Acting is Considered an Art – The Voice, Body, Passion and Soul

During my time as a performer, singer and actor I’ve often come across the questions whether actors are actually artists. Well the answer is…

Acting is considered an artform. Yes it’s true that actors are artists in every sense of the word. Artists express themselves using their five senses and their physicality to portray different characters. They utilize their emotions, psyche and physicality to express themselves in a variety of performance genres.

An Artist Is Someone Who Expresses Emotions

Actors as artists express their emotions through the framework of an idea. That idea can transpire as a story plot, reading, monologue, musical theatre, play, poetry, but truly any area where the artist can express themselves.

Like dancers, actors and performing artists express themselves through their bodies. However actors utilize much more of their bodily functions compared with dancers such as their voice and physicality. Dancers tend to utilize their body and facial expressions in their work.

Like visual artists, actors express themselves through their emotions. You can also ‘see and sometimes feel a range of emotions when viewing and experiencing certain art works.

Think of the Monalisa, where the subject’s eyes tend to follow you walk around the room and the feeling evokes as a result. The actor does similar things when they are acting a monologue or on stage or onscreen such as a television series or movie.

Actors Aren’t Seen as Artists Because of Snobbery

Let’s face it, actors need to express themselves in ways which are often attention seeking ventures, having their face on the stage, and on screens. They need the interaction with others and to perform to and for others. This doesn’t always bode well in more traditional and conservative arenas.

To a degree there is artistic snobbery, but generally because actors’ art is often seen as more naturalistic, their work can be seen as ‘easier’ and therefore not ‘as’ artistic as visual and literal artists.

They are more kinaesthetic and present with their audience. They also demand more personal attention compared with most visual artists. Think Bansky compared with any A list celebrity.

There is also a hierarchy in the artistic realm where literacy and visual artists are seen at the top of the pecking order. Performing Artists are somewhere down the pecking order in some people’s eyes. Actors are artists because they fulfil an artistic role.

A Well Trained Actor Makes the Art Look Easy

Most well known and seasoned actors have had much training in their backgrounds, such as voice work, improvisations, screen acting classes, study of classical practitioners and physical theater classes, just to name a few.

Many actors have had many years of experience playing a variety of characters and parts and as a result, they glean many different ‘learnings’ from these experiences.

There is absolute artistry in portraying a character where the audience doesn’t see the actor, but sees the character instead. But this can sometimes be confused with the actor playing the character as playing themselves.

Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm is a man who supposedly plays himself. Or should I say plays a version of himself, one in which he doesn’t have a filter, which is unless David in real life.

In the television series he can play someone who can shoot from the hip and tell people the truth as he sees it, when in real life, he’s more contained and thoughtful.

Actors need to be able to take on the persona of different characters and make it seem as though they ‘are’ that character. The audience will buy the performance, but will take for granted the actor’s investment in their character development. Actors are artists because it’s what they do.

Theatrical Actors Work is Often Finite Compared with Other Artists

When a visual or literal artist has ‘made’ it, their work often remains in the artistic world, for a long time after they’ve created it. Oftentimes an actor performs their work, or scenes for a finite season and the work is no longer available, this is especially true for the stage.

A professional actor’s work is seen by a limited amount of people during the season and it is often the case where after the season is over, the work is no longer able to be seen.

That particular company typically moves on to another town to performance or another production of some kind to mount. Actors are sometimes offered different roles in next production or need to move on to another role elsewhere.

In regard to the theater, because the work has a shelf life, the artistry can sometimes be forgotten after a certain amount of time.

Of course in more modern times, it is different with film and television because the work is often obtainable from a variety of platforms.

Actors Invest Time in Classical Theater Performances

A theatrical artist’s work is often showcased and ‘highlighted’ in their study of the classics such as Shakespeare and the Greeks such as Euripides.

The particular voice work needed in such roles is often intense and immense. Actors need to be trained to fully understand the rhyme scheme and rhythm of the language in order to pull of off their roles and the playwrights overall intentions of their work.

Combined with psyche, emotional quotient and physicality needed to pull off such a role, one can ‘see’ the artistry which is needed more so in these classics compared with say a modern day comedy. And it is with these particular roles, that actors are considered high up in the chain of elitism because they’ve done a Shakespearean play.

And because of the amount of training and voice technique development needed, this genre of performance is often considered higher in the performance echelons.

Therefore in this particular case, actors are seen as artists.

Some Feel Actors aren’t Artists, They’re Players

The sentiment is real. Some theater practitioners and directors believe that everyone is an actor and that we (theatrical performers) are ‘players,’ Once can see that without a doubt. The actor ‘plays’ a part and everyone is just acting their lives out in front of us, we can all relate.

But because the actor has invested time, effort and energy to developing the skill and techniques for performance, you can safely say that they are more than merely players, but are skilled practitioners and performers.

An Artist Needs to Know a Variety of Roles At the Drop of a Hat

Every actor has fantasized about being the lead heron and hero of a film or theater show. But when cast in roles, a person might not know their type well enough to predict a role they get. This is especially true with more inexperienced actors.

Because of this, actors need to hold within their portfolio a range of skills and techniques with which to build on and or utilize when and where needed.

For instance a various times in a the career of an actor they may be playing anyone of the following archetype roles:

Hero/protagonist (Star)

Heroine (Star)
Comedian
Villan /Antagonist

Character artist
Filler/Padding artist
Side Character

Best Friend
Character role
Bit part actor

Extra
Presenter
Child Actor

Interactive Artist
Acting tutor

To name a few. And with each of these roles, the actor needs to develop different approaches, skills and techniques to fulfil the role as needed. This takes time and effort and wherewithal to make it happen. So yes the actor has to be a flexible artist to carry this off.

The Artist Plays a Role to Entertain, Move and Express

Some people think that the true artists are the playwrights, writers and visual artists of a production. That the actors are not artists, because people know the names of the famous writers; think Brecht, Shakespeare, Miller, and Pinter etc. And often theater actors aren’t as well known as the playwright.

But the argument can be made that, no one goes to a Mozart Concerto to hear a bunch of robots playing his music perfectly, but that people go to see other humans performing their artistry using work which was already written by human artists.

No one goes to a play to hear and see a perfect movie being played out in front of their eyes, if they wanted that, they’d to go the movies.

People go to the theatre to see real people perform scripts about other human beings lives.

People want to see themselves in artistic work because it is there that they relate, are moved in some way, and can feel a sense of catharsis with the work at hand.

Acting is considered an art and actors are artists. People want to see artists doing their work well, so they get an emotional release and or stimulus, to feel more human.

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