'Excerpt Acting'
| Work with excerpts from plays - and especially with those scenes which give you the most intense material. |
| So here are special challenges. |
| You are not supported by all the scenes which can lead into the emotional climax (for example). You do not have the build towards the most important parts of the play. |
| Ditto - you do not show the audience the complexity of your character through the whole play. |
| You may have to go against the text a bit in your excerpt or excerpts, perhaps. The character - in the whole play - is shown in detail, but you are not showing the whole play. |
| You have to get the essence of the character into the excerpt scenes. This can mean a freer approach to what is in the text by a little editing of the text. |
| Choosing excerpts from a play is difficult. |
| BUT - this is how a lot of acting training is done. And it has to be that way. |
| You have to understand the whole play, read it and research, and the detail of your character in the whole play. |
| For example, you could give a good performance in the text excerpt, but if you contradict a major aspect of your character in the whole text, you have not done your research and you have not done justice to the text. |
| See Never perform behind a table or a chair or a bag (at your feet). |
