Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play. Most early sources in the West that examine the art of acting (Ancient Greek: hypokrisis) discuss it as part of rhetoric.
The first actor is believed to be Thespis of Icaria, a man of ancient Greece. "Plays" of this time...
more
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play. Most early sources in the West that examine the art of acting (Ancient Greek: hypokrisis) discuss it as part of rhetoric.
The first actor is believed to be Thespis of Icaria, a man of ancient Greece. "Plays" of this time, called dithrombic chorus involved a chorus of 50 who sang the story to the audience. The possibly apocryphal story says that Thespis stepped out of the chorus and spoke to them as a separate character in the story. Before Thespis, the chorus in all plays would sing in a narrative way, "Dionysus did this, Dionysus said that." When Thespis stepped out from the chorus, he said "I am Dionysus. I did this." From Thespis' name derives the word thespian, meaning any sort of performer but chiefly an actor. The International Thespian is said to...
less
