Introduce the puzzle:

•How actors are treated now, celebrities

•How poorly they were treated in the past

•How did we get here?

Discuss theater in ancient societies:

•Rome (emperor decrees: Tiberius)

•Greece (philosopher quotes: Plato)

•China (travelling families)

•Japan (Kabuki: all-female)

Discuss ancient actors’ livelihoods:

•Frequency of actor slaves across cultures

•Prostitution

•Poverty, travelling (no home), inconsistent employment

•Decrees against their work

The beginnings of patron-actor relationship (Elizabethan):

•Public theaters attended by nobility

•Censors controlled plays put out during holidays

•Royalty could punish thespians for distasteful work

•Theaters were still ‘trashy’ but nobles liked them (Elizabeth)

How things changed (1700s) when rich bought theater entirely:

•Morally depraved becomes high fashion entertainment

•Censorship eliminates offensive sentiments

•Monopoly on the art

•Actors legitimized in hierarchy under nobles, paid regularly

Victorian Era, putting names to faces:

•Morality censorship (society punishes, not royals directly)

•Arts encouraged by royalty

•Women acting become much less taboo

•Middle class developing, opening theater back up to public

•Art examining societal problems

•More money for actors in middle-class pockets

•Photographs! Names have faces now

Early Cinema:

•Actors unnamed; producers fear having to pay more if names develop

•Actors ashamed: medium for uneducated working class, dull silent pantomime, just above carnival acts

Cinema explodes, with sound:

•Star system: new name, new brand, all about image

•Pick up promising actors and create personal brand, iconic persona that can sell products

•Image worth more than acting skills

•Arranging drama, dates, etc to gain publicity among starlets: modern celebrity rises as middle class want to meddle with non-royal people

•Everyone of every class sees acting in TV and movies and wants to know names of performers they like

•Film is accessible forever and everywhere: immortality for the artist

What does it mean?:

•Morality of pretending to be another person

•Enviable skill or shameful behavior?

•Actors’ backgrounds and survival changing over time

•What do people want out of art? Not just story. Recognition. Familiarity. Comfort. More art.