STAGE GAMES
Translation by I.G. Myagkova
Characters
Hydrangea - actress
Gertrude - playwright and director
The theater stage is completely empty, without any decorations.
In the background, in the background, there may be several random objects that are familiar to any theatrical economy, usually cluttering the stage when the performance is just starting to rehearse and there is a long month and a half ahead.
Gertrude enters. Studying the site. Claps his hands to check the acoustics. Then he searches at the back of the stage and brings a table and chair.
The stage is barely lit.
Enter the actress - Hortensia. She looks around the room with the air of a satisfied owner and at first does not notice Gertrude. He delivers his first five short lines from different points on the stage, testing the sound of his voice and checking its audibility in the audience. Bursts out laughing. And, when the laughter suddenly stops, we understand that it was not natural, but only served as a test for resonance.
HYDRANGEA. What a miracle!
Complete emptiness.
No decorations.
And still a miracle!
GERTRUDE. Because you are here.
HYDRANGEA. Are you on stage too?
GERTRUDE. Yes, a long time ago.
HYDRANGEA. Hidden in the dark?
GERTRUDE. Why was this hidden?
HYDRANGEA. I did not see you.
GERTRUDE. And I like to remain unnoticed. Dissolve in environment. I have complete fusion with this place. With this damn place. With the theater, that is.
HYDRANGEA. Well, we're in it!
GERTRUDE. Have your feelings already risen?
HYDRANGEA. Oh yeah!
They tell you: this is a miracle!
They hug, then passionately begin to kiss and, finally, look at each other carefully. Gertrude turns to the technician, who is not visible. It is located at the back of the hall. At certain moments of the action, which are precisely indicated by stage directions, both women will alternately appeal to this technique - Baptiste. These will, in essence, be internal reflections, heard only by the audience.
GERTRUDE. Baptiste, can we turn up the light a little?
Light
HYDRANGEA. It's amazing how the sunshine is in Greece.
GERTRUDE. You are beautiful... Thank you, Baptiste!
You look great.
Where did you come from?
HYDRANGEA. From Greece.
Didn't you receive my postcards?
GERTRUDE. I never look at postcards, they irritate me.
HYDRANGEA. How's that? ( Batista). Hello Baptiste! ( Gertrude). I'm really sorry. I sent you three postcards: one from Crete, one from the Peloponnese and one from Italy on the way back.
GERTRUDE. I didn’t see it and didn’t read it.
HYDRANGEA. God be with them. Is it really true: do you think I'm in good shape?
GERTRUDE. Excellent.
One hundred percent woman.
And quite sexy.
HYDRANGEA (absently). All the better.
GERTRUDE. OK. Its time to begin.
HYDRANGEA. I can't wait, I can't wait!
GERTRUDE. State of lust! You need to lust.
HYDRANGEA. And I always tell myself: if you don’t enter this state before starting work on such a role, it’s better not to start at all. Here you need to start life from scratch, as it were.
GERTRUDE. The fact that you are in a state of lust is good... But at some point, when we have to move the vertical text to a horizontal position, you will have to give up all your desires.
HYDRANGEA. How's that? Do you think so? Okay... If you want.
GERTRUDE. I personally don’t want anything. This play of mine behaves like a tyrant. There is a certain amount of sadism in arousing your desires with my text. And then once - and refusal!
HYDRANGEA. Good good. Everything you say to me is etched in my memory. I am one of those actresses who constantly feeds my mind. They need nourishment.
GERTRUDE. We will go slowly.
Slow penetration.
Which you can’t eradicate, you can’t stop.
Imprinted on you forever.
And you will come out of this story as a completely different person.
HYDRANGEA. Believe me, Gertrude, I understand this, and it makes me happy. Your words are like a touch magic wand. They transform me.
GERTRUDE. I love that you say that, Hortense.
HYDRANGEA. Actors are the faithful servants of playwrights. I gave an interview to a Greek newspaper here. That's what she said. Word for word: actors are the faithful servants of playwrights.
GERTRUDE. And do you really think so?
HYDRANGEA. Gertrude, how can you ask me such questions? Of course!
GERTRUDE. OK.
Can I ask you a favor?
HYDRANGEA. I'm listening to.
GERTRUDE. Could you say my name as it sounds?
HYDRANGEA. That is?
GERTRUDE. With true Nordic pronunciation, you understand? I have a Nordic name. So give me pleasure: say it in the Nordic way: Gerretrude!
HYDRANGEA. That's how it is! This is something new. Do you want it that way?
GERTRUDE. I beg you.
HYDRANGEA. Agree. But... how not to get lost... The habit has developed...
GERTRUDE. So I would like you to get rid of your habits. I would put them outside the door of my own thoughts. Habits, you see, ruin an actor's ingenuity.
HYDRANGEA (joyful and enlightened). Okay! So, ultimately, you are doing this for me! So that I can free myself from banal reflexes and professional cliches, right?
GERTRUDE. Yes.
HYDRANGEA. Understand.
GERTRUDE (addressing Baptiste, so Hortense cannot hear her). She understand. And now, to show me how well she understands, she will talk about the problem of identification, which is well known to her... Thanks to David. To the man of her life...
HYDRANGEA. You know, everything worked out very well for me to understand the problem of identification. The man in my life, David, constantly told me about her... In connection with the Jewish question... He was a Jew... And he talked about Jewish identification... And all that... And I listened... He always said that he came from everywhere and nowhere. And I answered him: if you came from everywhere, then you carry traces left by hundreds of cultures... and this is your wealth, my dear... Do you remember? He was a neuropath. And he knew it about himself. That’s what I said: I am a neuropath. Well, let it be, I agree with the neuropath. I was very much in love.
GERTRUDE. Oh yeah!
HYDRANGEA. When I met you, David and I had just separated. Do you remember?
GERTRUDE. Yes, sure.
HYDRANGEA. I was crushed, broken.
You live and live with a similar type.
He's leaving you.
And you're crushed.
I was crushed.
GERTRUDE. I remember it very well.
HYDRANGEA(Baptiste, so Gertrude can't hear her). I keep asking myself, firstly, whether she really remembers, and secondly, whether she really cares.
GERTRUDE. I would even say that I had to pick you up with a teaspoon.
HYDRANGEA. I was destroyed! Oh, the wound is deep when it comes to such a man as David. He became Pygmalion for me. I was a fool... That is, I seemed superficial and not too thoughtful or something. And suddenly I meet David. Handsome as God, gentle as a lamb, and at the same time strong, courageous, you know? What he did to me is impossible to even imagine! When we met, I was in an embryonic state, and he made a woman out of me. An interesting, accomplished woman. I was already an actress before him. A good actress... I say this directly, without false modesty. But I was good mainly in comedies. And with David, all genres became available to me. Do you understand me... Gerretrude?
