Various acting theories applicable to an actor's role creation exist today. However, actors must construct their own approach that corresponds to the form and characteristics of the drama. This study discusses an approach from the external to the inte...
Various acting theories applicable to an actor's role creation exist today. However, actors must construct their own approach that corresponds to the form and characteristics of the drama. This study discusses an approach from the external to the internal, starting from the body, in the process of encountering a solo performance, recognizing the risk of becoming immersed in a single character. The importance of an actor's existence on stage has been emphasized with the emergence of post-dramatic forms deviating from the conventional dramatic format. Moreover, the increased interest in the phenomenon of the audience receiving performativity from the actor through the actor's performance highlights the need for role creation methods mediated by the body. Anna Deavere Smith, who performed a solo show in a monodrama, portrayed various races and genders in the play <Fires in the Mirror>, combining the documentary genre and monodrama. In such a play where only one actor exists on stage, the performativity of the actor is emphasized. Based on Smith's case, this study introduces the existence and performativity of an actor in a monodrama when performing a solo performance. After recognizing the importance of an actor's existence and performativity in a solo performance through this case, we explored how to apply Anne Bogart's Viewpoints theory to role creation. The text analysis must precede the role creation process, so we approached from a macroscopic perspective to a microscopic perspective, conducting the analysis of the work, scenes, and characters in order. After that, we specifically described the method of creating a role of a solo performance through Viewpoints. During this process, we carried out role creation for the role the researcher directly performed, utilizing the previously introduced viewpoints of time and space, and voice. Based on the approach to the role through Viewpoints, we extracted images from the live performance video of the play <Cinderella> staged at Arko and examined actual application cases. The play <Cinderella>, a play by playwright Lee Kang-baek included in "Lee Kang-baek's Plays Collection 9," holds significance as Lee's first female narrative-centered play and his last play. This play is a monodrama where the actor speaks directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, yet it has the characteristics of a post-narrative drama immersed in the incident. Viewpoints is a theory that can enhance an actor's imagination through the body, and in this study, we examined how to apply it when an individual, not a group, creates a role, and sought ways to utilize it in a play with post-narrative characteristics where one should not be immersed in one emotion or character.
This study, centered on Lee Kang-baek's play <Cinderella>, describes the process of creating a solo performance role and emphasizes an actor's existence and performativity through the case of Anna Deavere Smith.
By integrating the Viewpoints theory, which is effective in focusing on the body, we aim to explore methods of role creation for solo performances. The significance lies in demonstrating the applicability of the Viewpoints theory, which has been used for group training, to the role creation process of an individual actor, suggesting its potential in creating roles for solo performances.