Konstantin Stanislavsky -
Bella Merlin
Over the summer break, I have been given
the task to read Konstantin Stanislavsky
by Bella Merlin.
Chapter 1
The book begins with an outline of
Stanislavsky’s life and the journey he undertook in his search to making acting
appear to be realistic and not staged as he was ‘a man who was passionate about
theatrical ‘truth’’.
An idea that thoroughly interested me in
Chapter 1 was the introduction to Stanislavsky’s idea of ‘affective memory’
where actors recall situations from their own experiences that are comparable
to the character’s situation; it involves using the five senses to recall the
situations in order to help the actor link the emotions felt in their
experiences to the emotions that the character should be feeling in the scene.
What began my interest in this topic was reading how Stanislavsky decided to
spend a night locked in the cellar of the castle in hope that he would then be
able to find what he was lacking when playing a decrepit old man’, played by
Stanislavsky when he was only twenty-five. He felt like he would be able to
bring his memories and experiences to the rehearsal room in order to make his
character more successful, however he was wrong; this fascinated me as he then
went on to wonder how he could turn external result to internal process, which
is then what led him to continue his journey for a further 50 years (until
1938).
Another thing that interested me in Chapter 1 was that Stanislavsky’s directing
strategy involved a ‘production plan’; this was created by filling a playtext
with countless details that he produced before the rehearsal process began. I
found this intriguing as, once the production plan had been created, the actors
were forced to carry out his directions unquestionably and precisely. This made
me think about how different this style of acting differs from what I am used
to as theatre lessons at school tend to involve us, as the actors, devising
much our material; this led me to become even more fascinated as I found this
to be a very interesting style of directing that made me wish to read further
in hope that there would be more on this topic for me to learn about.
My final point on this chapter is on ‘Active Analysis’. In this section, the
steps of the rehearsal process are explained; the first step is noted that the
actors should first read the script; the second step involves assessing the
facts of the scene. The second step mentions that assessing the facts involves
asking such questions as: What are the inciting objectives and resisting
counter-objectives? What is the style of the piece? What language do the
characters use in terms of images and rhythms? I found the type of questions that
the actors should be asking themselves to be very effective because by
answering these questions about the characters and the situations, it would
help the actors to understand the play and the characters better therefore
making the play seem more authentic and realistic to the audience when watching
it as a performance. It is mentioned that the actors would then improvise the
scene with their own words; after the improvisation, the actors would then
reread the scene and then improvise the scene again, with their own words. This
exercise appears that it would be very effective as it then says, ‘With each
new improvisation, the actors strove to add more details of the events,
language and images’. This rehearsal process proved to be a success as it later
reads, ‘if the improvisational work had been successful, they found that the
scene had virtually ‘learned itself’’.
Chapter 2
The following chapter focuses on the three
publications written by Konstantin Stanislavsky; An Actor Prepares, Building a
Character, and Creating a Role
(however Building a Character and Creating a Role are described to be
‘incomplete’).
Although this is mentioned in the
introduction and not the main body of the text, an interesting point made is
that a lady named Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood, and her husband, Norman,
translated the book into English. The pair substantially edited the texts; an
example of this is that that the word ‘objective’ was translated into ‘object’.
This is an interesting concept as it leads me to wonder if the English-Speaking
countries were then led to misunderstand the ‘system’ as there were also other
changes made such as the number of questions were summarised as there being
only four questions when in fact Stanislavsky wrote the book to have six.
‘When Torstov suggests to Vanya that he
search for an imaginary slip of blue paper, he illustrates that even the most
simple of objectives, executed truthfully and with a sense of faith can ignite
the inner creative state’. To me, this quote is very good in summarising the
Stanislavsky system. The quote is mentioned in the section, which talks about Chapter 13: The ‘Inner Creative State’;
I feel as if the quote is ultimately saying that if you believe in your
character and your performance, with even the strictest instruction, your
performance will be very successful as it can awaken your ‘inner creative
state’; Bella Merlin, in another book, describes the ‘inner creative state’ as 'one
in which anything is possible, where your sense of play and spontaneity is at
your finger tips. You're so physically relaxed and psychologically
warmed-up that you're open to every changing nuance in your fellow actors, your
audience and yourself. In this state you really are listening'. Also,
Stanislavsky declares that ‘the fundamental objective of our pycho-technique is
to put us in a creative state in which our subconscious will function
naturally’. Together, the quotes lead me to believe that this state in which
Stanislavsky talks about is one of his most important points as I believe this
perfectly describes what makes an amazing performance.
I
will make my final point on this section on the diagram shown in Figure 2.5,
which is described to be an overview of Stanislavsky’s ‘system’.
This diagram gives an overview of what
Stanislavsky believed an actor required in order for their performance to be
successful; I find this interesting as it shows how detailed your inner and
external creative states need to be in order for you to apply it to your
superobjective in order for your character to be successful. Also, this is a
rather complex diagram so it shows the amount of thought and time Stanislavsky
must have put into this in order for it to fully express and conclude his
‘system’.
Chapter 3
This chapter focuses on the process of The Seagull at Moscow Art Theatre. This was a performance in 1898, directed by
Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.
The ‘plan’ of The Seagull was described to be ‘undeniably insightful’. Bella Merlin
states that Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko was the only person who had any faith
in the play as Stanislavsky probably wouldn’t have chosen the play if it wasn’t
for ‘the literary taste and understanding of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko’.
