On going Research

Stanislavsky's technique:

Konstantin Stanislavsky based his system on how an actor should do something in order to want something and therefore should feel something naturally rather that artificially. The actor should become so consumed with their objective of carrying out something that they become immersed in their task and don't think so much as just 'do' it.

Diagram of Stanislavski's system (taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Stanislavski)

Meisner's Technique: 

Stanford Meisner came up with the method of getting actors to 'get out of their heads' and act on instinct much alike Konstantin Stanislavsky's method.

Melodrama was big before Stanislavski's time but after becoming a practitioner he decided that he wanted to challenge the style of theatre at the time. His ideas were a reaction to melodrama and allowed him to come to terms with the other possibilities that he could tap into. He decided to challenge the way an actor could control their emotions and the effect that that could have on their performance. Because of this, he was a big influence on the modernisation of a more naturalistic form of theatre. His work was wonderful and weird to his audiences at the time and many of his audiences didn't appreciate his style but others adored it.

One of the things that Stanislavski didn't like was the fact that in melodramas, the stereotype of the person was more important than the character. Stanislavski didn't believe this and thought that their had to be a real connection between the actor and the character as well as between each character when on stage. His work wasn't meant to be a demonstration of a show so much as it was supposed to be a demonstration of life. In order to create archetypes, they were given fixed movements and stereotypical fates that were always expected. This made theatre in Stanislavski's time very similar and repetitive; he wanted to bring something new to the table.

Some examples of archetypes:

The weak female

The damsel in distress.
The Fool/clown/idiot.
The Hero (protagonist)
The villain (antagonist)

The Genius
The Lovers

The theatre has developed a lot over the years:

- There is a lot more diversity, including colour blind casting

- Poverty porn and freedom of speech is accepted because the social reform has changed and so we can now alk about risky subjects

- Multimedia is used in a creative way and is cconceptual so makes allegorical statements

- We no longer just perform in proscenium arch

E.g Theatrical configuration:
Proscenium arch
End on
Thrust
The apron
Triverse
Promenade
The round
- Lots of things have influences from theatre created years ago e.g:
The limelight - limestone would be used to fuel the lights that lit a theatre. 'Being in the limelight' is now a well known saying

-Tilted stage - Some theatres still have tilted stages (e.e the Lyceum in Sheffield). Originally done because instead of the audiences rows being raised, instead the stage was which allowed the audience to see them

- The vom/vomitoria - an entrance which we still have in theatres now, the only difference is that in greek time, the audience would eat and then force themselves to vomit in these areas so that they could continue eating.

- Legs cover cables

Now Stanislavski is revolutionary and created his system through experimentation with actors across 30 yrs. He came up with his take on naturalism and realism because he wanted to create life as realistic as possible. He wanted to focus on the character and their issues so that the audience could become emotionally involved in the structure and storyline. 

Note: Naturalism is theatrical realism

Lesson 5

Todays rehearsal was successful in the sense that everyone was finally off book and so were able to commit to their character and perform to a higher standard. I really want to work on making our scene less static, I will have to do this by perhaps imagining that there is an elastic band between Konstantin and Sorin so that we are able to balance the space but also have moments of closeness where support can be given. Although, I do like it to a certain extent because it represents Konstantin's and Sorin's closeness and the confidence he has in himself when around his Uncle. As nice as what the closeness and staticness may be symbolistic to me, I still need to make good use of the space without losing Konstantin's and Sorin's connection and bond.

One thing I have been struggling to do is use Stanislavski's system completely in the sense that I often lose my objective out of habit and therefore go completely against his teachings. I am able to understand both what my objectives are and how to deliver my lines but when merging both those things together they don't mix together very well. Therefore in order to develop as an actress, I need to work on nailing my objectives every time.

We then went onto doing a run through in The Space.  The run through started off with my group's scene and to be honest our performance was embarrassing. It was the second time performing in front of everyone and so obviously we were all very nervous, then there was trying to remember our objectives and actions as well as our lines. I for instance, didn't cope very well when being stopped and asked for my action spontaneously, instead I panicked and then throughout the scene I was too busy trying to think about my actions that I started to forget my lines. Our scene then had to be changed around a bit and instead of Sorin and Konstantin noticing Masha and Medvedenko later in the scene, we see them from the start and so our actions had to change. I wasn't very good at simultaneously coming up with my new actions on the spot which is perhaps something I should work on but isn't necessarily a downfall.

Our director told us that our scene was quite bland at times which was such a shame after the hard work we'd put into it. He then got a group that were doing the same scene as us to perform so that we could watch and get a better understanding of the scene. After watching the performance I feel as though I now understand some of our criticism. For example, although the play is naturalist, it still isn't today's modern version of naturalistic. I knew this of course but it completely slipped my mind when getting up and performing. Therefore my personal downfall would probably be underacting. I will work on upping my game and perhaps be a bit more literal which should bring with it more confidence to explore the space and a better delivery of lines. I will go over the mechanics of breathing to also help with the delivery of my lines and will remember that any moments of silence in the scene need to be deserved and truthful.. My response to the space should come across opinionated, strong and in a way that intrigues the audience.

Lesson 4

In today's rehearsal we focused on being playful and taking risks. One thing that my partner and I did was try to make each other mad. My partner tried to get me worked up because in our scene Konstantin is on the verge of a mental breakdown because he doesn't think his mother loves him. On top of that he is unsure of whether he will be putting on a show if his love -Nina, doesn't show up soon because she's also the star in his play and it's due to start soon. My character is very dubious and unsure of his importance in society and so because of this, my partner playing Sorin, tried to get me worked up by shoving me whilst I was delivering my lines. This was almost a physicalized version of my emotions. It was as though, every word I said had an effect that got me down but I also got annoyed at the same time which allowed me to access a different vocal range that expressed different emotions. This exercise really allowed me to tap in with what Stanislavski wanted his actors to access and as I result I responded to my stimulus accordingly and purely from instinct.

In contrary, I had to take into consideration the fact that Sorin was boring me with long philosophical responses that sounded intellectual but didn't help my character at all. I also got quite fed up with some of his responses (e.g 'Your Mother adores you') because my character was so wrapped up with different ideologies that what Sorin was saying just seemed like lies. Nonetheless, Konstantin loves Sorin most (well apart from Nina) because he's one of two that has faith in him and his performance. This is shown in Sorin allowing him to put a show on in his theatre. Because of given circumstances like this, I can't allow Konstantin to lash out at Sorin because he'd do nothing to hurt his Uncle. In fact, he respects his uncle and so has to act in a certain way (especially during the time of the play and the way in which people had to present themselves and respect their older under all circumstances).