臺灣歌仔戲「做活戲」的演員即興表演與劇目創作參與
Journal
民俗曲藝
Journal Issue
175
Pages
107-175
Date Issued
2012
Author(s)
Abstract
Taiwanese gezixi Opera is the most representative of scenariobased performances. For a long time, actors of professional Taiwanese opera performed in a predominantly improvisational way. In examining the overall creative process of improvisational performance, it is easy to see that its essence lies in the creative involvement of actors in the play-writing process. Their performing skills are in fact akin to writing skills. For actors who improvise, completing a performance is like completing a round of creative play-writing. They are adept at telling spontaneous stories on stage in front of the audience. When they conclude a performance, a new play is essentially completed at the same time. This article examines the improvisational performance skills of actors in Taiwanese gezixi Opera. From the aspect of the ”creative involvement of play-writing,” I will first explore the skills of individual actors. Emphasis is placed on how they improvise spoken lines and lyrics sung on the stage. It is important for actors to be certain of the appropriateness and feasibility of such lines. They also need to know which particular tune to use for a given performance. The efficiency of the improvisational skills relies on the actors' total understanding of a given character's position, personality, and situation. Moreover, actors must know how to improvise lines and lyrics by way of interacting with each other. The skills commonly used in such improvisation are to cover, to save, to abandon, and to cut, while those for improvising lyrics are to rhyme, to get in tune, to add words, to similize, and to exaggerate. The article then shifts its focus to group collaboration in improvisational performance by addressing the issue of how an improvisational theater constructs powerful dramatic scenes through the characters in a play. As the actor is the absolute center of improvisational performance, the characters in a play are intimately bound up with a play's dramatic scenes. Actors have to bring their individual talent and acting skills into full play to construct convincing characters in performance. Ultimately, group cooperation is necessary for all dramatic characters and scenes to be woven together into a complete story.
SDGs
Type
journal article