I utilized the Post Dramatic theatre book by Hans Thies Lehmann to discover information about post modern acting  and this helped me with the development of my character. I also obtained research from an online article on post modern acting from the Routledge Performance Archive website which also helped expand my knowledge about post modern acting.

In regards to the research I obtained from the Routledge Performance Archive on postmodern acting. I understand that ‘Postmodern acting has interrogated the idea of a unified subject and individual agency in a variety of ways. Its avoidance of characterisation means it is often understood more broadly as performance.'(Routledge,2020) This implies that post- modern performance resides around a specific joint together topic  and it requires you to have a unique and complex approach with regards to characterisation.

From reading Lehmann’s book on Post Dramatic Thetare. I undertand that ‘the actor of postdramatic theatre is often no longer the actor of a role but a performer offering his/her presence on stage for contemplation (Lehmann,2006:135).  The evidence suggests that as a postmodern actor it requires me to devote myself to the role of my character  both physically and mentally so I am able to portray the character to the best of my abilities.

Furthermore, I  understood that is important to distinguish the terms of acting and not acting.  For example, ‘Michael Kirbyhas coined the terms ‘acting’ and ‘not-acting’ for this, including an interesting differentiation of the transitions from ‘full matrixed acting’ to ‘non-matrixed acting’. Beyond the technical differentiation, his analysis is valuable because it brings to prominence the vast terrain ‘below’ classical acting. ‘Non-acting’, theone extreme, refers to a presence in which the performer does nothing to amplify the information arising from his/her presence’ (Lehmann,2006:135) I found this information to be useful as I understand that as a  postmodern actor you are not necessarily required to do anything on stage for your performance to be effective to the audience. Also, this information developed my   understand because one of the significant aspects of being a post-modern actor  is to distinguish the line between fiction and reality. This is so the audience aren’t able to identify whether the actor is being themselves on stage or embodying the role.  For example,  ‘Not being integrated into a play context, the performer is here in a state of ‘non-matrixed acting’. For the next stage, ‘sym-bolized matrix’, Kirby refers to an actor who as Oedipus has a limp. He is noticing the limp, however, because a cane shoved down his trousers is forcing him to limp. Thus, he does not mime limping but only executes the action(Lehmann,2006:135).  The evidence implies  that post modern actors may do something deliberately badly  such as shove a cane down their  trousers so everyone can see which shows that they are acting rather than attempting to pass of their performance off  as realistic.

Bibliography
Lehmann, Hans-Thies. Postdramatic Theatre. Routledge, 2006.

Postmodern Acting – Routledge Performance Archive. [online] Available at: https://www.routledgeperformancearchive.com/browse/subjects/acting-actor-training/postmodern-acting [Accessed 15 May 2020].