GERTRUDE(addressing Baptiste so Hortense can't hear her). She has to make an effort to say my name that way. In such a Nordic way! For me this is a kind of test. She must be able to concentrate and stop being a grouse.
(Hydrangeas). Of course, I understand you, although it has always been painful for me to realize that a woman can succeed, express herself in the best possible way and realize herself only because a man is engaged in her. This is some kind of misogynistic position, my dear. To be objective, it is also purely reactionary. You're an artist! And far from the last! You are a free man! Why reduce your own personality to the scale of a love relationship? This is unworthy of yourself.
HYDRANGEA. I know... Gerretrude! I know very well. I heard a lot about this from others. How many friends have repeated to me: “He feeds on you, he suppresses your individuality, extinguishes your flame”...
In fact, the opposite is true... And, honestly, can other people, even if they are close friends, claim to be correct in such judgments! They didn’t hold a candle over my bed!
Sorry... Am I shocking you?
GERTRUDE (Batista) How vulgar she is...
HYDRANGEA. You must think I'm vulgar!
GERTRUDE. Not at all! Why would I consider you vulgar!? There are so many different things mixed in you... You use common expressions! That is why you managed to win such a wide audience.
HYDRANGEA. Amazing! You understand everything. You are the kind of woman you can talk to about anything.
GERTRUDE. I hope so.
HYDRANGEA. It is also important that I know your work. To the extent that your creativity is you. Knowing your works, we recognize you too!
GERTRUDE. Of course, of course... And at the same time, reality in novels is disguised. She wears a mask of fiction by and large.
HYDRANGEA(Baptiste). I’m simply horrified by her phrase “by and large.” U-horror!
GERTRUDE. Do not you think so?
HYDRANGEA. No, you're right... You wear a mask by and large.
GERTRUDE. That's it.
HYDRANGEA. And in this famous play of yours, which I read and re-read,... do you also wear a mask?
GERTRUDE. I can't answer you. Or rather, I don't want to. Your whole work will be to penetrate into the realm of the unspoken. And discover reality there as an open wound. My reality.
HYDRANGEA. OK OK….
GERTRUDE. Tell me, did you have time to work on my play, given all these tanned handsome men who grazed around you?
HYDRANGEA. God, how do you know? Simply clairvoyant!
GERTRUDE. Not really. But the sun, the sea... and the heat. I remember from your stories that heat plays a significant role in your... disposition or something... On a carnal level, I want to say...
HYDRANGEA. Yes it is.
GERTRUDE. So, you are still so young!
(Baptiste). Now she will try to convince me that it doesn’t matter, but in fact I know how happy she can be to pass as young.
HYDRANGEA. Honestly, it’s incredibly funny to me when young people mutter something like: “we’re on vacation, we should have fun”...
And yet, I must say that some men, accompanied by very, very young women, hens as they say, were on the verge of breaking with them when I walked through the rows of semi-virgins who were undressing me with their gazes.
GERTRUDE(Baptiste). This is all nonsense. It was in vain that I allowed myself to be drawn into this kind of idiotic talk! I can't forgive myself!
HYDRANGEA. Perhaps all this seems nonsense to you?
GERTRUDE. Are you kidding! It is our life! This is what life is all about!
They remain silent for some time in an attempt to demonstrate the rules of good manners as much as possible: polite smiles, studying the surrounding space.
HYDRANGEA. Beautiful theater. I already played here several years ago. It was “The Favorite Witch” with Philippe Pétain.
(See Gertrude's surprise). No, wait. That's not what I said.
What about him?
Philip Patan...
Or Felix Pothen.
You know, I have a problem with first and last names. Just unbelieveble. You know: I have excellent memory, never fails. The text bounces off your teeth. But first and last names! This is my nightmare... Therefore, I ask your indulgence if I don’t always call you Gerretrude! My problem. I learned the role of Ximena in eight days... I played Medea with all her long tirades... We rehearsed... how long?... five weeks. It’s impossible to remember what the director’s name is. As a result, difficulties arose during rehearsals... And then I came up with one thing. I walk along the very edge of the stage and say: please tell me, sir, I would like to ask you... And then he interrupts me. And he says: please, Hortensia, just call me Pierre. You understood? He thought that I was calling him that out of politeness, but I simply had a memory loss. You understood?
Everyone has their own weaknesses. For me these are first and last names.
But you can ask me for any phone number - yours or David's - work, home, mobile - at any time, and I will call you right away. What can I say, memory...
GERTRUDE(Baptiste). Now she will tell me that memory is selective...
HYDRANGEA. Memory... Help me.
GERTRUDE. Selective?
HYDRANGEA. No, this is a banality... “Memory is the sentry of the mind.” Here's how. Shakespeare said it. Beautiful, is not it?
GERTRUDE. And quite true, by and large.
Hortensia's furious glance towards Baptiste
HYDRANGEA. OK … What are we doing today? Do I read everything?... Should we start over and divide the text into small pieces?...
GERTRUDE. At first. Trust yourself... I will stop you... Interrupt as necessary.
HYDRANGEA. Great.
You know, I always act on instinct... I'm looking. The most exciting thing is the search. And this is not at all a question of understanding. No. You always understand well. You have to search to penetrate into the unspoken. What is said is already a rather subtle thing... then what can we say about the unspoken.
(With admiration). How great your writing is! Amazing!
GERTRUDE. You understood everything ?
HYDRANGEA. Of course.
GERTRUDE. Did you catch the meaning of my play? Do you understand what the essence of the drama is? Have you unraveled all the threads?
HYDRANGEA. What do you mean, Gerretrude?
GERTRUDE. Aren't my questions clear?
HYDRANGEA. Of course they are clear.
You know, I obey instinct. And perhaps I could be wrong. If I trust my mind. In principle, instinct does not deceive me. David was stunned by this. He said that my instincts were unbridled, and he knew what he was talking about: he was a scientist.
Did I tell you that he was a scientist?
You know, I lived with a genius. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that he was a genius. I did a lot of stupid things to him... It’s not even clear how it all happened.
GERTRUDE. What about your instinct?
HYDRANGEA. It was not instinct that caused the mistakes, but my pride. And also the belief that to live means to pick flowers of pleasure. And nothing else...So stupid. After all, I constantly received pleasure from my work. And she demanded more and more. At least wrap yourself in these pleasures!
GERTRUDE. So... Have you stopped enjoying your marriage?
