FILM vs THEATER

[misteriobanderas]

I'm reading the book "LETTERS TO A YOUNG ACTOR" by Robert Brustein. In it there is a chapter in which he says that actors/actresses that have theater training have an overall better grip on the craft. He aso states that theater is a better meduim for acting overall. What are your thoughts on this?

[Billy1970]

I would generally agree. The theater is definitely the actor's 'medium' as it were, where film tends to favor the director and television tends to favor the producer.

I would go further to say that almost all actors are trained primarily for theater work, as that is what most schools teach. It's not until those actors actually hit a soundstage do they really start learning what it takes to be a film and television actor, which is markedly different in approach.

[SWK78]

Actors get a better grip on their work when in a stage production because they have to deal with a live audience; the experience of that can be very useful for when you work on set I think, for the actor can have a heads-up on what audiences may or may not believe in their performance. It really all begins with theatre.