Week 4: "Mastering Actor Composition and Stage Dynamics"
Composition with Actors Definition
Composition is the physical arrangement of actor-characters in a groundplan for the purposes of discovering dramatic action and of illustrating it in the simplest possible way through emphasis and contrast. If actors are made aware of basic physical relationships, they will perceive dramatic action in greater depth and be able to transfer this intensity to an audience.
Compositions on the Proscenium Stage
Because the proscenium wall (the wall that separates the audience area from the stage) has a frame and the audience sits out front and looks through it, all the basic requirements of perspective drawing apply; that is, you must be able to see depth as well as width and height. The director’s job, then, is to help arrange the actors in this three-dimensional cube of the stage in a series of still shots—a full play would require several hundred such still shots—so that an audience can sense and feel basic forces in a play.
Strictly defined, composition does not involve a movement (transit of the actor from one point on the stage to another). Instead, the composition is static. It is a caught moment. It is a primitive form which will be superimposed on the other elements that make illustration—gesture, picturization, and movement (which have yet to be discussed). Without the primitive, architectural arrangement of composition, actors cannot convey the meaning of their basic relationship, and thus their feelings about a dramatic action.
Because a play is spoken—an enormously important fact in the theatre—an actor’s body must be relatively, if not entirely, quiet during much of a play; otherwise, an audience simply will not be able to hear what the actor says. Animated illustrators (gestures and movement) are so alive and vigorous because of their living and breathing qualities that their meanings are conveyed first (the eye is quicker than the ear); therefore, they must not be allowed to dominate the composition. Although you must keep the still-shot concept of composition in mind, you should understand that a play in performance is made up of a great many of these shots that are tied together by the movements of the actors that place them on one or another part of the stage. In this sense, a performed play is a continuous alternation of composition and movement.
In the nineteenth century, when the laws of the proscenium stage were taking form, this rule of alternation was observed quite rigidly. With the passing of nineteenth-century poetic drama and with increased emphasis on visual representation in twentieth-century theatre, the rule of alternation was modified by allowing actors to move during their own speeches as well as during the speeches of other actors. The easier-to-hear prose dialogue not only made it more feasible to break down the old rule but it also encouraged the desire for a more completely animated performance. Whatever that modification may be, a large amount of movement is risky when significant speeches are being delivered. Consequently, experienced directors and actors learn to stand still and to hold composition at important moments. Motion pictures always appear more animated than plays because they seem to be continuously moving; but when you watch the work of a good motion-picture director, you will see an enormous number of still shots (largely close-ups). We “hear” a film because we are forced to do so by the director’s selection of shots and by the actors who learn not to move their heads because they find that moving their eyes and lips—a required motion-picture technique—is more effective. An important principle in acting is learning to hold the body and head still, so that when they do move, they will “say” something specific.
A composition on the stage, then, is a photographic still shot of great value. Once again, here is the point: The director must learn the importance of encouraging actors to evolve good compositions because they form the basis of all good illustrations by containing primitive meanings and mood values.
Characteristics of Composition
Compositions Have Basic Meanings
From the preceding discussion, you can see that a composition involves two or more actors taking specific places on the stage. Try to see composition as made up of bodies without moving arms or legs—neutral forms like mannequins—that stand on marked points on the stage floor but that have the capability of facing different directions and bending to kneeling or sitting positions. This neutrality of the body position is very important if you are to see the meanings that come from compositions alone and not confuse them with those that come from gestures and movements.
Now observe the relationships of the two bodies in Figure 9. The arrows over the heads represent the directions that the bodies are facing. What does each composition mean?
Try to guess their meanings before looking at the suggestions in the following list:
1. A and B either like each other or are confronting each other in anger.
2. A is playing hard to get, with B the weaker.
3. The situation in item 2 is reversed, with B playing hard to get.
4. The relationship between A and B is disrupted completely with backs turned to each other.
5. Although A and B face each other, A is now much separated from B, indicating a coolness, though opposition is still present.
If you try these same exercises with one or both bodies seated, you will see that new meanings emerge.
Here is the point: All compositions are made of roughly these same juxtapositions. Characters in a play are either together, apart, or conform to some gradation of these two basic situations. Thus, composition illustrates in the simplest possible way the dramatic action—the conflicts— between two or more characters. Without good composition, there is no clear storytelling.
Techniques of Composition
The actor, as well as the director, must learn all of the following basic techniques of composition in order to know as many ways as possible of bringing variety to stage illustration. Holding an audience for two to three hours requires much skill in finding variety, especially if only one setting is used.
The Individual Actor
When talking about composition, we mean the arrangement of two or more actors on the stage. However, the director and actor must be fully aware of the compositional force of each individual on the stage before any arrangement of groups can take place. The purpose here is to see the individual isolated in order to assess his potential force in a group arrangement.
Body positions. Stage right and stage left are the actor’s right and left as he faces an audience. Now face the body to the major points of a circle, and you have the body positions (see Figure 10). Note the designations for these positions: full-front, one-quarter left, and so on.
The force of body positions is very great in any composition, for turning your back on another actor has one meaning, and facing him has another, as already suggested in Figure 9. Variations between these extremes give us the necessary nuances. Beginning actors either want to face the audience because they don’t understand the concept of reciprocation in acting, or they want to face other actors continuously, thus losing the freshness and new illustrations brought about by varying the body’s position.
Levels. Levels refer to the actual head level of the actor. He is at his highest level when standing, and any variation that takes his head toward the floor is a change in level (see Figure 11). When he uses an artificial level introduced in a set design, such as platforms or steps, the actor’s level changes even more drastically (see Figure 12).
