 3

Opening Exercises:

- Physical warm-ups: Isolation of individual sections of the musculature.

- Vocal warm-ups: Vocal dynamics (darkness/lightness, quietness/loudness,

softness/harshness).

The Journey:

Elizabethan Theater (Shakespeare)

- Acting: Pedestrian, unpractised, self-conscious, performative (yet, effective!).

- Reading: A selection from The Apple Tree.

Workshop:

Gutteral and allegorical re-reading of Psalm 23 (New International Version)