ACT220 The Actor and Language (8)
CSU Discipline Area: Performing Arts (PEART)
Duration: One session
Abstract:
This subject expands students' awareness of language and how language can be used most effectively in theatre and television. Students learn how to apply appropriate energy to poetic and heightened texts and how to speak these texts with articulation, verbal clarity and commitment. Students may appear in at least one performance comprising either scenes from, or a complete theatrical text exemplifying these principles.
+ Subject Availability Modes and Locations
| Session 1 | |
|---|---|
| Internal | Wagga Wagga |
Continuing students should consult the SAL for current offering details: ACT220
Where differences exist between the Handbook and the SAL, the SAL should be taken as containing the correct subject offering details.
Prerequisite(s):
Enrolment restrictions:
Available to students in BA (Acting for Screen and Stage)
Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:
- be able to demonstrate a capacity to use the sounds of language to convey a wide spectrum of emotions, moods, sensations, impressions, meaning and feeling
- be able to demonstrate a capacity to understand the function and application of metre and rhythm in the speaking of text
- be able to demonstrate an understanding of basic grammar and how this impacts upon the work of the actor
- be able to demonstrate an understanding of figures of speech, such as alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and antithesis, and how these can enhance the intensity of the actor's experience of language in performance
- be able to demonstrate an understanding of formal details such as line endings, rhyme, prose/verse alternation and caesura and how knowledge of these details can intensify the actor's performance
- be able to demonstrate an understanding of dramatic structure and how it impacts upon performance
- be able to demonstrate a capacity to recognise rhythm in everyday speech
- be able to demonstrate a capacity to apply these principles to heightened classic or modern text, and naturalistic modern text
- be able to effectively perform in either scenes from, or a complete theatrical text exemplifying these principles.
Syllabus:
The subject will cover the following topics:
- the sounds of language - words and images - metre and rhythm - rhyme - simple grammar - figures of speech, such as alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and antithesis - formal details such as line endings, prose and verse alternation and caesura - the connection between the physical and verbal life of characters - dramatic structure and its impact upon performance - working with heightened classic or modern texts and naturalistic modern texts - recognising rhythm in everyday speech - performance of scenes from, or a complete theatrical text exemplifying these principles.
The information contained in the 2013 CSU Handbook was accurate at the date of publication: 24 April 2013. The University reserves the right to vary the information at any time without notice.