Evaluation

On October 11th, my cast and I performed our final piece for "The Seagull" as part of our workshop process to our friends and family, and I think it was pretty successful for our first sort-of show together as a cast.

I think I did quite well seeing as I wasn't present for quite a lot of sessions, I always made sure to try my best and learn whatever I could, whenever I could. I think one of my strengths that night was my listening and responding skills. I know that Callum and I were listening to each other during the whole scene, which meant that our delivery of dialogue would be realistic and completely natural. I also think that my facial expressions and body language really fit into Arkadina's character and I made sure to use a lot of detail. When acting you're not meant to just put on a facade as that character, you're supposed to actually be the character, and that's what I did, I allowed myself to fully become Arkadina, thus why my face was full of detail and clear but also secret emotions for the audience to guess. 

If I was able to develop and rehearse this scene further, I would definitely work on my staging and overall presence. The audience were sitting all around me so I found it tricky to make sure I wasn't standing in a bad place, during rehearsals I hadn't really thought about where I would stand all the time because the audience weren't there. I think I also need to work on my voice when raising it. I have definitely developed my voice a lot since joining Brit in Year 10 but I know that it still needs work, especially when there's parts of dialogue with shouting, I just don't feel like my shouting voice ever sounds angry or upset like I want it to, I feel like it sounds very sheepish or even monotonous. 

Naturalism and realism has been a very fun topic to learn about, I have enjoyed it thoroughly and I just find Stanislavski's work overall fascinating. I know that although they may sound similar, they are slightly different. Naturalistic theatre is acting out everything to its exact detail, and not skipping out on anything, so it is the most neutral and natural it has ever been. Realistic theatre is acting out the most important parts so that it still makes sense and it's relevant, but it skips out on all the excessive details. Stanislavski started on naturalism but in the end he favoured realism, whereas I on the other hand, prefer naturalism because the act of it I just find so interesting, I feel like it could really help you understand what someone else's life is like.

I feel that the techniques did help my performance because it taught me new ways to focus and characterise. I felt a deeper connection with my character then any other character I've ever been given. All the ideas and exercises aided me in delving deep into the world and mind of Stanislavski and I will definitely remember all of these techniques for future characterisation. I think I did play my objectives quite well but if I could go back and work on them again, I definitely would. I feel that as I progressed more with my character development, the objectives altered slightly, but I never really went back to change them.

Stanislavski's Ideas

A lot was covered this half term about Stanislavski and all of his key ideas and ways to perform naturalistic and realistic. 

Given Circumstances

The given circumstances of a text are the basic obvious facts about it. You don't need to do in-depth research for this as it should all be right in front of you to pick out easily. It is information that will help an actor to make decisions when interpreting their character. The given circumstances of a scene can be its facts, the story-line, the events, the themes, the time, the place, the setting, the sounds and even the smells.

I took part in an exercise in which we needed partners (I was with Daniel as a substitute as his first partner Alabama wasn't present) and we had to use a very neutral, boring script, and create a small, slightly more interesting scene by giving it its given circumstances which it was lacking. Daniel and I worked on creating the scene into a counselling service where person A was the counsellor, and person B was a schoolboy who had an appointment but was very anxious about it. 

To help with our given circumstances we were asked the 5 W's which set the basic facts about our small scene:

Who - A trained counsellor for adolescents

What - Greeting my newest patient

When - Straight after the child's school is finished

Where - The waiting room by the entrance

Why - It is my job to do so

Tempo-Rhythm

Tempo-rhythm is all about the pace of the scene and the intensity of a character's intentions or actions. There is a great difference between your own inner tempo-rhythm and the outside, exposed one. If a character's own pace is quite slow and calm, it could clash with the intense, fiery tempo of the outside situation, and the more contrast means that there will more likely be drama and action. 

Sound effects can be heavily linked to tempo-rhythm as Stanislavski liked to use a lot of them in his theatrical pieces. A certain sound can have a great impact on the overall pace of a scene. For example, the ticking sound of a clock or metronome in a piece could cause a sense of urgency for the characters, and if that ticking noise ever sped up, they would all begin to feel more stress to do whatever they were doing faster, it would make them feel like they only have a specific amount of time to do something before it's too late.

Affective Memory

Affective memory can also be known as 'sense memory' or 'emotion memory'. It is the act of recalling a something you have experienced previously, or have read about or seen, that is similar to your own character's situation. Emotion memory is when you remember a time where you strongly felt a certain way, and you allow that emotion to be brought back so that when you are performing, everything you are feeling is completely true. For example, if I had to do my scene where Arkadina is desperate for Trigorin's love, I would go back to a time where I know I felt extremely desperate about something, and then I would let my own real feelings flow out and become a part of Arkadina's feelings too.

