Back in the days of the ancient Greek theater, a division into certain types of characters arose. So the role of the actor arises - the distribution of roles in accordance with external data, as a result of which, until the last century, throughout the life of the mummers, they were forced to embody only one image.
In ancient Greece, dramatic works were divided into two main types: tragedy and comedy. Accordingly, two types of actors stood out - tragedies and comedians. Getting into any group was determined to a large extent not by the style of the game, but by the external data of the actor. Tragedies were people who were tall, well-built, with a low timbre of voice. Their opposite is actors low and full, speaking in a high voice. They could only play comic roles.
Medieval italian
comedy del arte expanded antique images and created new roles. These are servants, gentlemen, as well as heroes-lovers. A distinctive feature of comedy del arte is a leather mask, a mandatory attribute of the character. At the beginning of a theatrical career, each actor chose a mask for himself, and then almost all his life he played only one role. Theater historians have more than a hundred different masks, but most of them belonged to similar characters, who differed from each other only in names and small details. Actors performed female roles without the use of masks.
In the XVII century, in the era of classicism, the French theater continued to create basic sustainable images in dramaturgy and secured the distribution of roles for the actors of certain psychophysical data. At this time, the concept of role appeared - this is a term derived from the French word “emploi”, which translates as “role”, “position”, “use”.
In order to get a role, an actor must meet a certain set of requirements, among which, as in ancient times, appear growth, physique, timbre of voice, type of face. But the role is not only the appearance of the character, but also the recitation and plastic features, the behavioral line. The transition from one role to another was not approved, therefore, as in the medieval theater, the actors throughout the theatrical career performed uniform roles, perfecting their skills and trying to add some zest to the character. The only exceptions were the age roles for which the theater leadership translated the aged actors.
In the French theater in the 18th century, such roles as actresses appeared, as an engineer - a sincere, but naive and simple-minded girl. Heroes youths of this character character were called simpletons. Subretka (male version of the servant) is characterized by fun, enthusiasm and lively disposition, often this character provides his masters with invaluable assistance in love affairs. The concept of travesty appears - about
meaning that the female actor is the male actor, and vice versa.
So actors would play the same role all their lives if in the last century Konstantin Stanislavsky and Mikhail Chekhov had not made a statement that theatrical roles are cliches that impede the development of acting talent and prevent it from fully manifesting itself. A similar opinion was received with disbelief, but now, watching the amazing reincarnations of modern actors, we see that the great directors were right.
