Q10 - Stage performances are judged

[pistachio2014]

Debating between choice A & B. Don't understand why A can be ruled out. thanks.

[giladedelman]

Thanks for the question! This is a great example of how important it is to rigorously compare each answer choice to the core.

Whereas traditional actors portray emotions through imitation, Method actors actually experience them onstage by recalling moments from their own lives. Therefore, according to the author, audiences will find Method performances to be more realistic -- which means, according to the background information in the first sentence, that Method actors will do a better job of reproducing the behaviors that audiences associate with their characters' emotional states.

The gap here is pretty easy to spot: the author is assuming that an actor who actually experiences his character's emotion will reproduce the associated behavior more accurately than an actor who merely tries to imitate that behavior.

(B) is correct because it is indeed necessary to assume that Method actors' behavior will conform to the behavior that audiences associate with the emotion the actor is feeling. If this were not the case, then Method acting would be minimally realistic, according to the argument's definition of realism, and therefore would be as unrealistic, at best, as traditional acting.

So what's wrong with (A)? Well, remember that this argument is about which type of acting audiences will find more realistic. It's NOT about which type of acting will "affect an audience's emotions" more! So this answer choice, since it has nothing to do with realism as defined in the argument, is actually out of scope. We don't care about how emotionally affected the audience is, we care about how realistic it judges a performance to be.

(C) is also out of scope. The argument doesn't actually go into evaluating actors. It could be that this person actually hates realism -- we have no idea.

(D) may be tempting, but the actors' aims are irrelevant. We only care about the results.

(E) is out of scope. Maybe this is true, maybe not; the argument doesn't have anything to do with the requirements for being a Method actor.

Does that answer your question?

[donghai819]

It is interesting to observe that if a comparison is involved in a question, necessary assumption is very likely to be tested.

[MaximillianS700]

C: audiences will judge the performance of method actors to be more realistic than the performances of traditional actors.

This is true because…

P1: stages performances are judged to be realistic to the degree that actors reproduce the behaviour audiences associate with the emotional states of the characters portrayed.
P2: traditional actors imitate these behaviours.
P3: method actors experience the same emotional states that their characters are meant to be experiencing.

Flaw? Assumes that if a method actor is experiencing the same emotional state as the character portrayed, then the audience will associate the method actor's behaviour with the character’s emotional states to a higher degree (than if he wasn't). Fails to consider that the method actor could be experiencing the actual emotional states of the character portrayed and produce completely different behaviour than what the audience would generally associate with the emotional states of the character.

Pre-phrase? See flaw^.
A) The argument is not about affecting the emotional states of the audience. But about affecting the degree to which the audience associates the behaviour of the actor with the emotional state of the character. So, this answer choice is irrelevant.
B) Yes! This is a weaker form of my pre-phrase, but since the question is a necessary assumption a weaker form is fine.
C) Whether or not realism is a central criterion of judging a performance is totally irrelevant. The focus on the argument is whether or not an actor actually experiencing the emotional states of the character produces a more realistic performance in the audience's eyes.
D) Not required. The traditional actors could very well aim to produce realistic performances but fail to do so.
E) Not required.