-Stanislavski-

Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938, Co-artistic director of the Moscow Art Theatre) created a a system for acting that allowed us, as actors, to create truthful and believable characters. This system is just as if not more popular in the modern day then it was all those years ago. Stanislavski's naturalism has dominated theatre for over 80 years and is still the most comprehensive acting method we have. 

Stanislavski's method of acting was more like a set of exercises and techniques which actors could use to immerse themselves within their role. You would go through the exercises with a role in mind in order to understand it better. Stanislavski said that our purpose is not only to create 'the life of the human spirit in a role' but also to communicate it outwardly in an artistic form. In order to be able to effectively express a role outwardly the actor must embody the physical and mental aspects of the character inwardly. 

"The person you are is a hundred times more interesting than the best actor you could ever become…" – Konstantin Stanislavski

Exercises:

Imagination - The ability to treat fictional circumstances as if they were real. 

One of the building blocks of naturalism in imagination. You cannot be something or someone without fully believing you are that, to do this you must use your imagination. You must always ask yourself what are you doing? What is happening around you? Why are you doing this/ why is this happening? To do this you must use your imagination. 

• Find a space and stand in a relaxed position
• Allow yourself to be gently pulled up by the strings. Imagine a piece of string running from the base of your spine through to the top of your head and up into the ceiling. Imagine this string is being gently pulled and this will put you into the correct position to use your imagination. 
• Imagine you are standing before a desert. You can see the dunes running off into the distance; you can hear the wind whipping up the sand and you can feel the sand blowing against your face. You can feel the sun beating down on your face and a dry, dust-like sensation in your mouth. 
• Now imagine you are standing at the edge of a waterfall. You can hear the deafening sound of the water crashing  around you, you can feel the gentle spray of water on your hands and face, you can smell lavender wafting in the air
• You are now standing in the middle of a field. It is the middle of the night and there is not a cloud in the sky. The stars cover the sky and the deadly silence is occasionally interrupted by a distant sound
• Now imagine you are in your kitchen at home. Using your imagination, place the objects around you. You can hear the hum of the fridge, the smell of the recently made toast, the sound of a radio in the other room. Gently imagine this and then bring an impression of the rest of the house, where the rooms are, then imagine your garden and the road you live on. 

The magic IF exercise: 

• Find a quiet place and sit down 
• Whatever time it is now, ask yourself what if it was twelve hours later. Start to think of how you would feel if it was now the middle of the night 
• Ask yourself: what if I was living in Russia, in Moscow? How would my life be different? 
• Now imagine you live in Moscow but the year is 1917 and the revolution is all around you. Ask yourself: What if I was a student in Moscow and my country was on the brink of a civil war? How would I feel and what would I be thinking?

Questions for after the exercise:

1. Did using the magic IF help you to trigger your imagination?
2. Did using the magic IF help to create different pictures around you?
3. When you were using the magic IF, did you find that, as your imagination started to work, this brought about a change in what you were thinking and feeling?

[Exercise from 'Theatre in Practice: A Student's Handbook' by Nick O'Brien and Annie Sutton]  

To fully imagine yourself in a situation you must use active imagination - seeing things through our character's eyes using the five senses. Imagine you are smelling, feeling, tasting, touching and hearing the same thing as your character would be. You will need to use your own imagination to create your character's past, given circumstances, future, their objective and action. When doing naturalism it is important not to force your imagination but work on building your characters situation over a longer period of time.  When trying to embody another character you must fully believe what is happening and forget your own circumstance. 

When you are trying to harness your imagination fully you must always be in a relaxed state, no external distractions can be affecting you otherwise you won't be able to fully believe you are that character. Think about your whole body and from the feet up start to relax everybody part on by one until they are completely relaxed. Being relaxed should help you focus more. 

Invisible Rays - Invisible rays are a current flowing between two actors and is a form of communication. 

Stanislavski believed that there was three ways in which we can communicate: through movement, voice and the use of invisible rays. These rays are flowing between us constantly and you must not only be highly focused but also must keep an open mind in order to give and receive them. Much of Stanislavski's method doesn't work with 100% effectiveness unless you are completely committed and willing to explore and experiment. 

Building the circumstances of your character:

When playing a character, ask yourself: Who am I? Why am I here? When am I? Where am I? What do I want? What will I do to achieve my want? The first three questions will often be answered by the text you are studying. On the other hand, 'Why am I here?' will cause you to think about your situation more and you will start to analyse your character and understand how they think. The last two questions will make you start thinking about your character's objective. Always ask yourself these questions so you can understand your character better. Building circumstances is similar to given circumstances - think about your scene and ask yourself Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? 

The Super Objective:

The Super objective (SO) is like the dramatic intention. It can be the super objective for the whole play or the super objective of a character. A character's super objective is what they are trying to achieve by the end of the play. For example, Pantalone's super objective might be to make money. What is the point of an SO? Always having an SO in mind will help a character to not lose sight of their aim and portray the point of their character. 

Following on from the super objective is a characters objective. An objective is just a smaller version of  a super objective and they are usually the objective for a small scene or a unit. A unit comes from the technique uniting where you read through a play and mark (with a line) every time the mood, dialogue, character, setting etc. changes. You would give a name to all of these units and come up with an objective for each unit. This is a very time consuming process but will allow you to understand you're character better and never be confused as to what you're doing. Lastly, uniting can also help you learn lines easier. 

Emotion Memory:

Also called Affective Memory, this technique asks us to forget about "acting" out emotions. Feeling emotion is such a visceral part of the human experience that it is at the same time universal and difficult to fake. Because it's universal, though, you don't have to fake it – just remember it. A form of Emotional Memory we have probably all practiced is "crocodile tears". Think back to when you were a child, trying to make yourself cry to get more pudding, to go home, or to get your sibling in trouble. You probably made these "crocodile tears" by thinking of something sad, like the death of a beloved pet. This is the Stanislavsky system in action.

To summarise: Emotional or Affective Memory asks the actor to call on a memory similar in detail or sensation to their character's situation. Through empathy, the actor lives the character rather than simply reciting it.

The aim of Emotional Memory is to feel the emotion your character is going through, but you might not even need a real memory – just an exceptional sense of empathy. Something you saw or read about might evoke your character's emotion better than the script. For example, if your character is feeling outraged because they got fired, you might not have an experience like this. However, you could use another time when you felt outraged, it doesn't have to be the same experience. In order to fully remember a memory you can use sense memory. Think about the five senses and what you felt, heard, smelt, saw and tasted at that moment. 

Although this situation does not directly affect you, it can still cause a deep sense of indignation. This is enough. So long as you feel the emotion of your character no matter how you get to it – you are enacting the Stanislavsky system.