Melodrama Acting Styles

Music The term melodrama literally means “music drama”. The music does many things to a performance. It adds a great effect and is also used to increase the emotional response or to portray what kind of character is coming on or is already on stage. There is a tidy structure to melodrama: a villain poses a threat, the heroine/damsel in distress is captured, the hero comes to save the damsel and there is a happy ending. Music contributes a lot to improve acting styles and also the feel and the emotion of the performance piece. In most melodrama performances, the most commonly used instrument is the piano. Occasionally the actors will talk in rhythmically spoken words to match the music.

Music on stage Music is very important in a melodramatic performance. It sets the scenes and helps the audience recognise the characters right from the beginning of the performance. Music is used to manipulate the audience’s response and to indicate characters stereotypes. Musical cues were used in the performance to show the audience what was about to happen next.

In a serious moment the music would be soft and slow In a serious moment the music would be soft and slow. Usually sounds of the violin were used to set the scene. In a shocking moment the music would be fast-paced. Music was also used to direct the characters personalities. HEROES: Unambiguously good Their entrance would be accompanied by loud, heroic-sounding trumpets and martial music. VILLAINS: unambiguously bad Their entrance is greeted with dark-sounding, ominous chords. COMICS: Provide breaks between the seriousness of the performance. Their entrance would involve Up-tempo and joyous music.

Melodrama’s acting styles-emotions and gestures Melodrama is an extremely over-dramatic style of acting. This is distinguished by emphasized displays of emotions and gestures mixed with a variety of stereotypical characters. Emotions and gestures in melodrama are generally quite simple and absolutely over the top. The acting style is exaggerated and acted in an almost impossible manner. The actors are mainly stock characters, for example the damsel in distress is captured and held hostage by the evil and conniving villain, then sooner or later (usually as the villain is about to do something bad or mean to the damsel) the hero/dashing young man appears to save the day.

Emotions on stage The acting style in melodrama was very showy and exaggerated. Big over the top gestures and emotions were used to show the different emotions in a performance. Often the actors were given a set of movements to show certain emotions.

Some examples of emotions and gestures used were: -Grief (the actors head was down with rounded shoulders and their hands cupping the face) -Fear (the actors face was turned to the right side with their right hand over their mouth with their fingers curled under touching their palm) -Horror (the actors eyes were wide with their mouth wide open and both their hands to their cheeks with extended fingers) -Fortitude (The actors body was straight, their chest was up and the hand was on the forehead with the palm facing the audience and the fingers slightly curled up) Evil Planning (The actor had one eyebrow raised and a grimace on their face while they rubbed their hands together or twiddled their fingers) -Pride (The actors chest was up with their hands in fists on their hips and their legs slightly apart) -Anger (Both of the actors hands were in tight fists at shoulder height and their eyebrows pulled together and a tense look on their face) -Overwhelmed (The actors chin was up with one arm dropped limp to the side, their other hand open with their palm to the audience and on their forehead)

Bibliography artsedge.kennedy-center.org www.wikipedia.org journals.mup.uk britannica.com Created by Steph, Robyn and Sophie.