Konstantin Stanislavky Summer Work Post

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.