Role - a sentence in the creative life? Background

Even in the days of the ancient Greek theater arosedivision into certain types of characters. Thus, the role of an actor arises - the distribution of roles in accordance with external data, as a result of which, until the last century, throughout the whole life, the actors would have to embody only one image.

In ancient Greece, dramatic worksdivided into two main types: tragedies and comedies. Accordingly, two types of actors stood out — tragedians and comedians. Entering into any group was largely determined not by the style of the game, but by the external data of the actor. People who were distinguished by tall, well-built figure, with a low timbre of voice, became tragedies. Their opposite - the actors are low and full, speaking in a high voice. They could only play comic roles.

Medieval italian

the comedy del arte expanded the ancient images andcreated new roles. These are servants, gentlemen, and also hero-lovers. A distinctive feature of the commedia dell'arte is a leather mask, a mandatory attribute of the character. At the beginning of the theatrical career, each actor chose his mask, and then almost all his life he played only one role. Theater historians have more than one hundred different masks, but most of them belonged to similar characters, who differed from each other only in names and small details. The female roles of the actors performed without the use of masks.

In the XVII century, in the era of classicism, Frenchthe theater continued the creation of basic stable images in drama and secured the distribution of roles for the actors of certain psychophysical data. At this time, the concept of role arose - a term derived from the French word "emploi", which translates as "role", "position", "use".

In order to get the role, the actor mustto meet a specific set of requirements, among which, as in ancient times, growth, body build, timbre of voice, and type of face are involved. But the role is not only the appearance of the character, but also the declamatory and plastic features, the behavioral line. The transition from one role to another was not approved, therefore, as in the medieval theater, the actors throughout their theatrical career played monotonous roles, improving their skills and trying to add a certain zest to the character. The only exceptions were age roles, to which the management of the theater translated aged actors.

In the French theater in the XVIII century appearsuch roles of the actress as ingenhu are a sincere, but naive and simple-minded girl. Heroes-young men of a similar nature of character were called simpletons. Subretka (male version of the servant) is different fun, enthusiasm and lively disposition, often this character provides its masters invaluable assistance in love affairs. The concept of travesty appears - obo

meaning that the male actor takes the female lead, and vice versa.

So would the actors play all their lives the samethe role if in the last century Konstantin Stanislavsky and Mikhail Chekhov did not make a statement that theatrical roles are stamps that inhibit the development of acting talent, do not allow it to fully manifest. This opinion was perceived with distrust, but now, watching the amazing reincarnations of modern actors, we see that the great directors were right.