Mimes and Melodramas

Actors & Mimes

The Voice can use these tools:

Pitch, (high and low)

Pace (fast or slow)

Volume (loud or quiet)

Tone (emotion and mood)

Asides:

Actors seldom speak directly to the audience. Occasionally actors use a device called an aside, this is usually only in comedies, especially in a style known as Melodrama, where they are speaking to actors, then turn to the audience with their hand beside their mouth like they're sharing a secret, and they tell the audience something that the characters onstage do not already know. In an aside, supposedly the actors onstage can't hear what the character is telling the audience, so the audience knows something that will happen that other characters don't know.

Melodramas

• Melodramas Acting and Miming. everything is overly exaggerated but the characters in the story do speak.

• Melodramas have "stock" characters usually including a Villain, (Bad guy) a Hero and a Heroine (leading characters that are virtuous and good) as well as other supporting characters.

• Melodramas include audience participation, as the audience generally "Boo"s and "hiss"es when the villain enters a scene, or shouts "hooray" each time the hero enters, and "ahhhh" each time the heroine enters.