HYDRANGEA. Don't know. Unclear. A person like David deserves for me to be myself with him, attentive and deep. To give up the desire to constantly shine! He felt that I was not what I seemed.
GERTRUDE. All this escaped me.
HYDRANGEA. Naturally. Sorry, but we respect each other enough to be sincere. You've never loved a man. After all, there is no secret that you were not attracted to men... Well, as it is, so it is. It’s absurd to blame you for this. But... you don’t know how much they crave to be handled, given a pacifier, rocked in a cradle, powdered with talcum powder, especially when they are almost fifty!
GETRUDA(to Baptiste). I'm definitely sick of her stories.
HYDRANGEA. You're probably tired of me with my stories.
GERTRUDE. No, no, not at all... All this, as you say, influenced the development of your art. And if you became a great actress... one might say, the greatest, it was only thanks to trials!
(Very quickly, Batisto). Yes, I know that this is even worse than connivance, I’m simply compromising myself! But I can’t do anything!
HYDRANGEA. And you understand! You understand life.
GERTRUDE(To Baptiste, but this time in such a way that Hortense can hear her). Baptiste, can you turn up the light for us?
Introduction.
Focus on teachers working with children preschool age, there are tasks to create the necessary conditions for training and education; children’s development of a system of knowledge and methods of independent activity; implementation of the state standard of preschool education.
A child’s acquisition of knowledge and skills and the development of his abilities are carried out only through active activity.
The most important activity of a preschool child is play. The game develops thinking, speech, imagination, memory, learns the rules of social behavior and develops appropriate skills.
One of the forms of organization pedagogical process- is a theatrical game.
Through various forms theatrical game, children improve moral and communication qualities, Creative skills, mental processes.
When solving these pedagogical tasks, an important role is played by the coordination of the elements of theatricalization with the plan of educational work. Depending on the scheduling, you can select gaming and stage material. So, with children of primary preschool age, on the topic “Autumn, Autumn, we invite you to visit us!”, You can act out the Russian folk tale “Turnip” using a cardboard theater. IN middle group on the topic “How animals winter in the forest” - a dramatization based on the Russian folk tale “The Winter of Animals”. IN senior group on the theme “Autumn Forest”, you can offer children a mini-dramatization “Lesovichka’s Riddles”, using glove dolls: a bear, a bunny, a fox. IN preparatory group on the topic “Maslenitsa” for the lesson-game “Spring is Red” with folk games and round dances.
At the end of the school year, summing up the results of learning and the quality of children’s knowledge, it is possible to diagnose the level emotional sphere child and creative expression. The degree of manifestation of children's emotional and creative abilities is assessed by indicators: high level, average, low. The dynamics of changes in the level of these indicators allows us to draw a conclusion about the advisability of using methods and techniques of theatrical games in the process of educational work.
Practice educational work and an annual comparative analysis of the quality of knowledge and indicators of children’s creative expression show: theatrical forms give impetus to the development of cognitive abilities; activates thought processes; awaken creative initiative, imagination, fantasy.
Theatrical play, corresponding to the age of the child, can harmonize his appearance. Speech exercises, sketches, a theatrical story, a game activity, a fairy-tale quiz, a dramatization of a fairy tale - all these forms of theatricalization develop mental processes, improve the moral and communicative qualities of the individual, and awaken the desire for creativity.
Theatrical play promotes:
1. Development of children's speech.
2. Development of moral and communicative qualities of the individual.
3. Development of motor qualities and skills.
4. Development of creative imagination and fantasy.
5. Development of cognitive abilities.
The types of theatrical games are:
1. Games with theatrical elements.
2. Activity-game.
3. Theatrical story.
4. Quiz-entertainment.
5. Performance-game.
The most important conditions in the implementation of game forms of work are:
1. Using speech exercises.
2. Selecting exercises or tasks depending onchildren's individuality.
3. Ensuring psychological comfort in and outside of class.
4. Encouraging children to actively participate in theatrical games, exercises, sketches.
Let us dwell on the methodology of theatrical games and the conditions for their implementation.
I. Games with theatrical elements.
Games with theatrical elements include: speech exercises; sketches for the expression of basic emotions; sketches to reproduce the main character traits; games to develop attention and memory; studies on the expressiveness of gestures; role-playing games.
1. Speech exercises influence emotional and personal
the sphere of the child; develop purity of pronunciation; improve intonation coloring of speech; develop the ability to use expressive means of voice. To perform these exercises, you must first learn the texts. The exercise can be group or individual. It is important that children do this meaningfully, emotionally, and with interest. Texts must be age-appropriate for children.
For example, the following: “Echo”, “We’re going, we’re going on a cart”, “Clean talk” - develop the expressiveness of speech, memory, and imagination.
2. Sketches for the expression of basic emotions develop moral and communicative qualities of the individual; contribute to understanding the emotional state of another person and the ability to adequately express one’s own. The content of the sketches is not readable to children.
An emotional retelling of the proposed situation is a condition for creating many game options on a given topic. Sketches should be short, varied and accessible to children in content.
Thus, in the sketch “The Fox Eavesdrops,” children learn to convey the emotional state of the character through a certain posture and facial expressions.
3. In studies for reproduction character trait Children learn to understand what behavior corresponds to what character trait.
The emphasis is on positive behavior models.
Thus, in the episodes “Greedy Dog”, “Terrible Beast”, through facial expressions, gestures, and posture, children convey individual character traits (greed, isolation, cowardice, courage).
4. Games to develop attention and memory develop the ability to quickly concentrate; activate memory and observation skills. In these games, children perform various movements according to a signal, repeat given movements and exercises.
Thus, in the game “Magic Circle”, children perform various movements according to a signal and develop attention; In the game “Wind-up Toys,” players develop motor-auditory memory through transformations.
5. Purpose sketches on the expressiveness of gestures is to develop children's correct understanding of emotionally expressive hand movements and adequate use of gesture. The content of the sketches activates the expressiveness of movements and creative imagination.
In the game “Snowballs”, children master the expressiveness of movements through imaginary winter entertainment; in “A Friendly Family”, through pantomime, the accuracy and expressiveness of conveyed actions develops: painting with a brush, knitting, sewing, modeling, etc.
6. Role-playing games Using elements of costumes, props, masks and dolls, they develop creative imagination, fantasy, and communication. Children, together with the teacher, make masks, props, elements of costumes and scenery. Parents can participate in the preparation process.
In the game “Organizing a General Theater,” children, together with their teacher, make dolls from paper bags and cups and act out everyday and fairy-tale scenes. Collective relationships, creative imagination, and fantasy develop.