Sense memory is where you would use your senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste to help create a picture of the scene around you to perform. For example, I could think back to what it's like to be in a library, the eerie yet comforting silence that drowns out the rest of the outside world, that could help me know what it's like to be Arkadina in that room with Trigorin.

Circles Of Attention

Circles of attention is a very useful way to help keep your focus as an actor. To describe this process, the picture to the left makes perfect sense as in, the actor is in the middle of all the circles and you have a wide range or different attention points. The first circle of attention is your inner-self, your heartbeat, your breathing, your chewing etc. And from there it can branch out to as far as the other side of the theatre.

As an actor, I like this technique because it helps me realise that everywhere is just another focus point, there are no areas on-stage where I am going to lose focus because everything around me is important. I could decide to focus on my inner circle, then I could focus in on the circle that goes to the edge of the stage, or I could even bring it out to the circle of attention that spreads over the audience, thinking like this definitely helps me from breaking my concentration.

Objectives/ Super Objectives

Objectives/tasks is the main desire of a character in a scene/bit and it is always aimed at the other character/s. The objectives are simple and easy to understand, so for my scene as Arkadina i may feel that her objective is 'I am persuading you' or 'I wish to seduce you'. The objectives will change in almost every scene, and discovering this will help you to deepen the excitement.

A character's super objective is quite simply their main objective throughout the whole play. They have all their smaller tasks that in the end build up to their final and biggest objective. The playwright, the play itself and each character all have their own super objective. 

Method of Physical Actions

The method of physical actions plays along with the idea of objectives. Objectives by themselves aren't good enough for an actor because they are what's inside of a character's mind, the method of physical actions however helps link together the mental and physical aspects of yourself. It's like bringing the objectives to life. To help with this, the use of transitive verbs will come in handy because they will aid you to make clear decisions for what your character wants to do or achieve in a certain scene or line. 

A great way to help deepen your connection with the role would be to think of a statement on nearly every line and use a transitive verb, for example, Arkadina's could be 'I seduce you', 'I bribe you' or 'I beg you'. These simple statements will really help you to understand exactly why each character is saying any of their lines.

*Source Bella Merlin*

Rehearsal Process

I won't be able to write about my weekly class rehearsals as I wasn't able to attend them, but I made sure to do as much practising at home, so that I was ready for the performance. 

As soon as I found out what my scene was I learnt my lines, and it only took me two afternoons. I think I am a rather quick learner when it comes to line-learning and in no time I was able to recite it without my book. I don't really have a particular way to learn my lines, I just take the next sentence, remember it, and then add it on to the rest of what I have learnt. All I know is that no other way of line-learning can help me remember as fast as this really simple way.

Whilst rehearsing at home, I did my best to apply Stanislavski's ideas to my work. The given circumstances of my scene and situation are as follows:

Who - Arkadina, famous actress and mother of Konstantin
What - Persuading Trigorin to leave the estate at the same time as me, without thinking of Nina
When - Early evening
Where - The dining-room in Sorin's house
Why - I want Trigorin all for myself, I am jealous of Nina

I figured out that the tempo-rhythm of my scene is rather static on Arkadina's side as she really changes her emotions rapidly towards Trigorin constantly. First she is impatient, then shocked, angry, jealous, upset, hysterical and very possessive. Once Trigorin gives in to her, you can immediately see the pace slowing down as she calms down because she got her way, the tension is no more.

I really wanted to give affective memory a go (mainly emotion memory) during my rehearsing so I thought back to a time where I felt a very strong urge of jealousy and desperation, and I used all of those feelings to create Arkadina's strong sense of love for Trigorin, as she doesn't want him to leave her at all. I found this technique quite difficult because I had never done it before but it was a good challenge to discover and tackle slowly.

Arkadina and Trigorin at
the National Theatre

My rehearsal with Callum went really well in my opinion because we arrived knowing that we both knew our lines very well already so we were able to crack on with the staging and emotion of the scene. In my first run-through ever in front of the rest of the cast I was given two simple director's notes: use some levels in my staging and maybe a chair or two, and then make sure I am doing something extravagant to Trigorin when he says "someone may come in" so that it makes more sense for him to deliver that line. I made sure to fix these two problems straight away. I decided to sit on a chair at the start and end of my piece and when Callum delivers his line I make sure that I am draped all over him embarrassingly. 