Planes. The concept of stage planes applies only to the proscenium stage, where the term is used as a way of pointing out that the proscenium stage has depth as well as width. When talking about an actor “moving through the stage planes,” we mean that he moves upstage or downstage. Up and down are terms that have been used by theatre people for nearly 300 years to indicate directions. In the past, stages were raked; that is, stage floors actually inclined upward toward the rear of the stage, some of them very steeply, as can still be seen in the famous Teatro Farnese, built in 1619 in Parma, Italy, where an actor quite literally walks uphill or downhill, depending on which way he goes on the incline. In modern times, stage floors are flat so that scenery can be erected and shifted with little difficulty anyplace on the stage. But the old stage terms are still used to specify depth, and therefore the concept of stage planes endures. To compensate for the loss of the incline, theatre architects have inclined the audience, very steeply in some recently built theatres.
Although planes are purely imaginary, you would be able to see them easily in a physical way if you were to hang several drops on stage battens located two feet apart, and then were to look at them either from overhead or from the side (see Figure 13). Each drop would represent a plane. Now remove the drops but keep the idea of the positions they occupy by placing actors in each plane (see Figure 14).
A human being is about a foot thick. But because we cannot actually see much difference in planes if they are too close together, we think of each plane on the stage as being about two feet deep. More importantly, because the audience sits directly facing the stage in a proscenium theatre, objects close to them seem much larger than those farther upstage. Thus, instead of seeing actors or objects as they are represented, we see them as they appear in Figure 15.
Understanding the concept of planes is valuable to an actor because then he can think in terms of moving from or toward an audience as well as crossing in front of it. Most beginning actors and directors think only in terms of the latter and do not see the strong dramatic ideas that can be conveyed by the graduated upstage and downstage positions.
Horizontal locations. Just as planes are the designations of depth on the proscenium stage, so horizontal locations declare the position of an actor on the width of the stage. Thus, we say stage right (SR), stage left (SL), and center stage (CS). Often, the width is divided into even more precise locations: left center (LC) and right center (RC), as in Figure 16. This concept of horizontal location implies that the stage has horizontal meaning as well as depth meaning. There are also differences in the actual location simply because in a proscenium theatre, where the audience sits in front, the center can be seen well by everyone. Thus, the center location is designated as the strongest and the two side extremes are considered less strong, much in the same way that differences are seen in the extremes of upstage and downstage.
Tasks Assignment
TASK 1:
Before meeting with actors let’s practice the understanding of these elements of composition with artificial figures.
We suggest taking cardboard and cutting the figures given in Figure 9 (2 neutral profiles), Figure 11 (body levels), and Figure 12 (neutral pose front). To make the figure stand you can attach to it the paper clip. like this>
Take a cardboard box that you may have at your home to make a stage. We suggest making it as simple as possible, it is needed only for studying purposes. Example #1>, Example #2>
Cut small pieces of cardboard and attach one cardboard to another to create different levels Example>
Now time for experiments:
It is suggested to photo or video document each activity and write down thoughts and discoveries in your journal immediately when they come to mind during the process. Afterward, it will help to formulate a full comprehensive report.
Body Position:
Take a “neutral front figure” (further referred to as “actor”) and place it on “stage”. Use terminology from Figure 10 to give instruction to your “actor”. Place the “actor” according to instruction, and take a step back from the “stage” to see from the audience's view. Evaluate the meaning of the body position. Repeat this exercise many times until the positions are thoroughly learned and can easily be identified in the stage terminology indicated in Figure 10.
Levels
Take “body levels” figures and place them on the “stage”. Experiment with composition. What are the meanings of the various levels? Compare the meanings of a standing actor with those of a sitting actor, then with those of a kneeling actor, then a reclining actor. Do you see how each position conveys a general meaning?
Add different artificial levels with cardboard blocks. Contrast the meanings conveyed by an “actor” standing on a high platform and the one laying on the floor. For now, suggest the most basic meaning, not the storytelling or pictured meaning, such as making a speech or sleeping, because the actor could be doing a dozen different things in each position. How dominant would he be in an elevated position? How weak would he be in the reclining position?
Planes
Place six figures, all facing full-front, in six successive planes (adequate distance apart) in a slanting row upstage. Can you see the different planes? Can you see the difference in size? Squinting will help you see better in this instance.
Now place the six figures, all facing full-front, in different planes but in various parts of the stage. Observe neutrality. Identify the planes.
Place one figure in an extreme upstage plane and another in an extreme downstage plane, both in full-front positions. What is the meaning of each position? Why is the one nearer to you stronger?
Horizontal Lines
Place five figures, facing full-front, in the five horizontal locations of stage right, stage left, center stage, left center, and right center. Identify each position.
What meaning does an “actor” have in the center location? What is the meaning of either the extreme right or extreme left location?
TASK 2
After experimenting with these activities, create from 5 to 10 compositions on the “stage” representing an event from the play. Take the main event of the play or the event with a very clear conflict (love is also a conflict). Using these figures and their neutrality, body positions and directions (don't forget about Figure 9), levels and planes, and the change of the composition, try to convey the main conflict of the scene to an audience. Take a picture of each composition (from the audience's view) and place them in the needed order. Add your comments.
Send both completed tasks in one file (docx or pdf) to the Institute. It must include:
a report with photos for the TASK 1
a report with photos for the TASK 2
Deadline: December 19, 2025
Studying Materials:
Picture Composition (from Photography and film-making but can be useful)