II. Activity-game.
This form of organizing pedagogical work may include: sketches, fragments of fairy tales, games with theatrical elements.
During the lesson, fragments of a fairy tale are performed in an improvised form. This method of teaching helps to solve software problems in a fun way; has a positive effect on the formation of the child’s emotional and moral environment. At a complex lesson-game based on the Russian folk tale “Masha and the Bear”, children complete the teacher’s tasks to develop coherent speech, develop mathematical abilities, memory, and attention.
III. Theatrical story.
Techniques and methods of theatrical storytelling can be used both during class and outside of it. While reading or narrating a literary work, the teacher himself “plays” the characters, using intonation and emotional coloring of speech. Through expressive reading, acting out episodes; Through illustrative material, children are immersed in the atmosphere of a literary work. All tasks that are included in the program content of the lesson can be solved with the help of expressive gaming theatrical means. An example of such a theatrical form could be a lesson on familiarization with fiction: the Russian folk tale “Khavroshechka”.
IV. Quiz is fun.
The theatrical form of literary quiz-entertainment helps broaden children's horizons; activates emotional and creative potential. Work is underway to make costumes and props. The musical arrangement is prepared, the soundtrack is recorded, the texts are learned, and excerpts from literary works are rehearsed.
A stage version of the activity-game based on the works of A.S. Pushkin “Lukomorye” takes children on a fabulous journey. In this quiz, children participate in short performances, answer questions, and solve riddles. Preschoolers participate with interest and pleasure in educational theatrical games.
V. Performance-game.
This form of work requires long and careful preparation: a special dramatization is written taking into account the age-specific individual characteristics of the children. Rehearsals are held in a playful way. Scenery and costumes are being prepared, posters and theater programs are being produced.
The play-play, based on the Russian folk tale “Turnip”, helps to reveal the creative potential of children, emotionally enriches the performers and spectators of the play.
Thus, children, through various forms of theatrical play, develop moral and communicative qualities, creative abilities, and mental processes.
Practical material.
Speech games and exercises .
1. “Funny poems” (for children 3-4 years old).
Goal: Develop purity of pronunciation. Pay attention to intonation expressiveness of speech.
Progress: Children recite poetry together with the teacher. Gradually, from exercise to exercise, children acquire the skill of intonation expressiveness.
“There is a stump in the swamp,
He's too lazy to move.
The neck does not move.
But I want to laugh!”
“Was there a shoemaker? - Was!
Did the shoemaker sew? - Sheel!
Who are the boots for?
For the neighbor's cat!
“Cat, what’s your name?
Are you guarding the mouse here?
Meow! Do you want some milk?
How about a puppy as a companion?
2. “Echo” (for children 4-5 years old).
Goal: Change intonation coloring when reading a text.
Progress: “We wandered through the dark forest,
We asked in unison:
Is Grandma Yaga at home?
Les answered us:
The text is repeated, only the adverb is replaced - as you asked? –
“Friendly; quiet; menacing; cowardly; boldly…"
3. “We’re going, we’re going on a cart” (for children 5-6 years old).
Goal: To develop clarity of pronunciation, sense of rhythm, expressiveness.
Move: “We’re going, we’re going on a cart,
Collect nuts in the forest
Creak, creak, creak,
Creak, creak, creak.
The leaves are rustling - sh-sh-sh,
The birds are whistling - hit-piryu, hit-piryu,
Squirrel on a branch
He keeps gnawing on nuts - click, click, click, click,
A red fox is guarding a hare (pause)
We drove for a long, long time,
Finally, we’ve arrived!”
Goal: To develop the ability to use expressive means of voice.
Proceedings: “The sun has warmed up (singing a high-pitched sound oo-oo-oo)
A cheerful stream ran down the hill (they wag their tongue, imitating the cheerful “gurgling”).
Filled a large deep puddle to the brim
(“gurgling” with low sounds).
It overflowed (“gurgling” like a wave: up and down).
Bugs crawled out from under the bark (w-w-w)
And insects (z-z-z)
Spread your wings (crash-crash-up)
And they flew somewhere (tr-tr-tr – in a whisper).
Spring has come!”
5. Tongue twisters. Pure talk.
Goal: Improve the clarity of pronunciation.
Move: “Hot bricks!
Get off the stove
Bake it in the oven
Rolls made from flour!”
“Tary-bars, rastabars,
Varvara’s chickens are old!”
“Senya was carrying a cart of hay”
“Sasha knocked off the pine cones with a stick.”
"Eagle on the mountain, feather on the eagle."
“A beetle is buzzing over the honeysuckle,
Green casing on the beetle"
Sketches for the expression of basic emotions.
1. “The fox is eavesdropping” (for children 3-4 years old).
Goal: To develop the ability to understand the emotional state and adequately express oneself (attention, interest, concentration).
Progress: The fox stands at the window of the hut in which a cat and a cockerel live. Eavesdropping. The head is tilted to the side - listening, the mouth is half open. The leg is put forward, the body is slightly tilted forward.
2. “Delicious candies” (for children 4-5 years old).
Purpose: To convey the internal state through facial expressions (pleasure, joy).
Progress: The girl is holding an imaginary box of candy.
She hands it to the children one by one. They take the candy, thank you, unwrap the paper and help themselves. You can see from their faces that the food is delicious.
3. “Walk” (for children 5-6 years old).
Goal: Consolidate the reproduction of various emotions (joy, pleasure, surprise).
Progress: Summer day. Children are walking. Rain is coming. The children are running home. We arrived on time, a thunderstorm begins. The storm passed, the rain stopped. The children went outside again and began running through the puddles.
4. “Battle” (for children 6-7 years old).
Goal: Consolidation of the reproduction of various emotions (joy, pride, fear). Development of creative imagination.
Progress: One child portrays Ivan Tsarevich, the second
Snake - Gorynych (the head and hands are the heads of the Snake). There is a battle going on. Ivan Tsarevich wins. The snake is defeated.
Sketches for the reproduction of character traits.
1. “Old Man” (for children 3-4 years old).
Purpose: Through facial expressions and gestures, convey character traits (cheerful, kind, funny, mischievous).
Procedure: Read D. Kharms’ poem “The Cheerful Old Man” to the children. Children imitate the states and actions mentioned in the poem.
“Once upon a time there lived an old man
Vertically challenged,
And the old man laughed
Extremely simple:
Ha-ha-ha, yes he-he-he,
Hee-hee-hee, boom-boom!
Boo-boo-boo, yes be-be-be,
Ding-ding-ding,
Yes, trick-trick!
Once I saw a spider,
I was terribly scared
But, clutching my sides,
Laughed loudly:
Hee-hee-hee, yes ha-ha-ha,
Ho-ho-ho, yes gulp-gul!
