Lesson 3

The main thing that I learnt today was that 'Every scene is a chase scene' and to use the space efficiently during the chase. There was also an element of allowing myself to get so lost that I get fearful which makes me want to protect myself and therefore causes me to act instinctual rather than stereotypically. This meant that I had to open myself up and as Konstantin, allow myself to have the fear of not fitting in. In order to do this I tried to engage with the emotions I had when I used to get bullied in primary school. 

When rehearsing the scene, the acting itself was fine but there was a clear problem with the staging because Masha and Medvedenko seem to come into the space, sit down and chat and then Konstantin and Sorin do the same. This makes the scene very static and puts everything on the same level. In order to change this I think I will have Konstantin playing 'To impress' because as an insecure person he should feel the need to impress his uncle in order to be accepted and fit in. This will allow me to move him around and have him standing up so that he can '(To) perform' to his Uncle.

Stanislavsky: "Solitude in public - using different circles of attraction on stage to focus the attention on stage: refocus upon an object of Attention is lost and create circles emanating around that object"

In my scene, Konstantin's circle of attention is private because he is sharing his feeling with someone else however he knows that what he tells his Uncle will only ever be spoken about between the two of them. It is confidential and private to them both. If other characters came into the scene then Konstantin wouldn't talk about anything he does talk about in the scene.

Later on in the day, we watched one of the scenes back and it was amazing. Tara and Leane performed and their objectives were extremely clear after our director intervened. At first it seemed as though there wasn't a complete understanding of objectives and that the scene was still being acted and rehearses. To fix this, Will gave Tara the physical objective of 'Yo leave' and Leane the objective of 'To keep from leaving' much alike the task we had originally in our first lesson. This tactic actually worked great in this scene because Medvedenko is in love with Masha but the feelings aren't reciprocated. This meant that Tara didn't have to pretend to leave or want to get away, she simply just did try to leave but Leane made sure she blocked her each time. The actress' played the scene differently each time they re-did it which kept it fresh, fun and instinctive. Their performance was amazing and has really inspired me to try and reach their level of understanding with Stanislavski's system next week.