Radio annual and television yearbook (1946)

Television Acting Viewed by Expert By DR. JOHN REICH, Dir. of Video, Studio Dramatic Arts, N. Y. THERE are two principal groups of radio actors today: a larger and younger group which grew up in radio and has little stage experience or none at all; and a smaller and older group which received its training on the legitimate stage, but has grown rusty in many years of radio work. The number of radio actors who are also active on stage and in pictures is small, indeed. Television today is like a theater an hour before the performance: Money in hand, the audience is waiting to obtain seats. The technicians are ready. The stage is set. As yet the curtain is down, but already the cashier is lighting the box office. Sooner than the public expects, the play will begin — only to reveal the inadequacy of the actors. Situation Analyzed The present situation of the radio actors is not as bad as was the plight of the silent picture actors when sound was introduced; for unlike the silent film, the old, blind, simple medium will continue alongside the new, visual complex one. Yet there are similarities between screen players then and radio players now. Just as some silent picture stars were not really actors but merely photographic models, so many radio performers today are not actors but merely "voices." Then as now, the advent of the new medium favored those who had learned their profession the hard way: on the legitimate stage. Television's coming of age will force radio "voices" to study acting, or else restrict them forever to the narrowing confines of sound broadcasting alone. New Skills Needed Whereas radio's dramatic performers can use in television little more than a certain intimacy of speech and a sense of timing, they have to acquire new skills which cannot be mastered overnight. The radio "voice" must develop into an actor who "acts all over," i.e. with his emotion, his intellect, his body, and his voice. The television actor's principal skills to be acquired through careful instruction and constant practice are: Memorization, physical behavior, concentration, imagination, observation, co-ordination, and communion. The first time the radio player sur renders his script and starts acting, he feels like a student of swimming when the teacher slackens the rope: Reproducing every speech from memory seems as difficult as remaining afloat. Not only are there one's own lines to memorize, but also many of the partners as well as gestures, movements, the handling of props and costumes. Like every serious student of acting, the radio player soon finds out that it is not a part the way he learned a poem or geography lesson at school. Those actors who claim they knew their lines at home but cannot remember them on the stage are not lying. The strain which results from being watched by colleagues and directors, together with the manifold distractions in the studio, account for a considerable loss in the memory's efficiency. Only with a 150 per cent sure-fire memorization can proper performance of the memory be assured. Physical Attitude Important For his characterizations the radio player need not develop a physical attitude beyond watching his distance from the microphone. In television he is faced with the task of making his body both receptive and suggestive of thought and emotion. The sheer physical task is considerable. He must learn how to sit, to stand, to walk gracefully, to be well poised and balanced in every movement as seen from every angle. Unlike the human spectator, the television camera checks up on the placing of the feet, the gesture of the hand, the carriage of head and shoulders. The "voice" turned actor needs to acquire a sense of space, the ability of maneuvering between pieces of furniture and of expertly handling objects which seem like as many gremlins to the beginner. And all these requirements are only preliminary to the creation of behavior patterns not one's own, but suggestive of a character in a play. More specifically, television's standards of physical behavior are set not only by the actor's expressive body and by the requirements of his part, but also by certain studio conditions which vary not only with the studio but also with each program at the same studio. Thus, the actor's performance may be influenced 995