Gi-gi-gi, yes ha-ha-ha,
Go-go-go, yes glug-glug!
And when I saw a dragonfly,
I got terribly angry
But laughing on the grass
And so he fell:
Gee-gee-gee, yes gu-gu-gu,
Go-go-go, yes bang-bang,
Oh guys! I can not!
Oh guys! Ahah!
2. “Greedy Dog” (for children 4-5 years old).
Goal: To convey character traits (greed) through facial expressions and gestures.
Progress: The teacher reads a poem by V. Kvitko.
“The greedy dog brought firewood,
I applied water, kneaded the dough,
He baked the pirogov, hid it in a corner,
And he ate it himself - noise, noise, noise!”
Children imitate the state and actions mentioned in the poem.
3. “Terrible beast” (for children 5-6 years old).
Purpose: Through pantomime, convey the character traits and behavior of the characters (brave, cowardly, stupid, cautious).
Progress: The teacher reads V. Semerin’s poem “Terrible Beast.” Children who have received roles act according to the text.
"Right to the room door,
A predatory beast is infiltrating!
His fangs are sticking out
And the mustache bristles -
His pupils are burning -
I want to be scared!
Could this be a lioness?
Can a she-wolf howl?
The stupid boy shouted:
The brave boy shouted:
4. “Magic ring” (for children 6-7 years old).
Goal: To convey character traits (good, evil, fair) through pantomime. Develop creative imagination.
Progress: An evil wizard, with the help of an enchanted ring,
Turns a good boy into a bad boy. The boy offends everyone, teases everyone, breaks everything. Finally, tired, he falls asleep. A good wizard offers to save the boy and remove the ring. All the children quietly come up and take off the ring.
The boy wakes up. He is affectionate again and asks everyone for forgiveness. Everyone is having fun.
Games to develop attention.
1. “Be careful!” (for children 3-4 years old).
Purpose: Stimulate attention; respond quickly and accurately to sound signals.
Progress: Children walk to cheerful music. Then, for the word “Bunnies”, children pretend to be bunnies (jumping), for the word “Horses” - horses (hitting their feet on the floor), for the word “Crayfish” - they back away, “Stork” - stand on one leg, “Birds” - they run with their arms outstretched.
2. “Magic circle” (for children 4-5 years old).
Goal: Carry out movements carefully when given a signal.
Progress: The players stand in a circle. At the signal of the bell, the children take turns making the following movements: one crouches and stands up, the other claps his hands, the third crouches and stands up, etc.
3. “Listen to the claps” (for children 4-5 years old).
Goal: Develop active attention.
Progress: The players go in a circle. When the leader claps his hands once, the children must stop and take the stork pose (stand on one leg, arms to the sides). If the leader claps twice, take a frog pose (sit down, heels together, toes and knees to the sides, hands between your legs on the floor). After three claps, the players resume walking.
4. “Milchanka” (for children 6-7 years old).
Goal: To develop attention and the ability to focus quickly.
Move: Leading:
Hush, mice!
Cat on the roof
And the kittens are even taller!
One two three four five,-
From now on it's time to be silent!
The players fall silent. The driver watches who speaks or laughs. This child pays forfeit. When there are 5-6 forfeits, they are played out. Each owner performs an artistic performance.
Memory development games.
1. “Remember your place” (for children 3-4 years old).
Progress: Children stand or in different corners of the room.
Everyone must remember their place.
Cheerful music sounds, everyone “turns into birds and moves around the room. The music ends. Everyone must return to their places.
2. “Wind-up toys” (for children 4-5 years old).
Goal: To develop motor-auditory memory.
Progress: There are toys in the wind-up toy store: dolls, bunnies, bears, frogs, birds, butterflies. Music sounds: “the toys’ factory is turning on.”
Children move around the room. The music stops and the children return to their seats.
3. “Artist” (for children 5-6 years old).
Goal: Develop attention and memory.
Progress: The child plays the role of an artist. He carefully examines the person he will “draw”, then turns away and gives him a verbal portrait.
4. “In the mirror store” (for children 6-7 years old).
Goal: Develop observation and memory.
Progress: There were a lot of large mirrors in the store. A man came in with a monkey on his shoulder. She saw herself in the mirrors and thought that they were other monkeys and began to turn her head. The monkeys answered her in kind.
She stamped her foot - and all the monkeys stamped their feet. Whatever the monkey did, everyone repeated its movements exactly.
Studies on the expressiveness of gestures.
1. “Quiet” (for children 3-4 years old).
Goal: To develop expressive hand movements and adequately use gesture.
Progress: Little mice cross the road where the kitten is sleeping.
They walk on their toes, then stop and sign to each other: “Quiet!”
Expressive movements: the neck is stretched forward, the index finger is placed on pursed lips, the eyebrows “go up.”
2. “Snowball fight” (for children 4-5 years old).
Progress: The sketch is accompanied by cheerful music. Winter. Children play in the snow. Expressive movements: bend down, grab snow with both hands, make a snowball, throw a snowball with sharp, short movements.
3. “Game with pebbles” (for children 5-6 years old).
Goal: To develop expressiveness of movements and creative imagination.
Progress: Children walk along the seashore, bending over pebbles.
They enter the water and splash, scooping up water with both hands. Then they sit on the sand and play with pebbles: either throwing them up or throwing them into the sea. Light music is playing.
4. “Friendly family” (for children 6-7 years old).
Goal: To develop expressiveness of movements and creative imagination.
Procedure: Children sit on chairs in a circle. Everyone is busy with something: one sculpts, another hammers a nail into a board, someone paints with a brush, someone sews, knits. Children perform pantomime with imaginary objects, trying to convey actions more accurately.
Role-playing games using elements of costumes, props, masks and dolls.
1. “Playing a fairy tale” (for children 3-4 years old).
Progress: The teacher acts as a storyteller. Children, using masks and props, act out a fairy tale they know. (“Turnip”, “Teremok”, etc.)
2. “Guess the situation” (for children 4-5 years old).
Goal: To develop creative imagination and fantasy.
Progress: Children take turns using props and costume elements to “create a situation.” The rest are guessing:
1) “Tanya collects mushrooms in the forest.”
The girl portrays a mushroom picker, in her hands is a basket and a staff, and on her head is a headscarf.
2) “Oleg swims underwater.”
A boy wearing a diving mask and a rubber cap pretends to be a diver.
3) “Katya got caught in the rain.”
A girl in a raincoat with an umbrella jumps through puddles, shivering from the cold drops.
3. “Blind Man’s Bluff” (for children 5-6 years old).
