Theatre Styles Master Class 2011
Focus: Hedda Gabler
Constantin Stanislavski and the Theatre of Reality
Notes collated and Written by Daniel Betty
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Contents
Pg.3-6
Stanislavski’s System
Pg.7
Stanislavski System Script
Pg.8-12
Basic Principles for Analysing Text and Creating Character
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Activity one
Stanislavski’s System
Duration
This activity will take place over three lessons (45 minutes to one hour will
allow students enough time to complete the task).
Preparation
Teacher is to print off short script for each student and the basic principles of
analysing a text and creating a character. Give both of these documents to
the students and ask them to read them before they come to the next lesson
as homework. Ask them to not memorise the lines or make concrete
decisions, as they don’t know whom they are going to be working with on the
task.
Description of Activity
Lesson One
Write on the board the basic principles of Stanislavski’s System. Make sure
that the students are clear that Stanislavski is a naturalistic style of theatre
and they will be exploring the following terminologies in a practical and
reflective process.
Stanislavski’s System
Truth, Belief and the ‘Magic If’
Imagination
Subtext
Motivation
Relaxation
Units and Objectives
Through line of actions and the Super Objective
Tempo- Rhythm
Emotional Memory
Play Against
Muscular Memory
Given Circumstance
Leave a gap around these so throughout the lesson(s) you can write
outcomes of the practical explorations.
Ask the students to get them selves into a group of four for the lesson. If you
have an odd number create one group of five. Explain to the students that
Stanislavski believed that the Given Circumstance (environment/ evidence of
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your character or setting) was important for the actors as it could initiate
responses, make us feel a particular way and is the world of the actor for that
moment. The more that the student beliefs in this the more truthful the student
will be in their use of space within their given circumstance.
Get each group into their own space within the room and outline the imaginary
space that they will be working in. The group is to discuss what they are going
to transform this space into for their audience by miming a series of actions.
To begin with choose a room within a house like; lounge, kitchen, bedroom or
balcony. Within these spaces there are a number of objects that the students
can create and use within the space. Once they have decided where they are
get them to discuss what and where objects are within the room.
One student is to then enter the room and use one of these objects in their
own way. Remind them that they are trying to be truthful to their action. This
is using their muscular memory and they are to remember what it was like to
read a book sitting on the floor, watching television, lighting the fire or getting
a drink of juice from the fridge. Ask them to live in the moment and not to self
analyse but to commit to the action. Once they feel like they have completed
this action they are to leave the space and the next student is to enter. This
student is to then complete the first persons action and then their own action
within the space. The group will continue in this way until each person has
been into the space and created an action. Encourage the students to not
rush this process and to give weight to each action.
Once each group has finished go to the board and reflect on the process by
writing responses to the Stanislavski terminologies; Muscular Memory,
Imagination, Truth-Belief and Given Circumstance.
Get the groups to go back to their imaginary space and this time we are going
to give the students themes to explore and see how this affects their
performance within this space. Each group this time however is going to
perform for the rest of the class and the teacher is going to guide them
through by giving each student an energy or stimulus before they enter the
scene. Remind the students that they are finding truth by using imaginary
circumstances and believing ‘as if’ events, situations or sensory recalls are or
have happened. Don’t explain the principal of ‘play against’ at this point, as it
should happen naturally throughout this process with one or two of the
students. Make a note when you see this happening in performance and
discuss it at the end of the process.
Get the first group up and ask what actions they played in the space and
where they were in the first activity. Explain to the students that they are going
to do the same actions but the teacher will give them a theme and situation to
project to their audience by using expressive skills.
For Example
Theme
Situation
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Relationships
You have just broken up with your partner and it was your
fault.
You have just found out your best friend has told
everyone your deepest secret.
You are struggling fitting in.
You miss being younger and having no responsibility.
Create other situations around each of the themes to effect their character as
they enter. Encourage them to play the truth. A good way to do this is to
remind them to not show us your emotive state but think it and know it will
come across to your audience.
After each performance get the students to comment on what they saw and to
comment on each of the performances. As Stanislavski’s terminologies are
discussed make notes on the board and draw the students attention to this.
This activity will take the majority of the lesson. Before the students leave ask
them to read through the Stanislavski terminologies again and to read the
script as they will be rehearsing and performing this over the next two
lessons.
Lesson Two
When the students come in ask them to find a partner with whom they will
work with on this scene. Make sure you have a few extra copies as some
students may have left the script at home. Once they have all arrived get them
to go into their own space around the room and start to rehearse.
Throughout the lesson get the attention of the group at times and add to the
Stanislavski notes on the board.
If a pair comes to you halfway through the lesson and says that they are
finished ask to see their performance. If you feel that they could add more to it
offer some guidance. If however the performance is very good let them work
with others to offer direction.
Lesson Three
This is a chance for the students to view each other’s work and for the teacher
to workshop a few groups in front of the class. Give the students at least 10
minutes to rehearse their performance and then get them to come together in
the space.
Watch all of the performances and take notes throughout. Choose two groups
whom you know will feel comfortable being work shopped in front of their
peers and challenged to take their performance further.
Reflective Questions
1. How has Stanislavski’s terminologies helped your understanding of
finding truth of a character?
2. Choose one of the Stanislavski terminologies and describe when you
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applied this to your performance and how it enhanced the character.
3. Have these activities helped you to understand the term naturalistic
theatre? What is it?
4. What was a performance that you thought exemplified naturalistic
theatre and encaptured Stanislavski’s principles? How did the
performer do this? (discuss this in terms of both Stanislavski’s system
and expressive skills of acting).
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Stanislavski’s System
Script
When you are analysing the script please answer the questions in the right
hand column to guide you through the creation of the scene and the
characters. Please memorise the lines and rehearse your performance until
you feel comfortable to perform in front of an audience. Remember even
though you are playing characters you need to find the truth underneath the
lines (subtext) to make your audience believe in who these people are, where
they are (given circumstance) and why they are having this conversation.
Stanislavski’s System
Script
A) That’s nice.
B) Do you think so?
(Silence)
The following is a list of questions to help stimulate
the use of Stanislavski’s System when creating this
scene.

