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Building Character: The Art and Science of Casting by Amy Cook (review)
Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2021-01-06 , DOI: 10.1353/tj.2020.0119
Jim Williams

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:

  • Building Character: The Art and Science of Casting by Amy Cook
  • Jim Williams
BUILDING CHARACTER: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF CASTING. By Amy Cook. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018; pp. 198.

In theatre, the ultimate dilemma for any director at the beginning of the creative process is the casting. How is it possible to determine which actor is "right" for a role, as opposed to why another actor is "wrong"? Are there theatrical similarities to how we "cast" people in our everyday lives? With a plethora of information to sift through, how does casting eliminate that which is not needed while building the essential traits and qualities that define the character?

In her book, Building Character: The Art and Science of Casting, Amy Cook proposes using tools from the cognitive sciences to examine the casting process in theatre and film. She asserts that the cognitive sciences are a useful means to comprehend that process, and argues that cognitive studies in the research of perception and categorizations provide a better understanding of the art of casting. To that end, Cook asks how do we make sense of an unstable reception process that is complicated by culture, gender, history, heritage, and so on? She seeks a cognitive methodology to better understand "theatrical character and a theatrical understanding of a central component of cognition—categorization—as casting" (15). In her lengthy introduction, Cook contends that if literary and performance research utilized cognitive science, particularly the theories it has developed around perception and categorization, scholars would have a greater understanding of how the casting process works. Each chapter of the book includes a brief abstract along with an eclectic selection of examples, from Dr. Dre's rap song "Bitches Ain't Shit" to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are to Michelangelo's Pietà.

In her opening chapter, "Building Titus: Compressing the Complex into the Essential," Cook addresses the rudimentary cognitive processes involved in casting scenarios, as well as what happens when those processes are challenged. She argues that a character does not exist until the spectator unconsciously constructs it by compressing and compartmentalizing an influx of stimuli in tandem with existing associations and memories. Compressions are essentially short cuts that reduce the amount of information in order to be manageable and categorized. Cameo casting capitalizes on this process by introducing celebrity actors who embody associations with previous roles and so provide quick information to the spectator about what types of characters they are now playing. Cook offers the example of Billy Crystal's playing the Gravedigger in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996): the spectator may not completely comprehend Shakespeare's language but assumes the character is funny because it is that actor from When Harry Met Sally and City Slickers. Names and facial recognition are other forms of compression that give the spectator enough cognitive associations and information to quickly assemble a character.

Film trailers are also effective examples of cognitive compressions. Trailers are constructed to give the spectator a thumbnail preview of the film's highlights in under two-and-a-half minutes. Cook points out that trailers for Shakespearian films tend to be more challenging for spectators thanks to the unfamiliarity of Shakespeare's language and the absence of shrieking car crashes and explosions. Celebrity [End Page 537] casting therefore offers a compression strategy to anchor the spectator within familiar context and associations. In the trailer for Titus (1999), Anthony Hopkins, playing the title character, is shown baring his teeth while wielding knives over the hanging bodies of Chiron and Demetrius (43). Regardless of the spectators' unfamiliarity with Shakespeare's play, Hopkins's face evokes both "his" celebrity and his Oscar-winning performance as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (1991). The image implies another Lecter performance, this time in ancient Rome, so that even if a spectator cannot follow Shakespeare's dialogue, the "celebrity" becomes a shorthand to communicate character.

In chapter 2, "Building Characters: Seeing Bodies," Cook asks why some actors seem to disappear into their roles while others do not. She reminds us that an actor's supposed disappearance in a role is typically attributed to their talent, reinforced by the actor...



中文翻译:

建筑特色:艾米·库克(Amy Cook)的铸造艺术与科学(评论)

代替摘要,这里是内容的简要摘录:

审核人:

  • 建筑特色:艾米·库克(Amy Cook)的铸造艺术与科学
  • 吉姆·威廉姆斯
建筑特色:铸造的艺术和科学。艾米·库克(Amy Cook)着。安·阿伯(Ann Arbor):密歇根大学出版社,2018年; 第198页。

在剧院中,任何导演在创作过程之初的最终困境就是演员。与为什么另一个演员“错误”相反,如何确定哪个演员对某个角色“正确”呢?我们在日常生活中如何“铸造”人们有戏剧上的相似之处吗?借助大量信息来筛选,铸造在构建定义角色的基本特征和品质时如何消除不需要的内容?

在她的著作《建筑特征:铸造的艺术与科学》中,艾米·库克(Amy Cook)建议使用来自认知科学的工具来检查戏剧和电影中的铸造过程。她断言认知科学是理解这一过程的有用手段,并认为认知研究在感知和分类研究中提供了对铸造艺术的更好理解。为此,库克问我们如何理解一个不稳定的接待过程,该过程因文化,性别,历史,遗产等而变得复杂?她寻求一种认知方法,以更好地理解“戏剧性和对认知的主要组成部分(分类)作为演员的戏剧理解”(15)。库克在冗长的介绍中主张,如果文学和表演研究利用认知科学,尤其是围绕感知和分类发展的理论,学者们将对铸造过程的工作原理有更深入的了解。本书的每一章都包含一个简短的摘要以及一些折衷的示例,从德雷博士的说唱歌曲“ Bitches Ai n't Shit”到莫里斯·森达克(Maurice Sendak)的米开朗基罗的圣母怜子在哪里

在她的开篇“构建Titus:将复杂结构压缩为基本要素”中,Cook论述了铸造场景中涉及的基本认知过程,以及在挑战这些过程时会发生什么。她认为,直到观众在不知不觉中通过与现有的联想和记忆相结合的方式压缩和分隔大量刺激来构造角色之前,这个角色是不存在的。压缩本质上是一种捷径,可减少信息量,以便进行管理和分类。客串演员通过引入名人演员来利用这一过程,这些名人演员体现了与先前角色的关联,因此可以向观众提供有关他们现在正在扮演哪种类型角色的快速信息。库克提供了比利·克里斯特尔(Billy Crystal)的例子哈姆雷特(1996):观众可能不完全理解莎士比亚的语言,但认为这个角色很有趣,因为那是《哈利·梅特·萨利》和《城市·斯莱克斯》中的那个演员。名称和面部识别是其他压缩形式,可为观众提供足够的认知关联和信息,以快速组合角色。

电影预告片也是认知压缩的有效例子。预告片经过精心设计,可以在不到两分半的时间内为观众提供影片亮点的缩略图预览。库克指出,由于莎士比亚的语言不熟悉,而且没有尖叫的车祸和爆炸声,莎士比亚电影的预告片对观众来说更具挑战性。因此,名人[End Page 537]投稿提供了一种压缩策略,可将旁观者锚定在熟悉的上下文和关联中。在泰特斯的预告片中(1999),扮演角色的安东尼·霍普金斯(Anthony Hopkins)挥舞着刀子,在奇隆(Chiron)和德米特里乌斯(Demetrius)的垂悬物体上挥舞着牙齿(43)。不管观众对莎士比亚的戏剧不熟悉,霍普金斯的面孔都唤起了“他的”名人和他作为《沉默的羔羊》(1991年)中的汉尼拔·莱克特获得奥斯卡奖的表现。该图像暗示了这一次在古罗马的Lecter表演,因此即使观众不能跟随莎士比亚的对话,“名人”也成为交流角色的一种简写。

在第2章“建立角色:看到身体”中,库克问为什么有些演员似乎消失了而其他演员却没有消失。她提醒我们,演员在角色中的失踪通常归因于他们的才华,并得到演员的强化。

更新日期:2021-03-16
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