Goal: To develop communication, creative imagination, fantasy.
Procedure: All children, together with the teacher, prepare mouse and cat masks. The eyes of the cat mask are not cut out. Children sit in a circle. “Cat” is in the center. Cat: “Mouse, mouse, look!” One mouse fulfills the request. A cat in a mask with painted eyes doesn’t see who. She must guess whose voice it was. If he can’t, let him touch the mouse’s clothes. When he guesses correctly, a new mouse is selected.
Game continues.
4. “We will organize a universal theater.” (for children 6-7 years old).
Goal: To develop creative interaction, imagination, fantasy.
Procedure: All children, together with the teacher, make dolls from gloves and paper bags. Then they act out everyday or fairy-tale scenes.
Literature
1. Burenina A.I. From game to performance. Toolkit. St. Petersburg, 1996.
2. Genov G.V. Theater for kids. M., “Enlightenment”, 1968.
3. Gurin Yu.V., Monina G.B. Games for children from three to seven. St. Petersburg, “Rech”, 2008.
2. Kryazheva N.L. Development of the emotional world of children. Ekaterinburg, U-Factoria, 2004.
4. Orlova F.M. We are having fun. M., "Enlightenment", 1993.
5. Ulikova N.A. In a word, the soul grows.” St. Petersburg, “Start”, 1999.
6. Chistyakova M.I. Psycho-gymnastics. M., "Enlightenment", 1999.
7. Theater lessons at the school of the Scientific Research Institute of Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR. M., “Pedagogical workshops on artistic education”, 1990.
8. Fopel K. How to teach children to cooperate. M., Genesis, 2006.
Ask yourself the question: do I believe what the actor portrays or don’t believe it. And your answer will determine for you whether he plays his role well or not. This is how K.S. judged the authenticity of the acting. Stanislavsky. What the viewer calls “overacting,” professionals call overacting.
Actors and directors say in such cases: he is acting, you are acting...etc. To play means to overdo it, to fake it. Acting occurs when the inner existence of an actor does not correspond to his external manifestations: there is more externality. We see that the actor is internally sluggish, but is trying to portray interest, despair, and indignation. Credibility is achieved by the correct inner existence of the actor when portraying the character. This is what the acting profession consists of - the ability to not just show something of the character, but at the same time to experience what is happening to his character. "Inner existence" is professional term and is part of the acting technique.
In theater and film universities they teach how to experience what a character is experiencing and, at the same time, see oneself from the outside and control one’s performance. In the end, the viewer feels the same as the actor; if the actor overacts or underacts, then he causes a feeling of awkwardness and leaves us indifferent. The opposite of acting is the other extreme - “cheap Moscow Art Theater pravdenka”, this expression is used by teachers of the Moscow Art Theater studio when an actor mutters under his breath and tries to play “like in life.” Maybe in a movie, in close-up, such mumbling will be just convincing and appropriate, but not in the theater - where you need to convey your speech and acting energy to the last row. Natural vital organic matter alone is not enough for the theater; a certain stage energy is required, greater than in life. Finding the golden mean between two extremes - false acting and “inexpressive truthfulness” - is one of the acting tasks that he solves during the rehearsal process. But it happens that an actor finds an accurate picture of internal and external existence only on the tenth performance.
In cinema, this is more difficult, you have to be ready to give your best on a specific day and hour - the camera recorded your performance and nothing can be corrected. During the rehearsal period, however, you have to replay it in order to feel the amplitude of the emotion. “If you don’t play enough, you won’t play,” actors say in such cases. If you don’t let yourself go, don’t feel your maximum - which is sometimes achieved by overacting, then you will be afraid of strong manifestations, fear leads to the same acting falseness. The laws of how an actor works with an image on camera, in films and television series, are the same, but with the significant difference that the size here is different: just by looking at the eyes you can understand whether the actor is lying or not. In cinema, you don’t have to rely on the viewer in the “last row”, as in the theater, the viewer in cinema and on television looks at the actor through a microscope - the acting should be more delicate. The question “do I believe or not” is fundamental not only for the viewer: the more the actor himself believes in the proposed circumstances of his character, the more likely his success. But the viewer should not understand all the intricacies of the acting “cuisine”.
Trust your intuition - if you are impressed by a certain role, then for you, the actor performing it is a good actor.
Hello. Thanks for the very detailed and interesting answer.
In addition to the question asked, I would like to know whether it is correct to judge the skill of a film actor when watching a film with dubbed voice acting? Can we draw conclusions about the performance of foreign actors by watching films in Russian cinemas?
Answer
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I prefer to watch a foreign film with subtitles, or with a voice-over from a simultaneous interpreter, rather than a dubbed one. It is important for me to hear the timbre of the actor’s voice and his true intonation and temperament. We have wonderful actors working in dubbing - Anna Kamenkova, Sergei Chonishvili, Andrei Tashkov and a number of other names can be listed. Among those who left were Volodya Vikhrov, my former classmate, who voiced the roles of Alain Delon and others, as well as the magnificent Vladimir Kenigson - in whose voice Louis De Funes, Jean Gabin and Toto spoke to us. But more and more often, in recent years, duplication of paintings produces a terrifying impression - this is a real hack, performed by unprofessionals or mediocrities. Voicing your roles was the norm in Soviet times; the sound was not written down during filming, and even now, sometimes, you can’t do without it. During dubbing, you can correct the role, and use your voice to complete what was not done during filming. The same goes for duplication, obviously. Sometimes in domestic film production, when dubbing, the actor playing the role is replaced. The most famous and successful example is Valentina Talyzina, who “gave” her voice to the heroine of Barbara Brylska in “The Irony of Fate.” Or Alexander Dyachenko, who voiced the works of Donatas Banionis. We can no longer separate our favorite character from a specific timbre and intonation. So, it’s not so much a matter of replacing the voice, but rather the quality of this replacement. And yet, in the case of bad duplication - how much can it spoil good game actor? It certainly can ruin it. But there is a difficulty here... The perception of a picture, like the work of an actor by the viewer, is a multi-component process - it also depends on the quality of the script, plot, theme of the film, its dialogues - how interesting they are. And from the visual image of the entire film - the work of cameramen, artists and, of course, the director and composer. There is always a noticeable discrepancy in the level of the film and the level of dubbing - if there is one. Bad dubbing always simplifies and trivializes the general idea, while brilliant dubbing cannot turn a crude craft into a masterpiece. Good dubbing is invisible to the viewer; the sound is one with the image and manifestations of the actor on the screen. If you are annoyed by the sound of dubbing, this speaks for itself - they ruined the dubbing: they didn’t live up to the drama, they coarsened the subtle comedy, they didn’t work in the genre. The actor playing the role has nothing to do with it. Personally, I can always tell a good actor's performance from a bad dubbing. But the impression is still spoiled. And yet, the quality of translation of foreign paintings is also important. A bad translation can turn the most brilliant author into a graphomaniac.
