Metaphor and Narrative in the Acting Code Acting and Directing Method

The Acting Code is an acting and directing method for theatre, film, and the performing arts, grounded in the philosophy and theoretical practice of contemporary technologies while maintaining strong links to ancient Greek drama and philosophy. Acting Code prepares the artist (actor, director, or performer) to recognize how the Cosmos and the Self are connected into the modern hi-tech ecosystem, and based on this self-awareness, how to work effectively on stage or on a filmmaking set. The presentation will investigate the relation between narrative and “metaphor” in the Acting Code acting and directing method. Metaphor in simple words in literature and myths, is a figure of speech that directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. In Acting Code, we are using a combination of this meaning of metaphor with the ancient Greek roots of the word. Metaphor coming from the ancient Greek μεταφορά (metaphorá), meaning ‘transfer’ from μεταφέρω (metaphero) ‘to carry over’, ‘to transfer’; from μετά (meta ‘after, with, across’) + φέρω (phero: ‘to bear’, ‘to carry’). So, in Acting Code the metaphor transfers between the systems data, codes, actions, tasks and so on. The analysis draws on artistic and scientific research developed from the late 1990s to the present, including findings from the doctoral research of Christos Prosylis (The Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of the Acting Code Acting and Directing Method for Film, Theatre, and the Performing Arts, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). The Acting Code is adaptable to diverse performance contexts, including ancient Greek drama, contemporary theatre, cinema, dance, and performance art. It can be implemented with or without technological tools, in studio-based or site-specific settings, and in both indoor and open-air venues.