Characterisation

Once finding out I was playing the role of Arkadina, I was very glad because it meant that it would be a slight challenge as I am playing someone who is not in my age-range, as Arkadina is a middle-aged actress. As it was a new role I had never really done before, it meant it was time for plenty of characterisation! I researched about my character and the women from the time, the clothes they wore, and how Arkadina interacted with different characters. Here are all of the ways I researched and gained more character analysis and developed my knowledge on the times. 

Side 1

Side 2

This is a mini questionnaire in which i filled it in first as myself, and as Arkadina. This meant that I had to create some of Arkadina's answers from my own imagination to really make the character my own. This really helped my creative side flourish and gave me an extra push to think of new ideas for Arkadina's life.

With every character I research, I always create a gingerbread man. I find this method extremely useful because it gives you a summary of how the character is seen by others and on the outside, and then also how they really feel on the inside.

I feel that Arkadina may be a high-class, respected woman but deep down she could feel quite lonely because as an actress you have to be constantly travelling to different locations so the people she meets are always temporary.

Arkadina doesn't try to let it show, but it is very obvious that she is jealous of Nina because Nina has taken Trigorin (her lover) away from her and she is also a new actress in the business, she doesn't want Nina to take away her crown, attention and respect. Nina's entrance into the world of acting could possibly cause Arkadina to feel quite insecure about herself because she is much older than Nina. Theatre is one of the ways in which she can feel younger than she actually is, and Nina is breaking that mirage for her.

I also think that Arkadina may want to take a break from her job sometimes. Being a famous actress means that she never has a break, she's always busy and I feel that she may want to have a break and settle down for once in a while.

Arkadina at the
National Theatre

On September 26th, I watched "The Seagull" at the National Theatre and I made sure to really evaluate how the characters were and their stage presence. Arkadina's entrances were always known, in each scene she was in she made sure to never really fall out of the spotlight, she was at least somehow in every characters' conversations. I enjoyed watching the performance because it really gave the message across that it is a naturalistic piece, and I think the actors pulled that off extremely well.

Once I had read through the play again and discovered Arkadina's personality, I then went onto doing research into what she looks like and what she wears, of course I wouldn't be able to get the exact right clothes of the time for my show, but I knew I wanted to have at least an understanding of what she might have worn so that I can picture it in my mind whilst I'm acting.

Women's fashion
in the 1890s

Arkadina is a famous actress, meaning she must have plenty of enough money because in those days, actors and actresses had to pay for their own costumes. It is also stressed a lot in the play that Arkadina has a lot of thousands of rubles in the bank but is not willing to share it with anyone else but herself and her job. 

Script Annotations

Stage directions and ideas
page no.1

Page no.2

Page no.3

Objectives, super objectives
and method of physical actions page no. 1

Page no.2

Chekhov

"Knowledge is of no value
unless you put it into practice."

Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright who was born in Taganrog, Russia on January 29th 1860 and died in Germany on July 15th 1904. He is known as the leading playwright of the late 19th century. 

In his early years, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov had to support his money-troubled family by writing short comics for magazines. He had actually first trained as a physician and he would produce small pieces of fiction that ended up in the local newspapers. 

In 1884 he was qualified as a doctor and he began practising in Moscow. Slowly but surely, he begins to see better opportunities in the writing profession and in 1888 he started to publish his very own stories and create small pieces of theatre, like "The Wood Demon" (1889).

Chekhov then started to help the world in his own way by travelling to Sakhalin to interview prisoners and exiles, moving to Melikhovo to doctor the peasants and he helped on the first of three schools that were being built there for the children. 

Much of his greatest work was produced in the 1890's and he went to the Moscow Art Theatre company to collaborate with Konstantin Stanislavsky. Together they created his four masterpieces: "Uncle Vanya" (1897), "The Cherry Orchard" (1904), "The Three Sisters" (1901), and of course, "The Seagull" (1895).

In his later life he married an actress from the Moscow Art Theatre called Olga Knipper, but unfortunately, he died at the age of 44 from his tuberculosis he had been suffering from since he was young, he had two heart attacks and passed away in his hotel bedroom.

*Source - Jessica Murphy and Bloomsbury Chekhov Plays*

Stanislavski

"Love the art in yourself
and not yourself in the art."

Konstantin Stanislavski was a Russian theatre practitioner who was born in Moscow on January 17th 1863, and died at the age of 75 on August 7th 1938. 

