Download BITS AND PIECES

Structure Physical Action!
[ Simply, extent the concept of "body language" to "writing texts" in that language. In Method
Acting the conflict between the words and actions are given birth to subtext (character's
thinking); but we can see physical statement as a prime text and words as secondary messages.
How do we read "person" -- first, we see... Meyerhold wanted to restore this natural order of
perception and the origins of performance. ]
First and foremost, Meyerhold believed that theatre was not
subject to the same laws as reality. The language, signs,
materials, and time and space of Meyerhold’s productions
differed in spirit from those of naturalism. He effected a
renascence of theatricality, bringing back the magic of the
theatre of masks and the forms and conventions of the commedia
dell’arte, the cabotin (strolling minstrel player or story
teller) and the Japanese Kabuki theatre. Meyerhold destroyed the
footlights that cast shadows on the stage and separated the
audience from the stage with a wall of darkness. He bared the
stage, constructed bridges into the auditorium, introduced
constructions to set the actor into a three-dimensional
perspective and made lighting a new device for dividing scenes
and individualising episodes and details of the set.
Meyerhold, at this time, also introduced a new discipline of the
study of gesture and motion, based on devices used by older
theatrical traditions and the training of gymnasts and circus
performers. This attitude differed significantly from
Stanislavski’s in that the goal was to train actors to study the
conventions of gesture rather than the psychological motivations
for these same gestures.
In addition, he also declared that the director was the author
of the production and has the right to revise classics and to
interpret dramatic material freely ... (Kiebuzinska 1988:47).
Actor = Creator + Medium (Meyerhold's formula)
"System" -- the Russian name for the school of Stanislavsky's training for actor. I didn't like it in Moscow, I was young. In
teaching and directing it proved to be extremely useful. So, what is this "System of the Method" ("Method" is the American
name)? In short, "psychological realism" -- meaning that we are after experiencing "true" emotions on stage. Is it
possible? Actor = Character = Role (the basic formula). When I play Hamlet, I am Hamlet! Really?
Russia ("System"): The Stanislavsky System, or "the method," as it has become known,
held that an actor’s main responsibility was to be believed (rather than recognized or
understood).
To reach this "believable truth", Stanislavsky first employed methods such as "emotional
memory." To prepare for a role that involves fear, the actor must remember something
frightening, and attempt to act the part in the emotional space of that fear they once felt.
Stanislavsky believed that an actor needed to take his or her own personality onto the
stage when they began to play a character. This was a clear break from previous modes
of acting that held that the actor's job was to become the character and leave their own
emotions behind. Later Stanislavsky concerned himself with the creation of physical
entries into these emotional states, believing that the repetition of certain acts and
exercises could bridge the gap between life on and off the stage.
We call them "dramatic pauses" for a reason!
"How to fix emotion, which is only from time to time could be recalled.
There's only way is to do it -- to link an emotion with action. Get used to
link an emotion with certain action, on one hand, it's become possible to
repeat this feeling through familiar action, and, on another hand, emotions
getting linked with different actions, force actor into familiar psychophysiological states." Stanislavsky2