There are several systems of acting that correlate with different types"dramatic" in the lives of the characters. For example, Stanislavsky's system is most directly related to Chekhov's dramaturgy and was born of the same historical situation. What is most dramatic about Chekhov's characters is their divergence from life, their lack of understanding of its tasks and their place in it. This life is so everyday, boring, dragging, ordinary that the behavior of characters who have more or less retained their “I” seems eccentric, decorative, theatrical against its background (Nina Zarechnaya and Treplev, Ranevskaya and Gaev...), and they themselves are aware of their superfluity and uselessness for everything around. And the main task of Stanislavsky’s system is to achieve the truth of the actor’s feelings on stage, to play in such a way as to return to the characters the naturalness and prostate they lack in life. If a person is an actor in life, then let the actor on stage be most of all and above all a person.
In accordance with the lyrical nature of Chekhov’s dramaturgy, Stanislavsky’s system also has a predominantly “lyrical” orientation: since Chekhov’s heroes with all the weakening strength of their humanity resist the vulgarity and ordinariness of the surrounding life, then you need to take their side, share their inner torment and accept them as your own, contribute from themselves an additional force of life-feeling into their fading self. Empathy for the character, all-understanding and all-responsive love for him, the readiness to identify with him in everything, to completely overflow into his personality - this is the main installation of Stanislavsky’s system. (In this brief analysis, we, of course, do not claim to characterize Stanislavsky’s entire system, highlighting only that aspect of it that correlates with the intended typology of the game).
Brecht's system emphasizes the opposite pole of dramatic synthesis - the epic. Here the actor’s task is not to empathize with the character, but, on the contrary, to sharply distance him, to narrate him in the third person. In Stanislavsky, the actor thinks about the character - “I” (“how would I behave in these conditions?”); Brecht has “he” (“why does he behave this way?”). This theatrical setting is associated with the specifics of the dramatic material on the basis of which Brecht’s theater arose - with the dramaturgy of Brecht himself. Here the characters (Mother Courage, Galileo, the man from Sichuan, etc.) do not at all diverge from their environment - they violently adapt to it, submit to its dictates, their internal point of view on things is smoothed out and obscured by the activity of the things themselves that enslave them.
A person capitulates to history, becomes like everyone else - an element of the mass, the “I” is destroyed in him and “he” reigns. That’s why Brecht’s theater is epic, that’s why it “alienates” the character, that the character himself is deeply and irreversibly alienated from himself, deprived of the inner core that attracted the actor’s empathy - only the external intelligence of the personality remains, its projection onto the screen of history, into the plane, to be demonstrated. But history itself in the Brechtian period is not the same as in the Chekhovian period. This is not the slow, almost illusory, losing its meaning history of Russia in the last decades of the 19th century, in which space is freed up for hope, for the fragile forces of new humanity - this is the attacking, dictatorial, totalitarian history of Germany in the 30s and 40s. The 20th century, which does not allow a person to withdraw into himself, even in the form of weakness, but demands everything from him without reserve and puts the crowd in the place of the individual.
A Brechtian character (whenever and wherever he lives) voluntarily or involuntarily identifies himself with history, and therefore the actor does not have the internal right to identify himself with the character: he must argue with him and, in his person, with history. The relationship between the actor and the character in Brecht is distant and competitive: who will defeat whom? The actor, imitating the character, tries with all his might to show that he is wrong, that he can behave differently, better, more honestly; the actor is engaged in an intellectual and moral duel with his character. However, this opposition of two types of acting: transformation and competition (alienation) does not exhaust all its possibilities. After all, the lyrical or improvised type of play has another variety besides the mimetic one - ecstatic; and the epic, or organized type of game includes not only competition, but also a game of chance and fate.
The theatrical practice of the 20th century knows methods and systems that approach these “superpersonal” varieties of acting. A striking example is the method of A. Artaud. The character and the actor’s attitude towards him (empathetic or competitive) ceases to be an essential element of the theatrical system. The actor focuses not on the character - the person, not on the individual character, but on the most general laws of the spiritual and physical universe, which he must manifest in his body. Artaud's interest is not in history, but in metaphysics. His theater does not have a modern dramatic basis, like Stanislavsky and Brecht, and there are no plays with historically relevant content. Artaud preferred to deal with myths and legends; he dreamed of a theatrical production of the cosmogonic myths of the East and Mexico, and the plan he developed in detail for the first performance was based on the plot of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec state. For Artaud, the absolute is a cosmos that surrounds a person from the outside and compresses his “particular” soul with the shell of an omnipotent body.
The word “cruelty”, taken by Artaud to define the essence of his theater (“Le Theater de la Cruaute”), means the unpredictability and inexorability with which reality affects a person - if it is a true, objective reality, and not created by man himself (his imagination and technology) for self-defense and calm. “Cruelty” is not a condemnable tendency of a morally free person, but a “tendency” of existence itself, which does not allow a person to be free and, as such, is immoral.
“In cruelty there is something of that supreme determinism to which even the executioner submits...” From Artaud’s point of view, his contemporary reality (France of the 20-30s of our century) is too cozy and safe: a person, having surrounded himself with the comfort of a room, a pleasant atmosphere of intimate conversations and correct public discussions, cut himself off from the true reality, which is terrible, bloody, painful. This reality of cosmic abysses and organic depths of man is revealed in ancient myths telling of crimes and wars, of love and madness: this reality is familiar to the magical art of the East, and it must be returned to the Western world, bled and drained of the comforts of social life and the achievements of historical reason.
Central European people, who have created a thin protective layer of civilization around themselves, need to convey the horror and greatness of Rock, which is beyond all expectations and wishes. The instrument of Rock, a reminder of the cruelty of true existence, should be theater, affecting the viewer as sharply, aggressively and mercilessly as reality once did. The theater becomes the last refuge of true reality, expelled from the outside theatrical environment, which is so cultivated and tamed by artistic taste and moral restrictions that from reality it is turned, as it were, into a theater where parliamentary elections and heartbreaking melodramas of intimate relationships are played out. Only in the theater can the viewer find non-theater: a cascade of eerie sounds falls on him from different sides, cruel scenes of violence, triumphs of criminal passions unfold in front of him and behind him; he feels in the thick of reality, similar to hell, because it does not lend itself to conscious regulation and soothing decoding.
