To others, all forms of acting is the same, however it is very important as an actor to know the differences between stage acting and screen acting. There are many areas within each that show the contrast. Firstly, looking at body language/gesture and facial expressions. On stage, everything needs to be exaggerated as the audience can be as far as up to 100 feet away from the stage. You must play to the back of the house. Whereas on screen, any emotion presented by a character will be shot as a close-up meaning they need to keep the emotion as natural as over-exaggerating would not work on screen as it is unrealistic. As famous actor Corey Stoll quotes, “When you’re in a theatre, it’s all about reaching the back rows. When you have a camera in your face, it’s about knowing the size of the room.”
Stage acting relies on memorisation and voice, an audience goes to the theatre to watch a particular version of written work and that’s what they expect to get. A popular piece of theatre depends solely on that repetitive image created by past touring companies. Whereas acting on screen is fresh and there can be multiple re-takes, in some cases actors may only look at the script two or three times before they go on screen to keep the emotion real. Screen acting is mostly impromptu, the script can change at any point, even whilst shooting. On stage, depending on how big the performance is meaning if it’s a smaller company with a minimal budget unlike the west-end, you mightn’t be provided with microphones meaning your voice needs to be projected whereas on screen, microphones are placed all over the room to pick up sound effects and lines.
Often on screen the scenes are not filmed in chronological order and this can be for a number of reasons, weather, the time of day, absence of actors etc. This can be challenging for actors as they might have to change from a happy scene to a sad scene within a matter of minutes which can be mentally tiring. Whereas on stage, you have to perform as it’s the first time you’ve read the script, this may be the actor’s tenth time performing it but it’s the audience first time watching it. It needs to be fresh each time. Onscreen acting is very director dominated whereas onstage acting is very actor dominated. This is because onscreen acting is not real time whereas onstage acting is meaning emotions can come naturally. It involves a lot of training whereas onscreen acting involves minimal training.
Both styles of acting are entirely different, however, both have their purposes. TV and film acting are there to in some form present you as a person and actor through your chosen character, showing how you connect with it and how in a way it relates to you. However, stage acting is to present your capabilities as an actor through your knowledge of where the audience are, your physicality within a character and memorisation of lines.