He was an actor, theorist and director, and he is most well-known for his astounding theories in naturalism and realism for theatre.

His real name was Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev but he changed his surname to Stanislavski because he didn't want his parents to know about him performing in amateur productions. As a child, he was interested in the circus, ballet and puppetry, and his whole family were lovers of the theatre. During his years in working as a practitioner, he produced a couple of books to do with his acting technique, his most famous by far being 'An Actor Prepares', which has a guide on all of his techniques and exercises for an actor, he called his system the 'art of representation'.

In 1898, both Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich Danchenko founded the Moscow Art Theatre company. This was very handy for Stanislavski because with his wealth and this opportunity, he was able to explore and develop new topics in his research. Their first performance that was created was 'The Seagull' by Anton Chekhov. During this time, Stalin had rule over Russia so the company would be the political voice of the USSR, and to stay away from Stalin's wrath, he went to live in isolation in Moscow near the end of his life, so he could carry on with his work and nothing else.

As Stanislavski delved deeper into his research, he found that he was much more fond with the concept of realism rather than naturalism, and later on he found the subject of symbolism too.

The students that he taught at the end of his days went on to teach others that then taught in the famous 'actor's studio' in New York.

*Source - BBC Bitesize*

First Lesson

ARCHETYPES

In our first session, we did a warm up on archetypes, the most common archetypes and how they would present themselves. We all presented our own versions of the three most famous archetypes to each other: the hero, the villain and the damsel in distress. Although those are the main archetypes that people think of straight away, there are still many more stereotypical roles that can be found along with them, for example, the wise old man, the caring nurse, the evil sidekick, and the lover, etc.

As I have learnt about archetypes for the past two years it was easy for me to understand the task being given, and I could easily point out the certain postures, gestures and facial expressions that would commonly fit each role. A hero would usually have their chest out and head up, looking into the horizon, their feet wide apart in a stance and hands and arms out. This makes the hero look strong, confident, and ready to battle at all times. The damsels in distress are rather coy, innocent and vulnerable characters so a lot of their moves will be closed in and very small, almost as if they are scared all the time, as they constantly need their hero to save them. Finally, the villains are usually bent over, or lower than the hero, with their faces covered. This is to show an air of mystery to the role and the hunched backs represent a lower class compared to the hero, that they are sneaky and not to be trusted.

MELODRAMA

Melodrama is a type of acting that uses major exaggeration to excite its audience, it is usually very over the top and unrealistic, making it hard to relate to. Melodrama usually includes:

• surface acting
• loud voices
• archetypal characters
• large gestures
• physical demonstration of emotions
• always facing the audience

During our archetypes warm up we practised the elements of melodrama by performing to someone opposite the room who would be our lover, we had to physicalise every emotion and word we said to get the message across that we loved them. I found it very weird to do because it felt so unnatural and that is not what anyone would do when admitting they love someone in real life. It would definitely be unsatisfying to an audience as it also does not relate to them so they may get bored of the style of acting as it's just too fake and over-the-top. The opposite of melodrama would be either realism or naturalism, which is what we discussed afterwards.

Melodramatic theatre back at the end of the 19th century had a famous 'star' system where the most famous actors (who would most likely be playing the lead roles of the hero) would allow the play to pause so the audience can applause for their entrance. That still happens slightly today in productions, as many roles are filled by very famous people to bring in more viewers and buyers. Stanislavsky also found this type of theatre very unsatisfying, and that is what started his ideas on naturalism and realism.

NATURALISM VS REALISM

Naturalism in theatre is showing life exactly how it is, and to every single, specific detail, whereas realism in theatre is showing life but only the important parts so that you can understand what's going on faster.

To differentiate both terms we watched someone in our class perform a mime of them making a cup of tea, but she performed it to every last detail, including waiting for the kettle to boil, getting out every ingredient from their own cupboards, washing up the spoon used for the sugar, and then putting everything back where it came from again. Although all of this was performed in mime, almost everyone understood what she was doing, and this is the act of naturalism.

After this, we spoke about the key points in making a cup of tea and using our ideas, someone else had to mime making a cup of tea again, but this time only doing about three/four key actions instead of doing every last detail. The mime this time only included: waiting for the kettle to boil, taking out the teabag, stirring the tea and then taking a sip. This version was about a minute quicker, yet we could still easily tell exactly what she was doing, realism shows only what needs to be shown so the audience understands. Stanislavsky preferred realism overall but he went through the process of naturalism first as a starting point for the rest of his research and experimentation.