Where are you? – This is your given
circumstance and where your scene will be
set. Use muscular memory to establish the
scene throughout the performance.

What is your motivation within the scene?
– What drives you to be in this scene? How
can you use emotional recall, observation or
the ‘Magic If’ to create this motivation for the
character?

What is your relationship? – Create a
history between these characters and place
subtext underneath the lines. This will affect
how you say the lines in relation to pitch,
tempo and volume.

What are your units or objectives in the
scene? – In other words what are you doing
and can you create a series of internal or
external actions to complete to aide your
character to pursue your super-objective.

Are you playing against an emotion? If so
what are you doing? – This will add another
layer of truth to your performance make sure
there is a logical reason for you to be playing
against this emotion.
A) Well it’s got a certain……
style.
(Pause)
Don’t you think?
B) Do you want to know what I
think?
A) God forbid
B) I think it’s terrible!
A) Do you?
B) Awful (whispering and then
leaves)
A) Oh, I like it
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Stanislavski’s System
Basic Principles for analysing a text
and creating a character
The following is a breakdown of some terminologies used in Stanislavski’s
System to assist students in analysing a text and creating a character. This
system will help the actor make choices about how they will use their
expressive skills to communicate meaning and shape the character.
Terminologies Definition
Truth, Belief
and the ‘Magic
If’
Stanislavski stated that truth on stage was different from truth in real life.
This was an important factor in acting, especially so in realism where the
aim of the actor was to create the appearance of reality or ‘truth’ on stage.
In the Stanislavskian technique, as in most other theatre training
techniques, an actor does not actually believe in the truth of the events on
stage, only in the imaginative creation of them. Indeed, an actor who
honestly believed himself to be Hamlet would be deeply deluded and in
need of psychiatric help. This then posed the problem of creating the
appearance of reality for the spectator. Stanislavski’s answer to this
problem was in the creation of the ‘Magic If.' The actor tried to answer the
question, “If I were in Macbeth’s position, what would I do?” Thus, the
character’s objectives drove the actor’s physical action choices. Through
the stimulus of the powerful ‘if,' an actor could make strong theatrical
choices that would appear to the audience as real, true and believable. In
Stanislavski’s opinion, the actor who had the ability to make the audience
believe in what he/she wanted them to believe, achieved ‘scenic truth.'
Stanislavski defined ‘scenic truth’ as that which originated ‘on the plane of
imaginative and artistic fiction.' This he differentiated from truth that was
‘created automatically and on the plane of actual fact’ (Stanislavski, AAP
128). The success of this scenic truth, according to Stanislavski, then
constituted ‘art’ on stage.
Imagination
Stanislavski likened the study of his ‘Method of Physical Actions’ to a study
of the grammar of a language. He cautioned however, that just as
knowledge of grammar alone does not guarantee beautiful writing,
knowledge of his techniques was only useful to an actor if accompanied by
a fertile imagination. Stanislavski reiterated the use of the ‘theatrical’ and
‘imaginative’ faculties rather than trying to copy reality by rote:
‘There is no such thing as actuality on the stage. Art is a product of the
imagination, as the work of a dramatist should be. The aim of the actor
should be to use his technique to turn the play into a theatrical reality. In
this process imagination plays by far the greatest part.’ (Stanislavski, AAP
54)
Obviously, all the different aspects of the Stanislavski System required the
actor to posses a rich source of imagination. The more fertile the actor’s
imagination, the more interesting would be the choices made in terms of
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objectives, physical action and creating the given circumstances around
the character.
Subtext
An important function served by imagination was to discover and fill in
‘subtext.’ Subtext referred to the meaning lying underneath the
text/dialogue. This subtext would not be spoken, but rather, interpreted
by the actor through intonation, gesture, body posture, pauses or
choices in action. Thus, through the actor’s imagination, the subtext
‘spoke’ to the audience. Stanislavski said:
“Spectators come to the theatre to hear the subtext. They can read the
text at home” (Moore 28).
This reiterated the importance that subtext played in the Stanislavski
System.
The Moscow Art Theatre’s productions of Chekhov’s plays used subtext
extensively. In fact Chekhov’s plays, known for their silences, lent themselves well to the use of subtext. For Stanislavski, subtext added texture
and richness to an action. According to him, even a truthfully executed
