Actor/Actress

Actors/Actresses are a professional group whose performances can be found everywhere in the media landscape: on television, in movies, in commercials, on the radio, and on the Internet, as well as in large and small stage productions such as plays, comedies, musicals, and revues. A character who plays a central role in a play or film is usually called a lead, while a less central character is called a supporting character. Sometimes there is confusion about where to draw the line between acting and performing, but usually a main cast that contributes directly to the development of a story is cast with trained actors.

The oldest profession in the world

Acting is considered one of the oldest professions in the Western world and is believed to have originated in the Dionysus Theater in Athens in 534 BC. There, the first actor Thespis recited the first spoken word on a stage in front of an audience. Before that, stories had been told exclusively through song and dance and only from the third-person perspective.

Anyone who professed to be an actor was condemned for life.

For centuries, acting was a profession with little prestige, which meant that theater groups in the Middle Ages were often treated with great suspicion. In some parts of Europe, actors were not allowed a Christian burial for religious reasons. In other words: Anyone who professed to be an actor was condemned for life. During the 19th and 20th centuries, however, the image of the actor changed as the profession gradually became more professional and honorable.

Higher status of women

For a long time, acting was also a profession practiced only by men, who also took on female roles in plays. It was only after the English Restoration in 1660, when the Puritan ban on acting was lifted and the country returned to monarchy, that women (actresses, performers) began to work on the theatrical stages of England. In the postwar period, the status of women in culture, including acting, was further enhanced. In other cultures, such as China, it was historically the other way around: acting was reserved for women.

Acting in Sweden

In 1782, King Gustav III founded the Society for the Improvement of the Swedish Language, which laid the foundations for Swedish spoken theatre. Before that, actors had to act in French and mostly perform foreign drama. The Theatre King, as he was also called, founded the Swedish national stage for spoken theatre in Swedish, Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern.

Acting in Germany

In the second half of the 18th century, theater emerged as a bourgeois educational institution, and the social status of actors and actresses, as well as drama, was upgraded. Around 1900, avant-garde theater allowed the stage to develop as an independent art space. Almost 70 years later, director's theater experienced a heyday, laying the foundation for today's artistic approach.

The influence of silent film on acting

In the first two decades of the 20th century, silent films flourished and developed a special acting technique. Silent films required more emphasis on body language and facial expressions so that audiences could better understand what actors/actresses were feeling and portraying on screen. Since silent film had no soundtrack, it was accompanied by text panels and live music. With the advent of sound film in the 20th century, silent film and silent film techniques died out.

Techniques of acting
There are many different acting techniques. Some of the best known in the Western world are perhaps the Stanislavski system and Lee Strasberg's "method acting."

In Germany today, actors' achievements are recognized by awards such as the German Film Prize, the Lola, or the Golden Bear, which is awarded during the Berlinale.

Source: StagePool, Nationalencyklopedin, Wikipedia.