Standing role

Standing role (also outdated: standing mask ) is a term used in theater language. It describes a role that, due to its popularity, persists beyond a single play or a single episode.

The standing role is always fictional. The image of actors can be a kind of standing role that differs from their private characteristics as a consciously built public effect. The transition between the standing role and the role compartment is fluid.

The standing roles emerged from medieval allegories , such as the personified representations of virtue or vice, which have been dissolving into more human figure types such as the English Vice since modern times . Historical standing roles are, for example, the types of the Commedia dell'arte or the so-called Funny Persons in the theater of the 18th and 19th centuries ( Arlecchino , Hanswurst , Clown ). It is common there for the standing role to appear in other roles, such as harlequin as servant, harlequin as Englishman, etc.

Today's standing roles are mostly series heroes of filmed novels like Zorro , Jerry Cotton , Harry Potter or come from original TV series like Derrick . Well-known female standing roles such as Miss Marple or Lara Croft are rare.

The relationship between actors and their permanent role is always of public interest. It reflects the audience's relationship to their own professional or family functions.

literature

• Heinrich August Pierer (ed.): Encyclopedic Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Crafts, Literature Comptoir, Altenburg 1830, Vol. 13, p. 296.
• Erika Fischer-Lichte: TheaterAvantgarde. Perception, Body, Language, Francke, Marburg 1995, p. 265. ISBN 978-3825218072