During my research I have developed my acting skills from reading Auslander’s book From acting to Performance and The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance By Jen Harvie.
A prime example of the research I obtained from Auslander’s approach to post-modern performance is in the The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance book. For example, ‘Phillip Auslander has argued that postmodern performance does not aspire to be a political theatre; rather he argues, it is a ‘resistant’ theatre with politics, aware of its political and ideological effects but not necessarily making an explicit argument because it does not assume this is possible’ (Allain and Harvie, 2004:232) . From my interpretation the evidence suggests that Auslander is proposing that postmodern performance does not represent political theatre which critiques on the political and social issues within society. Instead post-modern performance is about being aware of the political and ideological impacts it has. Therefore as a performer I will consider both of the political and ideological effects within society and I will integrate this during my character’s thought process .
In regards to my discovery that I obtained from Auslander’s From acting to Performance. I found the Just be your self chapter to be beneficial during the development of my role . This chapter focuses on naturalism and the work of theorists such as: Stanislavski , Brecht and Grotowski. For instance, I found Stanislavski’s approach to acting to be helpful during the development process of my character such as he states :’There is no question but the presence of the actor’s self as the basis of performance is for him the source of truth in acting: he defines good acting as acting based on the performer’s own experience and emotions’ (Auslander,1997:35) From this information I understood to be a good performer within a post-modern and naturalistic production it ok to apply my own personal emotions and experiences that I have encountered in my life to the role of my character.
Bibliography
Postmodern Acting – Routledge Performance Archive. [online] Available at: https://www.routledgeperformancearchive.com/browse/subjects/acting-actor-training/postmodern-acting [Accessed 15 May 2020].
Auslander, P., 1997. From Acting To Performance. Abingdon: Routledge.