Rimgailė Renevytė
Actor and/or Character: Changing the concept of role in contemporary Lithuanian theatre
In contemporary theatre, an actor's work with a role has become not only a systematic but also a highly individual creative process, which, even in a performance, no longer reaches a complete result (a character), but shows an open and continuous process. The strategies used by the actor in the creation of the role and by the director in working with the actor in the creation of the character/role have also highlighted the importance of the identity of the actor-as-person: the role is no longer perceived merely as a form or function of imitation/representation, but rather becomes an open-ended process of the actor's own self-creation and self-awareness as an individual.
The aim of this research is to analyse the contemporary concept of the role and the changes in the actor's creative and acting work in correlation with contemporary theatre theories, directorial methods and the model of the contemporary performance by observing the actor's creative work in creating the role during rehearsals.
Iliustration: Performance "Žuvėdra", dir. Oskaras Koršunovas, 2014, OKT. Photo by Dmitrij Matvejev
