paul binnerts

© By Paul Binnerts

Translated by the author and Stephen Wangh
(Soon to be published in the US)

The book describes the essential elements of real time theatre and the real time acting technique. It aims to make those elements available and workable for theatre practitioners – actors, directors, drama teachers, and stage designers -, and to make a permanent place for the convention of real time theater within our varied theater culture.

Part 1. The technique of acting in real time is primarily a practical guide. It describes the manifold identity of the actor and what he does when he acts, in fact what exactly acting is. It then describes the main skills and instruments of real time acting, comparing them to Stanislavski’s techniques of identification and psychological realism, and to Brecht’s techniques of epic theater and alienation. As often as possible, examples are used from the author’s own experience as illustrations. This part also contains some exercises designed to help the actor become truly present in performance.

Part 2. Telling a story – the Workshop, presents a series of exercises designed to help the actor play a role using the real time acting form. The Workshop begins with the actor telling a story from his personal life. Then it leads the actor through a series of exercises that first help him create and maintain a distance from that story and then re-approach the story from a new perspective. These exercises can increase the actor’s awareness of his quadruple identity as an actor and the natural distance between himself and the roles he plays. At the same time he can gain more precise command of the technique of real time acting.

Part 3. Real time acting in historical perspective: origins and conventions, forms and styles, techniques and methods, places real time theatre in historical perspective. It offers a broad overview of the history of acting, exploring the essential problems of acting and the origins of realism as a theatrical convention. It relates these developments to the history of stage design and theater architecture. It analyzes in more depth the two major acting conventions of twentieth century theater: Stanislavski’s psychological realism and Brecht’s epic realism, and synthesizing these to real time acting.