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A Study of the Actor-Character Relationships in Theatre Production

Smith, R. Wayne
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085299522

Abstract Details

1970, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Theatre.
An intimate association between the personalities of the actor and the character he portrays is often implied by those who talk or write about acting. It is suggested in the literature that compatibility between the actor's self concept and his concept of character may contribute to the effectiveness of his performance. The current study was an empirical investigation into the dynamics of that relationship. The purpose of the research was to discover the existence of the actor's personality identification with his character, to determine the nature of such identification and to assess the significance of relationships among selected covariates. The subjects were graduate and undergraduate actors cast in two regularly scheduled university theatre productions. The major criterion measures were profiles of the actors' self concepts and their concepts of character derived from a semantic differential developed by the researcher specifically for this research. The analysis of the difference between concepts was made with the Friedman Two-way analysis of variance. The significance of the concept change was assessed by the Chi square test of the difference between proportions. Phi coefficients of correlation were computed among the research variables. The following results appeared: the degree of compatibility between the actors self concepts and their concepts of character gave no indication of a consistent relationship which could be considered a personality identification; two distinctive patterns of concept change were identified. Either the actor's concept of character moved toward his concept of self or the actor's concept of self moved toward his concept of character; there were no significant correlations among the criterion variables and the covariates. Computable Phi coefficients ranged from .02 to .40 (significance at the .05 level of confidence ranged from .43 to .65). From this study into the behavioral dynamics of the actor the following conclusions were drawn. During the creation and performance of a theatrical role characteristic patterns of concept change do occur. Such patterns of personality change are suggestive of the psychological terms projection and ln­trojection. Although actors tend toward, they rarely reach a significant personality identification with the characters they portray. Non-significant correlations among the degree and nature of actor-character association, the quality of performance, demographic data and personality attributes prevented the drawing of even tentative conclusions from the correlate studies.
David Addington (Advisor)
Theater

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Smith, R. W. (1970). A Study of the Actor-Character Relationships in Theatre Production [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085299522

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Smith, R.. A Study of the Actor-Character Relationships in Theatre Production. 1970. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085299522.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Smith, R.. "A Study of the Actor-Character Relationships in Theatre Production." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1970. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085299522

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1554464085299522
902
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