Unlike the traditional stage, where the entire spectacle is compactly concentrated before the eyes of the viewer, in Artaud the action takes place simultaneously throughout the entire auditorium, on different stage platforms, it is taken beyond the limits of contemplation, embraces the viewer from all sides and cannot itself be embraced by him, as every genuine being, in its entirety not comprehended by perception. In Artaud's theater, the last role is assigned to the word, and the first role is given to gestures, plasticity, sounds, and the reality of the physical presence of the actors. What is important is not what a given thing or word means, but its very existence, the strength of the voice pronouncing the word, or the amount of space occupied by the thing; at the same time, the size of things and the sound of voices are monstrously exaggerated, brought to a grandiose cacophony, a heap of volumes; The king's beard alone is on the order of several meters long.
In Artaud’s theater, everything that contradicts the will and consciousness of the individual, surpasses his “I”, is impenetrable to psychologism and intellectualism is emphasized and highlighted - for it belongs to the sphere of space and organics. According to Artaud, culture in general and theater in particular should be like a plague, before which only a feeling of panic is possible - its reality is so self-sufficient and unconditional. At a time when Artaud called on French society to abandon intellectual chatter and listen to the voice of irrational Fate, Brecht witnessed this eye in German society and sought to counter it precisely in intellectualism. Between Brecht’s “theater of alienation” and Artaud’s “theater of cruelty” there is that striking contrast that only contemporaries are capable of. “Cruelty was for Brecht a property of the surrounding socio-historical reality, where superhuman Rock took on the features of state totalitarianism, and the theater had to argue with it, distance it in every possible way, remove it, take an intellectual distance from it. Artaud proceeded from the reality of a liberal society, languishing from an excess of conveniences and freedoms and yearning for “higher determinism,” which was supposed to present him with a “theater of cruelty.” The art of being not in an imitative, but in an additional relationship with reality, making up for what it lacks.
In the 60s, the American “nonconformist” movement took shape new system acting behavior corresponding to the ecstatic type of play. In such troupes as Living Theater and Environmental Theatre, the absolutely sincere and natural participation of actors and spectators in life on stage is recognized as the main thing; the game is not about accepting, but about refusing roles.
Since the real existence of a person in society is imbued with duplicity, hypocrisy, disguised in many masks, adapted specifically for service, for family, for friends, the theater is the only place where one can and should be oneself. And you need not to put on another mask, this time a character, but to take off all the masks, including this last one, to bare your soul and flesh and awaken the viewer to frank communication in addition to all the sanctimonious and false conventions outside the theatrical environment. Unlike Artaud, who in his striving for the superpersonal also almost overcame the category of character, “reincarnation” (one must not reincarnate, but be), the absolute here manifests itself not as a fate surrounding a person from the outside, but as his own ecstatically spontaneous self-realization and craving for a natural-direct merger with other people. Not enmity or threat, but love and trust - this is the pathos of this theater, resurrecting the atmosphere of ancient ritual-orgiastic actions - not in order to terrify the viewer with this primordial reality, like a plague, but in order to draw them into it, like into paradise. If Artaud, with his monstrous phantasmagorias, fought against the respectable comfort and “vulgar” sincerity of honest European morals, then Yu. Beck, R. Schechner and their followers preach a desublimated, frank, naturally pure and honest theater, opposing the phantasmagoria of alienated and “advertising-demonstrative” American morals
Thus, the correlation of theatrical acting with the type of seriousness that dominates non-theatrical life is clarified. Acting on stage, as it were, overcomes and overcomes the uniqueness and one-sidedness of everyday existence, and restores the integrity that is inaccessible to it. Moreover, in the artistic practice of the theater, the same varieties of acting are again discovered that were initially identified in everyday life. This raises the question of the unified nature of the game, manifested in all its varieties and correlated with only one, equally global category - seriousness.
Looking at actors in different films, we rarely think about what techniques they use during filming. Our thoughts usually revolve around two concepts: “I believe” and “I don’t believe.” But if in the second case everything is clear, then what still makes us empathize with people who do not exist in reality? You can learn about this in detail on the Movie Science YouTube channel, where they talk about various aspects of filmmaking.
All kinds of acting techniques are, first of all, attributes of films. But their knowledge can also help in ordinary life. After all, we constantly communicate with different people, and it is not always possible to recognize which feelings and emotions in their behavior are sincere and which are a mask.
Firstly, this is, of course, speech. Quiet and uncertain or loud and expressive, she is able to quite accurately show a person’s inner world. And those who know how to “play” with their own voice will, without a doubt, be able to easily conquer any audience. We use speech all the time, and being able to control it is a very useful skill.
It is impossible to effectively manage speech without the ability to use accents and pauses, which give statements not only expressiveness, but also carry a huge semantic load. Agree that Schindler’s famous monologue, blurted out quickly, would have sounded completely flat if Liam Neeson had not used pauses and accents with such amazing precision.
The acting is made much more convincing by the skillful use of microfacial expressions, which convey subtle but true emotions when a completely different expression dominates the character’s face. Slightly raised eyebrows can indicate surprise, drooping corners of the lips can mean sadness, and tightly clenched teeth can mean anger. The ability to discern the real behind the show is a true talent, and it can seriously help in communicating with people.
An equally important acting technique can be called vocal control. This is the ability to instantly play a major role in a conversation, seize the thread of dialogue, and take a leading position. And for this it is absolutely not necessary to shout loudly, actively gesticulate, stomp your feet and splash saliva. Look at the Joker performed by the talented Heath Ledger. The main villain is constantly one step ahead, he methodically pisses off his interlocutors, although he does not raise his voice. In the first seconds, the Joker looks weaker than his opponents, but it is he who controls the situation. And Heath Ledger achieves this effect through vocal control.
And, of course, the look. Characters' eye contact can often say much more than words in dialogue or monologue. It contains fears and worries, love and hope, and sometimes even madness. An excellent “master of the look” can be called Sally Hawkins, who played the mute cleaning lady in “The Shape of Water.” Her character is a very sensitive, touching, stupid person, and Sally managed to convey all these qualities of her heroine precisely thanks to her looks.
A worthy competitor to Sally is Elijah Wood, who played the brave hobbit in the cult trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”. Of course, Frodo’s speech cannot be called inexpressive, but the looks with which he awarded friends and enemies are not inferior to his words either in brightness or in emotionality. So watch your emotions when you look at a person you don't like. What if he also watched the video on Movie Science?
High-quality acting is not easy work, mastery of a huge number of various techniques that not everyone can do. It’s all the more pleasant to watch a film where you sincerely believe the characters and empathize with them.
