[custom_adv] In nondramatic theatre the performer generally acknowledges the presence of the audience and may even play directly to it. In dramatic theatre the actor may or may not do so. [custom_adv] The quality of the contact between performer and audience is subtly modified by the nature of the performer’s place and role in society. In the broadest terms, the performer may be seen as a celebrant, servant, or critic of society. [custom_adv] Another aspect of the dramatic performer’s work has to do with the portrayal of characters, both as individuals and as types. In portraying an individual character, the performer adopts a fictional framework and acts according to the text’s demands. [custom_adv] While stock types stress those features of personality common to all human beings, naturalistic, or “slice-of-life,” drama seeks to individualize each role. This requires that the actor as well as the author draw from personal observation and experience. [custom_adv] With the rise of dramatic realism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there arose corresponding theories of acting, notably those of Konstantin Stanislavsky, director of the Moscow Art Theatre. [custom_adv] Performer and audience exist together in a common area, within which there is a clearly delineated performing space (ring, stage platform, pit) and an audience space, the two structurally related. [custom_adv] Theatre space is often associated with a special building, but this has not always been the case, nor is it always the case in modern times. Often theatre space has embraced a town square or even an entire town so that performers and audience are able to mingle. [custom_adv] Modern attempts to create a space within which the distinction between performer and audience is blurred (called environmental theatre) echo earlier examples from the popular theatre. [custom_adv] In dramatic production the magical property with which a performing area is invested is augmented by the fictional action of the drama. The stage becomes another locale by an act of imagination undertaken by both actors and audience.
