Outside in Posing the Question Emotion From Motion Outside in Posing the Question

The Paradox of Acting Do we act from the outside in or from the inside out? Do you react or act? Is acting physical or mental? Hmmmmm……

We left off with Elizabethans A good actor was required to speak loudly and with good diction. A good actor should have large gestures to be seen on the large stage. A good actor should be able to learn lines. A good actor should have their own array of costumes to wear.

Hamlet Shakespeare tells us all about acting in the famous speech to the players in the tragedy, “Hamlet” Speak the speech I pray you trippingly on the tongue ….and do not saw the air too much with your arms.

Could there be any other way? Yes, said early explorers of movement. Quintillain felt the actor should mirror nature and study movements. (He was the originator of the famous mirror exercises) Acting is physical

Enter…. Francois Delsarte who was a student at the Paris Conservatory, who, unsatisfied with the entirely subjective and posed style of acting taught at the Conservatory, (his singing voice, he believed, had been ruined in previous years by the music department), began an intensive study of how humans actually moved, behaved and responded to a multitude of circumstances.

Francois Delsarte(1811-1871)

Observation of People He studied in parks, cafes, hospital wards, churches, mortuaries, and even scenes of disasters. He also studied anatomical medicine. Eventually expressive patterns emerged that he could clearly observe.

Poses

Poses

Even hand movements…

His “Science of Applied Aesthetics” was a thorough examination of voice, breath, movement dynamics, line and form, and virtually all the elements of the body in their roles as expressive agents of the human impulses, mind, spirit, and vital instinct.

In 1871, Steele Mackaye, an American student, and only designated protege of Delsarte brought the work to the US, and the popularity of the material exploded not only with artists, but in all levels of the culture. Twenty years later, society salons, cultural clubs, public and private schools, seminaries, were all flooded with “Delsarte.”

Popularity of Delsartes Nearly every town in the country had a Delsarte club. Society groups wanted to learn the new poses and gestures. Eventually, the work of Delsarte became “overused” and poorly taught.

The followers…. Followers of Delsarte danced or recited poetry while performing related gestures Frederick Matthias Alexander, known for his “Alexander Technique,” studied the Delsarte system and even taught it in his early career.

Modern Dance Isadora Duncan and Ted Shawn studied his method, and went on to create natural dance movement arising from, and thus expressing, human emotion. Ted Shawn wrote the book on movement “Every Little Movement” with a collection of sketches .

Isadora Duncan First Modern Dancer

Delsarte poses used in … The musical “The Music Man” Pick-a-little Ladies—Grecian Urn.

Melodrama and Silent Film Many silent film and melodrama actors and actresses studied the Delsarte method to convey the physicality of emotion with their body and face. Some film stars that studied Delsarte include Sarah Bernhardt, Mary Pickford and Lilian Gish

Mary Pickford and Sarah Bernhardt

So, explore… Do we act from a gesture or physical movement? Delsarte believed that certain movements are highly symbolic and powerful. When you're happy you want to throw your arms up in the air. When you're sad you want to put your head down and slump forward. Probably everybody in the world recognizes and uses these gestures...everybody except actors

Delsarte believed that actors avoid these obvious gestures because they seem too over-the-top, too caricatured. He thought that was a pity because no other gestures convey so much power. He created a system for using gestures like these without looking ridiculous.

Using the gestures Delsarte wanted to bring broad gestures back to acting. Of course, extended arm poses aren't the only type of broad action he was interested in. The guy on the right doesn't simply talk to his friend to get his attention, he grabs his arm before speaking. That conveys to the audience that what the speaker's saying is important. The arm grab's a powerful symbol.

Modern influences Rudolph Laban, the creator of the Laban Movement studied the Delsarte Movement Method. The press, punch, float, glide, flick and dap that we use in character physicalization is a descendant of Delsarte. Grotowski, a modern acting style uses the idea of working outside (physical first-then mental)