What does theatre theory have to do with the practical aspects of theatre (aka acting)?

Question

I just don't understand how addressing the nature and purpose of theatre is supposed to improve my acting. sorry I'm just a bit frustrated right now.

Answer 1

Man oh man was I ever there once....a gazillion years ago. I feel your pain.

Quick answer is that The History of Theatre has absolutely nothing to do with How To Act.

It does, however, give you background knowledge of a flesh-and-blood milieu and can help you make better acting choices.

Knowledge, all knowledge, is power. Man up (so to speak), pay attention, and learn. Trust me, you WILL use this knowledge eventually.

I wouldn't have believed me either, way back when, but you will be a better actor for knowing Theory.

Answer 2

Hang on cider. Theatre history teaches actors how to act in historical drama assuming the theatre history teacher covers the styles of acting of each historical period. But our question here is about theatre theory. Now my favorite theatre theorist is Theodore Shank, 'The Art of Dramatic Art.' But to keep this simple, let's just look at Aristotole. He says a play (tragedy) is an imitation of an action. Then the greek place where audiences sat when plays were presented is called a theatron (a viewing place). And we go to see plays., not hear them. This tells us that the things the actors do are more important than the things the actors say. And upon further examination of playscripts, we discover that they are written in a kind of code for the performer, a special language if you will, that contains the action of the play. What the characters of a play say is a parallel to what they are doing, or is exactly what they are doing. One theory says that if a play or film is well made, a person who does not understand the language the script is written in should need no subtitles and be able to understand it. Because the action is what is important. It is called acting, not talking. Therefore the doing is the most important part of acting. And on and on and on, blah blah blah. Now, if our question asker is in college and wondering about this, he might well wonder why he is in college if he wants to be an actor, what does his stagecraft lab have to do with acting? NOTHING! preguntas? read my profile and write me at my aol address

Answer 3

The simple answer is so that you have a clue as to what you're doing.
The more complicated is that you are usually not doing your own play; you're interpreting someone else's. The theory and history is to help you understand what they might be saying.