Actor – Bringing a character to life

That actors have an exhausting job is undeniable. But equally fascinating is the history of acting.

That the history of acting is many centuries old is probably well known. In fact, men and women have been practicing the art of acting since ancient times. In doing so, they play the role of a character in a story for the entertainment of the audience. Why just read a story when you can participate in it, play the roles and transform them, in a demonstration of skill? With a suitable actor, any role comes to life!

Actors throughout the centuries have found different media to present and spread their art. From voice acting on the radio, to theatrical acting, to cinema. The word “acting” can probably be derived from the Latin word “re”, which means “to do”. Because if you translate “to do” into German, it means “to make” and that’s exactly what actors do in movies or plays. Actors literally play a role by speaking written dialogue and physically performing as the character might.

On every single film shoot, a director is present on set. The director’s job is to give the actors various instructions on how to perform their roles, and to make sure that the entire plot and shoot goes smoothly and as the scenario’s author intended.

Many skills are required of actors. These include:

1. physical strength
2. dexterity
3. voice imitation and
4. charisma

The modern cinema industry employs thousands of actors who play the roles of characters from movie scripts and record them for screening on the big screen. Acting in the cinema is never performed in front of an audience, but it has the added pressure of being seen on the screen later by millions of people.

Acting is a traditional art form, and many actors learn by going to established academic institutions. Famous institutions include the “London Academy of Film,” “Radio and TV,” and the “American Academy of Dramatic Arts.”

Some actors train at various academies and learn both classical and modern acting techniques, such as “Method Acting”. This is a style of acting in which the actor strives to act as realistically as possible, drawing on personal experience of emotional situations rather than dramatizing.

The tradition of acting, as mentioned earlier, dates back to ancient times, with the ancient Egyptians and Greeks performing either for religious purposes, or in the case of the Greeks, for entertainment. A man named Thespis is celebrated as the first recognized actor as early as 560 BC, and his name inspired the term “Thespian,” as another word for actor (https://www.nyfa.edu/).

Some claim Thespis was among the first to personify a character for the purpose of storytelling. In doing so, he used masks so that people could tell the identities apart.