Theater and Film Actor in the Theater of Everyday Life. Sociological Sketch

Abstract

The aim of the article is to show a theatre and film actor in the “theatre of everyday life”. The author, using sociological literature on social roles (e.g. E. Goffman, M. Łoś, W. J. Goode) discusses the problem of actors’ performing their professional roles. She is particularly interested in self-promotional strategies used by actors on a daily basis. As an exemplification of a “performance” outside the artistic context, (stage or film set), the author analyses the course of the Great Actor's meeting with the audience and defines it as a quasi-spectacle requiring the adoption of certain roles, both by the artist and the audience. A new concept of “celebrity illusion” appears in the text, which concerns the illusory conviction of many artists that everyone should know them. They take it for granted that as “inhabitants of the mass imagination” they should be noticed in public space and correctly identified. The article uses the following sources: (1) existing: journalistic interviews with theatre and film actors published in popular monthlies and on the Internet; (2) evoked: in-depth free interviews with theatre artists (mainly actors) representing six Polish theatre centres. In 2015-2017, the author conducted twenty interviews - the respondents were recruited using the “snowball” method. Younger and older generation artists, fourteen men and six women, participated in the study The research technique was supported by the observation of actors' behaviour in non-artistic contexts (e.g. during meetings with the audience).