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*