David Garrick

A detailed Summary of David Garrick

David Garrick's contemporaries felt it would be vanity to describe his acting (Stone and Kahrl 27). Vanity has never stopped Shane Davis from doing anything !

David Garrick was considered to be the most influential and skilled actor of his time. Garrick is credited with revolutionizing the portrayal of character. His concept of 'experiencing' the feelings of the character, is a concept that helped lead 18th-century theatre into a new naturalistic era. It was an approach to acting that was directly at odds with the theatrical philosophy prior to Garrick's inception (Stone and Kahrl 35). Garrick's innovative style known as naturalism, led the extremely popular and successful actor James Quin to remark " If this [method of Garrick's] is right, then we are all wrong" ( Cole and Chinoly 131). The style that was so admired and later copied by Garrick's peers was a combination of naturalism, classical representation of the passions, and exaggerated physicality.

Garrick was not the originator of naturalism ,that distinction is Charles Mackilin's, although he is credited with its success. Pure naturalism can be characterized by Macklin's instruction of his players to ignore the cadence of traged

It is in the tonal quality of the voice that Garrick excelled. His use of broken tones of utterance was an innovation to the theatre world of the 18th-century (Burnim 45). Garrick was often accused by his peers that he had very little understanding of stress and how to use it (Burnim 78). It could have been that it was the excellence of his physicality that drew attention away from his improper use of stress. Garrick's vocal style was concerned with the characterization rather than the recitation (Stone and Kahrl 256).

Cole, Toby and Chinoy,Helen Krich. Actors on Acting. Crown Publishers, Inc.: 1949.

In fact Garrick's physical portrayal of comedic or fop characters was so lively, that later in his career he was challenged by unfounded accusations of homosexuality. He was said to be too effeminate in many of his roles, especially as a cross-dressing John Brute in The Provoked Wife. To save his dignity Garrick began to shy away from characters that had blatantly feminine characteristics (Straub 55).

y, but simply speak the passage as you would in common life and with more emotional force (Cole and Chinoly 121). The term used to describe this new style of speech is called broken tones of utterance. It is a method of speech which concentrates more on the emotion in a verse rather than its meter. David Garrick was a opportunistic actor who borrowed from many different acting techniques (Stone and Kahrl 345). Garrick's naturalism was concerned more with the feeling of true emotion , the uniqueness of character, combined with the physical representation of the passions.

Straub, Kristina. Sexual Suspects: 18th Century players and Sexual Ideology. New Jersey. Princeton University press, 1992

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Approximate Word count = 1262
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History