Physical Acting has been an important tool in all forms of entertainment. In this essay i shall draw mostly from my feelings and experience but from a little history that i found on wikipedia (referencing here instead of at the end) about Charlie Chaplin. I believe that Physical Acting is a very important tool in entertainment and i hope to convince you to jump on my band wagon. Physical Acting made its mark in entertainment when motion picture was invented. it made it's break in the late 1890's with the birth of the silent movie.
The silent movie is a motion picture thats accompanied by the plink and plonk of a piano based soundtrack. It was a major breakthrough in entertainment as it told a full story, complete with moving characters without the use of a dialogue. It was particularly popular because you had to read less and people people who are rich enough to be lazy usually are. As the primitive technology was deaf until the late 1920's, the responsibility was given to the actor to exaggerate heavily with his body to put across their characters feelings, or simply amplify the severity of the situation.
Physical Acting was particularly popular when utilized by the likes of Charlie Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin was the master of the two main components of physical acting; mime and slapstick. Charlie Chaplin was the talk of World War 1 because of his zealous physical acting (not read on wikipedia).
In the late 1920s when technology developed its hearing, Physical Acting was less used as the camera often went into the faces of classically good looking people while they talked. For a short while Physical Acting was frowned upon by pompous artists who thought it was "primitive", "simple" or "too easy".
While it may seem like an easy way to get a laugh in a scene of a film, play or book, Physical Acting will never be "too easy". It takes a hefty amount of practice to become just a decent Physical Actor. There are many things to consider such as "How can i make this seem more exaggerated?" or "is it necessary?". To become the best physical actor you must challenge yourself every day. Think of how to do a unique walk, the faces you make brushing your teeth, the movements your eyebrows make when your exasperated. It helps to have a friend who challenges you by spontaneously improvising scenes for you to act physically right there, right then.You know you have the makings of a Physical Actor when you can convincingly do something accidentally on purpose.
In the faces of these pompous artists who died, physical acting lived on in all sorts of forms of entertainment. It excels in the theatre in the form of pantomime. It excels on the big screen making fill your lungs as you cringe during the most gruesome horror scene, or make you empty your lungs as you laugh at the most comic kick in the testicles. When someone actually has been kicked in the testicles, we call it Physical Method Acting.
In conclusion, Physical Acting is a very important and useful tool in all terms of entertainment from a practical joke to blogging *waving my arms to exaggerate. My eyes are wide open and looking right into yours and im naked.*. It can bring people extreme happiness or at the very least flip your inner switch of empathy, making you feel like you are right here naked with me. Physical Acting is not something to be under-estimated or frowned upon. It's something to be frown-upside-down upon and frolicked in.
Thank you.
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