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Definition: acting 1 from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

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(1598) : the art or practice of representing a character on a stage or before cameras

acting

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the representation of a usually fictional character on stage or in films. At its highest levels of accomplishment acting involves the employment of technique and/or an imaginative identification with the character on the part of the actor. In this way the full emotional weight of situations on stage be communicated to the audience. The actor must be a sharp observer of life and thoroughly trained in voice projection and enunciation and in body movement. In the ancient Greek theater, acting was stylized; indeed, the large outdoor theaters made subtlety of speech and gesture impossible. The actors, all men, wore comic and tragic masks and were costumed grotesquely, wearing padded clothes and, often, artificial phalluses. Nevertheless, there were advocates of naturalistic acting even at that time, and actors were held in high esteem. In the Roman period actors were slaves, and the level of performance was low, broad farce being the most popular dramatic form. The tragedies of Seneca were…
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Full text Article acting

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the representation of a usually fictional character on stage or in films. At its highest levels of accomplishment acting involves the employment of technique and/or an imaginative identification with the character on the part of the actor. In this way the full emotional weight of situations on stage…
| 679 words
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Full text Article acting

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Art of representing a character on a stage or before a camera by means of movement, gesture, and intonation. Acting in the Western tradition originated in Greece in the 6th century bce ; the tragedian Thespis is traditionally regarded as founder of the profession. Aristotle defined acting as “the…
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Full text Article ACTING

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
A painter paints, a musician plays, a writer writes – but a movie actor waits. ASTOR, Mary A Life on Film (1967). Acting is a form of confusion. BANKHEAD, Tallulah Tallulah (1952). [On a less than adequate p... …
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Full text Article Method acting.

From The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting
The acting style most associated with modern American theatre and film, Method acting now invokes multiple meanings and misconceptions. It is most clearly connected with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio . Based on the ideas of Stanislavsky , Method set itself in opposition to the classical and…
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Full text Article Acting Out

From Encyclopedia of Adolescence
The phrase “acting out” often is associated with the adolescent period. As such, it tends to conjure a sense of behaving inappropriately, including engaging in delinquent and harmful behaviors. Yet, acting out can mean much more than that, as it can involve expressions that can serve to identify…
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Full text Article acting/actors.

From The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting
Acting is the representation of human behaviour before an audience in circumstances where both actors and audience are aware that this representation is a performance. Acting, which involves the mimesis or imitation of other human beings, is one of the most basic and pleasurable of human activities, …
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Full text Article Acting Out

From Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy Through Adolescence
Acting out is the release of out-of-control aggressive or sexual impulses in order to gain relief from tension or anxiety. Such impulses often result in antisocial or delinquent behaviors. The term is also sometimes used in regard to a psychotherapeutic release of repressed feelings, as occurs in…
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Full text Article Acting Out

From Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Disabilities and Other Exceptional Individuals
Acting out has been defined by ( Harriman ) as the “direct expression of conflicted tensions in annoying or antisocial behavior in fantasies” (p. 30). A child who exhibits acting-out behavior is one who cannot easily accept structural limits and is difficult to manage in the classroom. Acting-out…
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Full text Article acting/actor

From The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance
Acting is the art of performing an *action or of representing human experience on stage or in some other mode of performance, in which the actor's body and voice serve as the principal expressive tools. *Mimesis —the art of imitation—is one of the basic traits of human beings, who replicate the…
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Full text Article METHOD ACTING

From 100 Ideas that Changed Film
Reacting to the seismic sociocultural shift caused by World War II, Hollywood welcomed the immersive Method technique that brought an additional authenticity and realism to feature films striving to reflect the Cold War world. Changes in screen-acting styles reflect a variety of factors: …
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