STANISLAVSKI'S IDEAS

Stanislavsky had a few activities and ideas that he used/taught to his students to help them relax and use their imagination. He said that the body should be fully relaxed before a rehearsal/performance, so in this session we did an exercise of tensing every single muscle in our body one by one, and then one by one again, relaxing it, and it worked a lot as afterwards it felt very refreshing to be relaxed and I felt more loose and ready to move when needed.

He also like the use of sun salutations a lot so we did a routine that included the downward-dog a few times, this really stretched out my muscles and put tension on parts of my body that I never really use, so it really was a workout for me, at least I know that I should maybe sign up for yoga.

IMAGINATION

To start off our work on imagination, we did a warm up where we all closed our eyes and had to imagine something that we don't like, and we had to think about whether it was an animal or inanimate object, its size, colour, texture, weight, where you would find it etc. We then heard two people's descriptions and with our eyes still closed we had to guess what they were talking about. I found the first person's description interesting because they were talking about a spider, and that is what I chose, and yet her description was very different to mine, but I still managed to guess what she was talking about. This exercise was to establish that all objects have specific key elements that help us know exactly what it is when being described, for example, a tomato is round, red and it is stored in the fridge.

Finally, we did a 'Magic If' task where we had to respond to a series of 'What if...?' questions (What if it started raining? What if my crush started walking towards me? What if I found a £10 note on the floor) The 'What If' statements were very naturalistic so when I responded to them I made sure to respond naturally, in the way I would, which means that there was never a lot of facial expressions or exaggerated body language because nobody else is meant to be there with me, the audience are merely viewing my life from beyond the fourth, which I, the actor, cannot see. I enjoyed this exercise a lot because it helped me realised how easy it is to start using your imagination, simply saying 'what if......?' immediately sparks up the actor's imagination, and this can be naturalistically, realistically, or even in an abstract way, (What if I was in love with the floor? What if I came out the house with no trousers on? What If I got abducted by an alien?)

~Matilda

Initial Thoughts

During the Summer I was asked to read a biographical book and a Chekhov play.

Bella Merlin's 'Konstantin Stanislavsky', and it has four diverse chapters, delving into the creation of naturalism and realism.

Chapter one is the biography of Stanislavsky and naturalism/realism itself, going through his major points, failures and achievements in life, chapter two is a summary and analysis of his famous book 'An Actor Prepares', talking about the step-by-step guide to the Stanislavsky way, chapter three is an analysis of Chekhov's 'The Seagull', and it goes through Stanislavski's changes he made and why to the piece. Finally, chapter four is all about practical exercises and ones anyone can do to practise his ways yourself or teach to a class/cast.

I found that this book took a long time to read because it was just so full of information and the chapters were very different to one another so it was a lot to remember in my head, but I managed it and I am glad that I read it all, I now understand a lot more about Stanislavsky, his ideas and how he came about to the idea of naturalism and then realism. My favourite chapter would have to be chapter three because it was so interesting to read and understand the world of Stanislavsky, like why he chose to light something a certain way or why he made someone say/do something in a certain way. It helped me think about putting those thoughts into my own pieces of theatre and others' too.

The play I read was 'The Seagull' by Chekhov. Quite surprisingly to myself I found this play a pretty good read, as I felt quite proud of myself for actually understanding what was going on. There were a lot of characters that had many dramas and issues all on their own, and then dramas that linked with other people and other dramas too.

This piece of theatre had a few themes, including unrequited love, and the world of actors and writers. I also think that the play was about the politics of theatre and changing the norms of how writing works and going against society's view of art.

There was a strong amount of unrequited love in this play and it was present in almost all the characters, whether it be in a family relationship or lover's relationship. There is a lot of quotes that hint at it and a few metaphors as well, including the dead seagull that Konstantin lays by Nina's feet, or Nina moving away with Trigorin only to find out that he was just using her.

I also had a few questions to ask once I had finished the text: What specific message was Chekhov trying to get across to the audience? Why is Konstantin's mother so cruel to him? What events are taking place off-stage?

~Matilda

Disclaimer

This blog is not in any sort of chronological order and the blog posts are not dated. I haven't attended most of these sessions so a lot of my writings on here will be thorough research through the internet and of course, the Bella Merlin book which we were asked to buy and read. The reasons for my absence are personal and have been discussed with my teachers.

I was in school for the first session so that blog post will be fully detailed, and I was also present during the final performance so I can make sure to give a detailed evaluation of that

Thank you and I hope you enjoy!

~Matilda