David Garrick :: essays research papers fc

David Garrick (1716-1779) David Garrick’s contemporaries felt it would be vanity to describe his acting (Stone and Kahrl 27). Vanity has never stopped Shane Davis from doing anything ! David Garrick was considered to be the most 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-century theatre into a new naturalistic era. It was an approach to acting that was directly at odds with the theatrical philosophy prior to Garrick’s inception (Stone and Kahrl 35). Garrick’s innovative style known as naturalism, led the extremely popular and successful actor James Quin to remark " If this [method of Garrick’s] is right, then we are all wrong" ( Cole and Chinoly 131). The style that was so admired and later copied by Garrick’s peers was a combination of naturalism, classical representation of the passions, and exaggerated physicality. Garrick was not the originator of naturalism ,that distinction is Charles Mackilin’s, although he is credited with its success. Pure naturalism can be characterized by Macklin’s instruction of his players to ignore the cadence of tragedy, but simply speak the passage as you would in common life and with more 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 many different acting techniques (Stone and Kahrl 345). Garrick’s 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 Brun’s 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 Brun’s descriptions along with many suggestions of mannerisms which should accompany them were reprinted in the acting manuals of the time.