KONSTATIN STANISLAVSKY BY BELLA MERLIN

'KONSTATIN STANISLAVSKY' by Bella Merlin

Stanislavsky was a Russian actor and theatre director who was able to develop his own system of acting, this was achieved through trial and error as the main aspects of his system have derived from rehearsal techniques, personal experiences and many more. 

His work was able to span a time of international events which were social, political and technological. He was able to portray these aspects through his system as he effectively embodied the language that was able to reach out to many actors and audience members, as a result he was able to create an authentic and living theatrical experience which therefore was able to address universal truths and touch on subjects that related to the social context at the time.

'Stanislavsky system' as a method of actors training:

This system is very systematic and requires serious dedication, discipline and integrity from both the director and most importantly  the actors as they are being trained and taught. Within Stanislavsky's system there were various areas that were taught and therefore had to be studied by the actors and these included; concentration, voice, physical skills, emotion memory, observation and domestic analysis . After establishing  his system he started to think about his aim and this was to produce a universal and applicable approach that all actors could use and eventually the idea was that they would be able to create their own methods that was tailored to themselves.

Concentration: 
This aspect of Stanislavsky's system was to be able to develop concentration, observation and imagination on stage and as a result of this your attention on stage will strengthen. The idea of a 'fourth wall' ( the invisible wall between the audience and the stage). This is very important however Stanislavsky said that the audience played a vital part in the live performance.

Small circle:  This was the idea that the smallest circle of concentration was the actor, in the centre of the small circle which was secure and within this circle,you could then travel on stage with the actor, enveloping the actor.

Large circle: As the circle grew larger, the actor learned to concentrate or focus on relatively larger areas of
, still excluding whatever was not in the circle.

Stanislavsky differentiated between ‘external’ and ‘inner attention’ or concentration. External attention was directed to material or objects lying outside of the actor. Inner attention was based on imaginary life created by the actor that was consistent with the given circumstances of the play. This inner attention incorporated all the five senses of the actor.


Emotional memory: 

Stanislavsky believed that all characters should use their personal experiences in order to create a vivid character by using a 'bank of emotions'. The process involves consciously  recalling the sights and sounds form the original experience to excite sensations such as taste, touch, and smell. This was a vbery deep aspect of his method of training

Tempo rhythm:
Tempo-rhythm can act as a powerful bridge between the inner experience and its physical expression. For Stanislavsky, tempo-rhythm was both inner and outer. Emotions to him, had a distinctive pulse and pattern to them. ‘Tempo’ referred to the speed of an action or an emotion. The tempo could be fast, medium or slow. ‘Rhythm’ was, internally, the intensity of the emotional experience. Externally, it was the pattern of gestures, movements and actions.

Responses to practical exercises:

1) Relaxation:

This was always the starting point for Stanislavsky because it was always vital for the actors to be physically relaxed and prepared as everything is related back to the aspect of being 'psycho-physical'.

• EXERCISE 4.1: This is a very physical exercise as it is able to help your mind focus and specifically be in tune with your own body and from doing so, you start to become more aware and therefore pay close attention to details in your surroundings and with this being a starter exercise you slowly start to prepare as you are trained in each section.

2) Given circumstances: Pieces of information needed by actors in order to make appropriate decisions when interpreting their character/s

• EXERCISE 4.2: Working with ONE given circumstance:

'Limitless attention to your partner and constant adaptation'

In this exercise you are only given one circumstance which is 'place'. You have to have 

your focus on exploring that circumstances, alongside one person put of your pair knows the place which therefore makes the exercise more intriguing because it allows room for interpretation and improvisation that is spontaneous. With this exercise the actors eventually discover how significant a given circumstance is as the y act as a stimulus building block that allows further aspects to develop such as; dialogue, story and themes etc.

EXERCISE 4.3: Working with TWO given circumstances:

• This exercise is very different to exercise 4.2 as now TWO given circumstances have been introduced, this being 'time' and 'place' again. This now requires justification in which you need to logically think about why you are in this specific place at that specific time. The idea of having to think logically brings about a sense of difficulty as the dramatic action is hard to maintain as the purpose is unclear.

3) Objectives: The main desire motivating a characters behaviour in a scene which is directed to 

the on stage partner. Labelling an objective needs attention as it must provide simple interest, passion , excitement, desires, aspirations and actions.

EXERCISE 4.4: 

This exercise able to produce amazing results because although the characters both know the TWO given circumstances , they are only aware of their own objective which means they are each trying to attain their objective by 'testing the waters' first as they are unaware of what the other persons aim is.

My favourite objectives are:

2a: To win admirers                              5a: To win admirers                             6a: To control the situation

2b: To deflect attention                         5b: To deflect attention                        6b: To control the situation

4)  Inner actions:

EXERCISE 4.5:
This exercise introduces and relies on spoken word in order to develop but also sustain the improvisation taking place. You are given one line of text that has to be used throughout, The idea of this allows actors to find the precise moment and this is triggered by your own inner actions and what your partner reacts with/ produces etc.
Furthermore it also is able to explore subtext which hindsight can help you to lay out the basis of a story/ play etc.

5) Actions: Every moment that the actor is on stage and every line of text is spoken consists of an action. It is directed towards other characters in the scene and ended up being a line of actions.

EXERCISE 4.6
This is the same as the previous exercise however there is slight variation because now an action is introduced. This is able to dictate the way in which your line of a text is presented and therefore is also able to unlock/ reveal more information.

Actions are as follow; to shock, to frighten, to bewitch, to provoke, to impress etc.

6) Sense memory and emotion memory: 
Stanislavsky system is always reiterating that we have the necessary tools that an actor needs, this being, body, imagination, emotions and human experiences . With this he believes that it is just a matter of provoking these tools so they are then available any time.

This is a very cautious aspect of his system because it can result in being beneficial or non beneficial. A certain type of significant to different people because some people are able to really relate and think back to the emotion they felt in a given time and sometimes this can be damaging towards the actors performance