David Garrick :: essays research papers fc

David Garrick (1716-1779)     David Garricks contemporaries felt it would be vanity to describe his playing (Stone and Kahrl 27). Vanity has never stopped Shane Davis from doing anything      David Garrick was considered to be the roughly influential and skilled actor of his time. Garrick is credited with revolutionizing the portrayal of character. His concept of experiencing the feelings of the character, is a concept that helped lead 18th- light speed theatre into a new naturalistic era. It was an approach to acting that was directly at odds with the theatrical philosophy prior to Garricks inception (Stone and Kahrl 35). Garricks innovative style known as realness, led the extremely popular and successful actor James Quin to remark " If this method of Garricks is right, then we are all wrong" ( Cole and Chinoly 131). The style that was so admired and by and by copied by Garricks peers was a combination of naturalism, classical r epresentation of the passions, and exaggerated physicality. Garrick was not the originator of naturalism ,that distinction is Charles Mackilins, although he is credited with its success. Pure naturalism can be characterized by Macklins instruction of his players to ignore the cadence of tragedy, but simply speak the passage as you would in common tone and with much emotional force (Cole and Chinoly 121). The term used to describe this new style of speech is called broken tones of utterance. It is a method of speech which concentrates more on the emotion in a verse rather than its meter. David Garrick was a opportunistic actor who borrowed from numerous different acting techniques (Stone and Kahrl 345). Garricks naturalism was concerned more with the feeling of true emotion , the uniqueness of character, combined with the physical representation of the passions. Representation of the passions was an accepted artistic convention for expressing emotion. Le Brun, a late 17th-century century artist , wrote a "grammar" of the passions from Descartes earlier work. In doing so he gives a formal explanation of the 17th and eventually 18th-century representation of emotion. Le Bruns manual explains that Contempt is expressed by the eyebrows knit and lowering towards the nose, and at the other end very much elevate the eye very open, and the pupil in the middle the nostrils drawing upwards the mouth shut, and the corners somewhat down, and the upper lip thrust out farther than the upper one. (Le Brun) Le Bruns descriptions along with many suggestions of mannerisms which should accompany them were reprinted in the acting manuals of the time.