Download stanislavsky (1863 – 1938)

STANISLAVSKY (1863 – 1938)
As founder of the first acting "System" and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre, Konstantin Stanislavski
challenged traditional notions of the dramatic process, establishing himself as one of the most pioneering thinkers
in modern theatre. Stanislavski coined phrases such as "stage direction", laid the foundations of modern opera and
gave instant renown to the works of such talented writers and playwrights as Maksim Gorki and Anton Chekhov.
His process of character development, the "Stanislavski Method", was the catalyst for method acting- arguably the
most influential acting system on the modern stage and screen. Stanislavsky is rightly called the 'father of modern
theatre', his “System” of acting became the backbone of twentieth century theatre craft. Nearly all other
practitioners use him as a starting point, either to build from or to react against. He cannot be ignored.
The practical teaching of Stanislavski may be divided into two areas:
PART 1 : The general TRAINING OF THE ACTOR which prepares the student in the main principles of the
System
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Imagination
Belief
Concentration
Relaxation
Physical Control
Speech Versatility and Control
Communication
Vocal Communication – Subtext
Tempo – Rhythm
PART 2 : The PREPARATION OF A ROLE showing how the System is useful in building towards a
characterization
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Research
Subtext – Units and Objectives
Subtext – Emotion Memory
Tempo-rhythm – Another Useful Tool
Fine tuning – Speech
Fine tuning – Group Sensitivity / Teamwork
The Actor in Performance
Exercises in the above topics are designed to solve the following problems confronted by actors:
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Creating a “public privacy”
Justifying physical actions
Relationship to the audience
Making an entrance and an exit
Being in the moment
Being surprised (not anticipating)
The system which he eventually developed was commonly referred to as the Stanislavsky System, or "the method"
to many actors. Its core value urged actors to believe that their primary responsibility as actors was to be actually
believed rather than simply recognized or understood.
In order to teach this important value, Stanislavsky taught methods such as emotional memory. For example, to
prepare for a role which involved a certain emotion, the actor must remember their own personal experience with
such an emotion and thus draw from that experience emotionally in order to accurately represent it on stage.
The "Method" requires a performer to draw on his or her own self, on experiences, memories, and emotions that
could inform a characterization and shape how a character might speak or move. Characters are thus shown to
have an interior life; rather than being stereotyped figures representing a single concept (the villain, the heroine),
they could become complex human beings with multiple and contradictory feelings and desires.
The first stage in the training of the actor's control of his physical, mental, and psychical resources is the ability to
relax. In a state of physical or mental tension, or both, the actor cannot think, the commands he gives himself are
not transmitted, sensation is stifled, and expression is inhibited. The process of relaxation serves to clear the actor
of the unnecessary pressures that he has accumulated before the moment of acting begins, to free him of blocks
or interferences that may inhibit sensory responses.
The converse of relaxation is concentration. Everything the actor does demands concentration.
His training proceeds by work with imaginary objects: working with real objects often leads to pantomimic or to
physical imitation, but the actor may begin with them in order to learn how to respond with his entire organism
and to apply such responses to his work with imaginary objects.
This capacity to respond to stimuli that come not from outward reality but from the promptings of one's own
imagination may be seen to some extent in every human being.
In heightening the sensory awareness and stimulating the senses to respond more strongly in life, the actor
acquires the ability to recreate any object, sensation, or experience in the imagination.
The very process of concentration and of commitment and involvement must include awareness. The more the
actor learns to master concentration, the more aware he becomes.
The growth of self-awareness is useless if it is not accompanied by a correct evaluation of what is true and what is
false. The actor's sense of truth is also involved in another major area of the actor's training—his work with
actions (the way he behaves physically on the stage), sometimes called the “business” of the actor. Some idea
must supply an incentive or intention to pull together what could otherwise be a series of disconnected and
unrelated physical deeds. Some purpose, some aim must motivate the actor's will and energy. Any performance
thus may be seen as a series of actions—as the score of the play—which must be carried out not simply physically
but logically and truthfully. They must accomplish their purpose anew each night at every performance rather than
merely repeating the external movements.
To develop spontaneity, to train himself to behave logically and truthfully, and to listen and respond to his partner,
the actor practices improvisation—dramatizing contrived situations without a script. Improvisation is of enormous
importance in the process of training and also of performance. It teaches the actor to speak rather than to read his
lines, and it breaks his unconscious adherence to conventional theatrical patterns of behaviour. It forces him to use
his senses and often to discover not only the logic but also the significance of a scene. It compels the actor to work
creatively and prevents him from reverting to skillful but mechanical repetition.