This is fascinating to read about as The
Seagull is now referred to as ‘one of the greatest
events in the history of Russian theatre’. This is incredible as if it wasn’t
for Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko’s
faith in the play.
In ‘The First Impressions’ section, it is
stated that ‘as spectators, we are invited to feel that what we see on stage is
only a ‘slice’ of the life that actually exists in the play’. This is quite an
interesting idea as it then goes on to explain that the audience are encouraged
to believe that once the actors exit the stage, they are still in role and that
they are real people continuing their everyday lives but just not in the view
of the audience. This shows what a revolutionary practitioner Stanislavsky was as
‘realism’ was a very ‘fresh’ technique to use in the theatre in the late 1800s.
Also, it states that Stanislavsky wanted to ‘weave a spell over the audience’
in the sense that he wanted the audience to almost feel as if they were in the
play by using their ‘senses as well as their intellects’ as he used a 10-second
pause to create suspense, and used pathetic fallacy so that when there was
thunder and lightning, the audience would use their intellects to translate the
bad weather into working out that something bad is going to happen in the play.
Stanislavsky was fascinated by soundscapes.
Soundscapes were used a lot in The Seagull. The tolling of church bells are
used on different points in the play for different effects. In the middle of
the play, distant church bells are used to provoke ‘a sense of foreboding’.
However, the same bell is sounded in Act 4 when Nina returns – the audience
then reminded of Act 1 and ‘Nina’s sorry plight’. Soundscapes are used
effectively in The Seagull as they take ‘the spectators on a subconscious
exploration of circles of attention’. The book states ‘The audience are being
capsulated between the inner world of the characters, and the outer world of
Russia’. This is an incredible result of using a soundscape as the audience
then get lost in the play therefore meaning that the soundscape was very
effective. Singing is also used to add textures to the play therefore making
the soundscape as a whole very effective.
Chapter 4
This final chapter is all about Practical Exercises. These exercises
fall into three basic categories – Introduction to ‘round-the-table analysis’
and Stanislavsky’s ‘system’; Introduction to the Method of Physical Actions;
and Introduction to Active Analysis.
Introduction to ‘round-the-table analysis’ and
Stanislavsky’s ‘system’
This section is a mixture of devised exercises with a few of
Stanislavsky’s own. These exercises are basically theatre games, specially
created to be enjoyable as well as being informative.
Relaxation
I am going to use the example of
‘Relaxation’ exercises to talk about the first category in Practical Exercises
- Introduction to ‘round-the-table analysis’ and Stanislavsky’s ‘system’. I
think the relaxation exercises are very important, as ‘Muscular relaxation was
the starting point for all Stanislavsky’s work’.
I think that ‘Exercise 4.3: Working with
TWO given circumstances’ is a very good exercise to warm up your imagination.
It involves two people going up and taking a card each – one with a place name
and one with a time mark (for example, The London Eye at 4am). The partners
will then improvise a scene to work the two cards in. Some actors struggle with
this exercise, as they have to invent a reason to justify why they are at the
specific location at a particular time.
I find that this exercise would be very
effective to get the actors’ imaginations working, ready for rehearsals.
Introduction to the Method of Physical Actions
This section dissects the Method of
Physical Actions, while also supplying a few simple games and exercises
Consecutive
Acts
The exercise in this section that interests
me is ‘Exercise 4.10’. This exercise involves putting your hand into a bath of
water. You must act as if you have no idea as what the temperature is so you
put your fingertips in first, questioning ‘Is this water hot or cold?’, and
then once your fingertips are aware of the temperature, signals are passed
along your arm (starting at the palm, then the wrist, and so on). Then you need
to imagine you have lost something, such as a ring, with value to you in the
water. Would you test the water before or plunge your arm straight in? When you
put your hand back in the bath of water, notice the difference and how you do
not bother to test the water first.
I believe that this exercise shows actors
about different styles of acting; your actions in the scene depending on the
style of scene it is.
Introduction to Active Analysis
Active Analysis is very similar to the
Method of Physical Actions – there is only a subtle difference. Active Analysis
is a rehearsal approach like Method of Physical Actions.
Silent
études
Stanislavsky was very interested in Silent
études. Due to his fascination of them I have decided to talk about Exercise
4.15.
This exercise involves two people standing
in an empty space. First, both actors read the scene and conclude the basic
dramatic structure – ‘What are the inciting and resisting actions?’ ‘What is
the main event without which there would be no encounter?’ The actors then
decide to stand with a certain distance between each other, depending on the
nature of their relationship or the circumstances given to them in the scene.
They then search for a point of contact but this time the space between them
will enlarge or decrease based on the given circumstances.
I also think this exercise is very
effective as through doing this exercise, the actors can begin to understand
their characters more as well as their relationship with the other character.
Conclusion
Through reading this publication about
Konstantin Stanislavsky, I can now understand his ideas further and see how his
‘system’ made him become one of the very first twentieth-centaury practitioners
who actually dedicated much of his life to investigate acting this seriously.
As I have now finished this book, I can now
conclude that I think his system is very effective in the way that it gets
actors to know plays and characters in further detail to make it more
believable instead of actors just knowing an overview/outline.
