Practitioner Profile: Constantin Stanislavski

·         D.O.B: 17^th January 1863

·         D.O.D: 7^th August 1938 (Aged 75)

·         Role in theatre: Actor, theatre director, theatre theorist   

      During his life Stanislavski dedicated himself to developing a system of acting to better himself as an actor. He did this by observing himself and other performers, whilst on and off the stage.

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 j   ‘ Stanislavski's 'system' is a systematic approach to training actors. Areas of study include concentration, voice, physical skills, emotional memory, observation, and dramatic analysis. Stanislavski's goal was to find a universally applicable approach that could be of service to all actors. Yet he said of his system: "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."

Many actors routinely identify his system with the American Method, although the latter's exclusively psychological techniques contrast sharply with Stanislavski's multivariant, holistic and psychophysical approach, which explores character and action both from the 'inside out' and the 'outside in.’

Psychophysiology is the scientific study of the relation between the physical and the psychological/emotional. Stanislavski used the psychophysical approach to explore and expand upon the general philosophy behind the naturalism popular in the theatre of his day: in layman’s terms, the idea that man’s life is defined and shaped by his social and physical environment.

The point of the system for the actor is to help enable them to expose the ‘hidden aspects of relationships between people and revealing the repressed elements of everyday life.  The ultimate goal was for each actor to “live” his or her part without falling into the trap of complete belief in the character being portrayed.’(Jenny Marlowe Love Acting)

Whilst Stanislavski strongly believed that actors should be able to demonstrate the emotions and physicality of a character, there should always be a mental and emotional detachment between character and actor.

During rehearsals he and his actors would sit down and read the text and make notes about the play and break it down into psychological units:

Objective (also called the Super-Objective): The final, over-all goal that a character wants to achieve (this might be worded as, “What do I want?” or “What is my purpose?”)

Obstacles: Things that will prevent or complicate the achievement of a character’s objective.

Tools or Methods (this aspect goes by many names): The means a character will use to overcome obstacles and achieve his objective.

Units and Bits: Smaller objectives and methods which build towards the larger goal.  An entire sequence of bits might make up a unit, and there may in turn be several units in service of the final objective.

Actions: Mini-objectives for each line, or sometimes even each part of a line.  These are usually identified in verb form, and can be extremely specific (for example, to flatter, to cajole, to soothe).

LO 3.2 It is the above techniques with a combination of Uta Hagen’s questions regarding character circumstances that I wish to use to rehearse and develop my acting skills as a whole and for my Character Olga in Three Sisters.

Bibliography 

Online article, Marlowe Jenny, http://www.loveacting.com/stanislavski.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Stanislavski#Stanislavski.27s_system

http://www.biography.com/people/constantin-stanislavski-9492018?page=2

https://www.theatrefolk.com/spotlights/the-stanislavsky-system

Acting Unit 10 : Three Sisters

An Actor Prepares

 LO 1.1 For me the first thing I do when I receive a character in a scripted piece is to read the text, this may sound like a obvious conclusion, how else would I fulfil my role as an actor if I do not know the words?

But I believe there are many ways to read, there is the commonly known sight and skim reading, for me when I receive a script I must skim read it and get to the end as fast as possible (there are exceptions to this rule however), I do this because I do not want to get absorbed in the plot of the narrative that is the job of the audience in a realistic or naturalistic play. 

What I want to get absorbed in is the objectives and subplot of what is being said by and to my character and looking at the relationships of the characters to each other. I do this on a second reading of the text (which normally happens right after the initial reading) in which I take more time to read and look at syntax; I do this because the way the playwright, in this case Anton P Chekov, places certain words are like clues to the actor about an underlying issues for e.g “I remember when they carried father out, the band was playing, at the cemetery they fired shots in his honour [...] but even so not many people came to the funeral.” This was said by Olga, the character I’m playing, in the opening scene: straight away this let me into the world of the character and has me thinking about the influence that father would have had over my character as a person.

1.      He was ‘general and commanding officer of a brigade’ the military background made me think of regimental behaviour that was taken into the home life, so he would have wanted order at home, did that mean Olga and her siblings had to be quite as children, did she loath him and love him at the same time?

2.      Did the lack of such a strong presence in her life make her feel weak and lacking in direction because she no longer had an outside source to tell her what to do?

3.      Why if ‘father’ was so highly esteemed did hardly no one turn up to the funeral and why is Olga making excuse “but of course there was heavy rain and snow” is she making excuses for herself or Irina and Masha as they are in the room listening to her.

4.      Although there are many questions rose for me I already have an idea of how I want to deliver that line, “but of course there was heavy rain and snow”, I can feel sarcasm and bitterness ebbing from the words, that is my subplot but my objective is to sound reassuring for the sake of my sisters. I believe Olga is bitter towards the people who didn’t turn up to the funeral but realising what she had said she didn’t want to make her sisters upset so she tries to make it sound flippant but my subplot is creating an obstacle that makes what I’m saying sound sarcastic.



Bibliography

Three Sisters , Chekov P Anton, Ledger R Gerald translation, 1998, Script