THE ACTOR’S APPROACH TO HIS ROLE
Stanislavsky suggested that the actor, in approaching his work on a scene, ask himself four questions: (1) who he is
(character), (2) where he is (place), (3) what he is doing there (action and intention), and (4) what happened
before he came there (given circumstances). The answers to these questions provide the actor with the necessary
background for his performance, helping him to create the scene.
Motivation-- Through the use of the system, an actor is required to analyze his or her character's motivations.
Stanislavski believed that an actor was influenced by either their mind or their emotion to stimulate their actions
and the actor's motivation was their subconscious will to perform those actions. Therefore, motivation has been
described as looking to the past actions of the character to determine why they completed physical actions in a
script.
One of Stanislavski's methods for achieving the truthful pursuit of a character's objective was his "MAGIC IF".
Actors were required to ask many questions of their characters and themselves. One of the first questions they
had to ask was, "What if I were in the same situation as my character?" Another variation on this is "What would I
do if I found myself in this (the character's) circumstance.” The "magic if" allowed actors to transcend the confines
of realism by asking them what would occur "if" circumstances were different, or "if" the circumstances were to
happen to them. A performance should be believable for an audience so that they may appear to the audience as
truth. The "magic if" allowed actors to transcend the confinements of realism by asking them what would occur
"if" circumstances were different, or "if" the circumstances were to happen to them. By answering these questions
as the character, the theatrical actions of the actors would be believable and therefore truthful.
GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES— These are the circumstances an actor is given by a director in order to carry out a
scene. For example, you are in a doctor’s office waiting for an appointment. If this is the only direction you are
given, you must make many decisions: who is your character (male/ female/ age/ personality/ physicality, etc..),
how do you feel (physically, emotionally) and so on. The director may give you more circumstances which would
make it easier for you to act out the scene. For example, you are 5 years old and in a doctor’s office waiting for an
appointment. You’ve been up all night throwing up, you are cranky and tired, you feel absolutely awful.
CIRCLE OF ATTENTION--There are various circles of attention (areas of the stage/theatre that the actor – through
his/her actions and words -- allows the audience to focus on). A circle of attention may be focused (for example,
an actor on stage concentrating on cleaning his fingernails or picking some lint off his coat) or distanced (for
example, looking at the back of the theatre towards the lighting booth as if viewing a mountain top) or a distance
in between (for example, an actress looking off stage for a “friend” and calling out to her). There are different
advantages to using different circles of attention, most notably, its use can steer the audience’s
sympathies/feelings; can create a specific mood on stage; as well, it can elicit specific responses from the audience.
THE FOURTH WALL – The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled
box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. Speaking
directly to or otherwise acknowledging the audience and including them in the situation is referred to as "breaking
the fourth wall". The acceptance of the transparency of the fourth wall is part of the suspension of disbelief
between a fictional work and an audience, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as if they were observing real events.
The exercises we will take part in are based on The Stanislavsky System as taught by Sonia Moore
(Studio of the Theatre, New York) and Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen (H.B. Studios, New York).
QUOTATIONS ATTRIBUTED TO STANISLAVSKY
--Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art.
--The greatest wisdom is to realize one's lack of it.
--Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it.
--Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep
breaking traditions, I beg you.
--Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.
--All action on the stage must have an inner justification, be logical, coherent, and real.
--If you know your character's thoughts, the proper vocal and bodily expressions will naturally follow.
--The actor must believe in everything that takes place on the stage - and most of all - in what he himself is doing and one can only believe in the truth.
--Bring yourself to the part of taking hold of a role, as if it were your own life. Speak for your character in your own
person. When you sense this real kinship to your part, your newly created being will become soul of your soul,
flesh of your flesh.
--When an actor is completely absorbed by some profoundly moving objective so that he throws his whole being
passionately into its execution, he reaches a state we call inspiration.
--The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his part, their joint
feelings and subconscious creation.
--We have as many planes of speech as a painting does planes of perspective which create perspective in a phrase.
The most important word stands out most vividly defined in the very foreground of the sound plane. Less
important words create a series of deeper planes.
--When we are on stage, we are in the here and now.
--Put life into the imagined circumstances and actions until you have completely satisfied your sense of truth and
until you have awakened a sense of faith in the reality of your own sensations.