Look up protagonist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A protagonist (from the Greek πρωταγωνιστής protagonistes, "one who plays the first part, chief actor"^[1]) is the main character (the central or primary personal figure) of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, which ends up in conflict because of the antagonist and with whom the audience is intended to most identify. In the theatre of Ancient Greece, three actors played all of the main dramatic roles in a tragedy; the leading role was played by the protagonist, while the other roles were played by deuteragonist and the tritagonist.

The terms protagonist and main character are variously defined and, depending on the source, may denote different concepts. In fiction, the story of the protagonist may be told from the perspective of a different character (who may also, but not necessarily, be the narrator). An example would be a narrator who relates the fate of several protagonists, perhaps as prominent figures recalled in a biographical perspective. Often, the protagonist in a narrative is also the same person as the focal character, though the two terms are distinct. Excitement and intrigue alone is what the audience feels toward a focal character, while a sense of empathy about the character's objectives and emotions is what the audience feels toward the protagonist. Although the protagonist is often referred to as the "good guy", it is entirely possible for a story's protagonist to be the clear villain, or antihero, of the piece.

The principal opponent of the protagonist is a character known as the antagonist, who represents or creates obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. As with protagonists, there may be more than one antagonist in a story. The antagonist may be the story's hero; for example, where the protagonist is a criminal, the antagonist could be a law enforcement agent that tries to capture him. Sometimes, a work will offer a particular character as the protagonist, only to dispose of that character unexpectedly, as a dramatic device. Such a character is called a false protagonist. Marion in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) is a famous example.

When the work contain subplots, these may have different protagonists from the main plot. In some novels, the protagonists may be impossible to identify, because multiple plots in the novel do not permit clear identification of one as the main plot, such as in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle, depicting a variety of characters imprisoned and living in a gulag camp, or in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, depicting 15 major characters involved in or affected by a war.

In psychodrama, the "protagonist" is the person (group member, patient or client) who decides to enact some significant aspect of his life, experiences or relationships on stage with the help of the psychodrama director and other group members, taking supplementary roles as auxiliary egos.

Sometimes, antagonists and protagonists may overlap, depending on what their ultimate objectives are considered to be.

References[link]

Willis Earl Beal is a Chicago born artist^[1] and musician.^[2]

Biography[link]

Beal was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.^[3] In his early twenties Beal joined the US Army, moving to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Beal was medically discharged from the army due to intestinal problems. He then returned to Chicago where he worked at Sears Tower, following a five month hospital stay.^[3] In 2007, Beal moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here Beal spent some time homeless, and working low-level jobs, notably as a night-shift security guard. During this time Beal began to record music, leaving CD-Rs in public spaces around Alburquerque. Beal would also leave self-illustrated flyers around the town in the hope of finding a girlfriend.^[4] One of these flyers was discovered by Found Magazine who put Beal on the cover of their magazine.^[1] Found later released a limited-edition box set called The Willis Earl Beal Collection, which included Beal's poetry, artwork and a 17-song album.^[5] Through these flyers and the subsequent coverage in Found, Beal was contacted by more than 100 members of the public.^[6]

In 2012, Beal signed a recording contract with Hot Charity, an imprint of independent record label, XL Recordings. Beal's first single for the labels, "Evening's Kiss" was released on February 17, 2012 and the accompanying music video was illustrated by Beal.^[7] Beal's debut album, entitled Acousmatic Sorcery was released on April 2, 2012.^[8]

Discography[link]

Albums

• Acousmatic Sorcery (Hot Charity/XL Recordings, 2012)

References[link]

Citations

External links[link]

• Official site
• [1] at XL Recordings'
• [2] at Hot Charity