Konstantin Stanislavsky - A response to the exercises and his ‘system’.

Round-the-table and Stanislavsky’s ‘system’
Stanislavsky didn’t want students, training actors and actors to just have to read/devise/create characters/create synopses of a play the ‘dry and intellectual’ way. He wanted to create a way that the students could all join in with and make it more like a theatre game. The way he has done this by is producing an exercise that involves: Relaxation; start to feel and realise the way your body can move, work and to also warm up the mussels and relax. Given circumstance; where is the place you have been given? Is it somewhere home like, unfamiliar, strange? Example ‘a hospital waiting room’. Justification; how you would feel at this time, what would you be doing in the place you have imagined at the time presented. Example ‘2a.m – May’.  Objective; what is your purpose of being in the place that you are in and the time. Example ‘to create a party atmosphere.’ Inner actions; A line of speech is give to you. You know you have to find the right moment to speak this line. Example ‘I’m sorry’ with or without awkward pause after. Actions; this card indicates the way you present and want your line of speech to come across. Example ‘to provoke’.

This part is much like a ‘Party game’ that is in Stanislavsky’s ‘system’, it is to do with your 5 sense memory and emotional memory. It is in 6 easy tasks, all sections are done blindfolded until the end of the 5^th one. The first is to do with ‘feel’ and what the feeling of an object makes you remember. The second, is the same as the first but you are given gloves to wear, you must give the inanimate object for example gender or say if its old or new. The third, is ‘smell’ does it put an image in your head or bring back a childhood memory? The fourth, is ‘taste’ what does it taste like? Does it bring memories back? The fifth, ‘listen’ music is played, how does it make you feel?  How do you want to move when you hear it, do you want to move? The sixth and final section is ‘sight’, you picture yourself and others around you. Try to remember every detail on them. Remove blindfolds and see how much or how little you got correct.

By the end of these exercises, theatre games, party games, Stanislavsky would hope that students will have a better understanding of his ‘system’. “Experienced given circumstances, objectives, actions, justifications, adaptations, a sense of play and emotive memory.” After this he then thinks everyone is now ready to sit around  a table with the piece of text and read and analyse it

The Method of Physical Interactions

Stage 1: The Period of Study This is private and independent work using your imagination to prepare for the journey from self to character.

Read the Play  – reading the play; not at the bus stop or in a cafe, somewhere you can completely concentrate. This is so you can focus and not be distracted by irrelevant things around you.

Ask Questions– ask yourself questions; what’s the plot? What is the historical setting? What’s the style of the writing? What are the details of the theatrical and artistic production? How, in fact, are the roles characterised? How do you feel about the play? If you ask yourself these questions you will be able to understand more about the play and in more depth.

Get Your Imagination Going– By putting yourself into the situation of a your character or the setting of him/her you are bringing everything more to life. Stanislavsky puts forward the importance of not missing a single step because your imagination will not believe what you are doing. This increases you personal belief of ‘I am’ in the role. By doing this it can encourage you and your brain to really visualise yourself as your character and bring them more to life.

Appraise the Facts– focusing on the main events in the play. How would you come across their objectives? Encounters with other characters, what are your feelings towards them? By doing this you’re making the character your own and giving it your own tweaks.

Repeat the Above -By repeating the above twice, even three times, you can finely tune what you have already done. Every time you repeat a section you will find something will change in how you thought it would be the first time round.

Stage 2: The Period of Emotional Experience

The period of emotional experience is still imaginative and independent work but it assists the actor in working towards the emotional role of the character.

Compile an Imaginary ‘Score of Actions’.
What you most want/feel inside and show it on the outside without saying anything. Showing it through your physicality and not through your words can help the audience to believe your character and see how it is feeling more clearly.

Stage 3: The Period of Physical Embodiment
Taking real life situations that are happening right at this moment, but connecting them with the play. ‘emotional experience’ comes to you as you become more familiar with the characters and play.  ‘Physical embodiment’ is done independently but quickly turns into improvisation with other actors. This helps to stop making early characterisation clichéd.
Luring your body into actions, I feel helps to make a characters situation become more real and makes it easier to form a real reaction to a situation.

Active Analysis

Konstantin Stanislavsky’s work, the more you read and learn about it, the more we understand that his methods grow from his amazing imagination, not from it all written down in black and white and set in stone. Anything goes, if you want to tweak something slightly that’s okay! Each character you play from different plays all will have different development processes. No character is the same.