Tuesday 15th March Hugh Mellor, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge: 'Role Playing on Stage' Venue: Seminar Room, 1 Newnham Terrace, Darwin College. (Enter by main door). Time: 5.00pm to 7.00pm Admission is free, and all are welcome.
Role-playing on stage, e.g. an actor playing Shakespeare's Richard III, clearly differs from role-playing in real life, e.g. Richard III playing that role in 15th century London. On-stage role-playing has been distinguished from real-life role-playing in various ways: as involving 'make-believe', with audiences having to 'suspend their disbelief' (e.g. that they are watching Richard III); or 'pretence' (the actor pretends to be Richard III); or 'imitation' (the actor imitates Richard III). I argue that none of these will do, and that on-stage role-playing is just a special kind of representation. That is, actors represent the characters they play, not by describing them, as the text of a novel, history book, or screenplay does, but by depicting them, as portraits or CGI animations of them do. But in stage (or screen) role-playing, unlike these other methods of depiction, real or fictional people (the characters) are being depicted by other people (the actors). This requires actors to use some of their own attributes (voice, appearance, etc.), adapted as required (by costume, makeup, etc.), to depict those of their characters. I show how this explains why actors often say they try to become the characters they play, why great performances are so hard to achieve, and why great parts (Richard III, Cleopatra, Othello) can be played equally well but very differently by different actors. _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