action would fall flat without subtext. The spectators would want to be
involved in the causes of the character’s behavior, emotions and
thoughts.
Motivation
Motivation or ‘will’, as Stanislavski called it, was part of a triumvirate, the
other two members being ‘feelings’ and ‘mind.' In his earlier techniques,
he considered these three to be ‘masters’ or ‘impelling movers in our
psychic life’ (Stanislavski, AAP 247). Stanislavski insisted that an actor
was either driven by emotions or by the mind to choose physical
actions. This in turn aroused the ‘will’ of the actor to perform the given
actions. Thus, the ‘will’ became activated indirectly through either
emotions or the mind. The implication here was that the ‘will’ or
motivation was in the subconscious.
Richard Hornby, in distinguishing motivation from objective offers a
plausible explanation. He posits that ‘motivation’ looks backwards into
psychology and the past, while ‘objective’ looks forward towards an
action. Motivation then becomes extremely important in psychological
realism which is based on subtext and hidden meanings. Interestingly
enough, theatrical styles before realism (and before psychology),
Hornby notes, did not use motivation in characterization. Shakespeare’s
characters, for instance, did not exist before the play, i.e., they had no
history prior to the script. Hence, they did not use motivation. The same
can be said for certain avant garde and post realistic drama. In Beckett,
for instance, characters have no ‘motives,' but they do have objectives.
Motivation therefore, is a product of modern psychological influences in
acting.
Relaxation
Stanislavski’s thoughts on relaxation were based on the premise that in
order to achieve control of all motor and intellectual faculties, the actor
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needed to relax his muscles: ‘Muscular tautness interferes with inner
emotional experience’ (Stanislavski, AAP 96). However, his line of
reasoning on this was somewhat unclear. On one hand he quite rightly
identified muscular tautness as the cause for several constrictions in
performance. Some of these constrictions could be loss of fullness of
voice, a ‘wooden’ physical appearance, or the blockage of creativity.
These concerns were valid because actors have been known to ‘clam
up’ through muscular tension. However his suggestion that only when
an actor was totally relaxed, could the performance be any good, is
problematic.
Let us consider his statement for a moment, with regard to ballet, a
highly disciplined art form. When ballerinas appear to effortlessly glide,
leap, pirouette, they are not completely relaxed, but hold certain
abdominal muscles tightly in. They also stretch or contract other
muscles in order to achieve that fluidity of motion. In fact, if they were
totally relaxed, they would lose energy, form and not be able to achieve
their high level of artistry.
Units and
Objectives
Stanislavski developed points of reference for the actor, which is now
generally known as units and objectives. A unit is a portion of a scene
that contains one objective for an actor. In that sense, a unit changed
every time a shift occurred in a scene. Every unit had an objective for
each character. This objective was expressed through the use of an
active and transitive verb; for example, to seduce her or to annoy him.
This active (action driven) objective then had corresponding physical
action(s) that would help to achieve the objective. The objective was
directed towards another person in order to ensure interaction. For
example, to remember or to think would not be valid objectives,
because they could not be directed towards another person. This would
result in introspective and self-indulgent acting, rather than
communication with others on stage.
Through line of
actions and the
Super-Objective
When objectives were strung together in a logical and coherent form, a
through line of action was mapped out for the character. This was
important in order to create a sense of the whole. Stanislavski
developed the concept of the Super-objective that would carry this
‘through line of action.’ The super-objective could then be looked at as
the ‘spine’ with the objectives as ‘vertebrae.’ For example, the superobjective of one character could be to win back the love of the other
character. In order to achieve this super-objective, the first character
would have successive unit objectives such as, to tease her, to please
her, to excite her, to provoke her and to placate her. These objectives,
when strung together, revealed the super-objective; the logical,
coherent through line of action. Stanislavski called this super-objective
the ‘final goal of every performance’ (Moore 49-50).
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Tempo-Rhythm
Tempo-rhythm can act as a powerful bridge between the inner
experience and its physical expression (Moore 41). For Stanislavski,
tempo-rhythm was both inner and outer. Emotions to him had a
distinctive pulse and pattern to them. ‘Tempo’ referred to the speed of
an action or an emotion. The tempo could be fast, medium or slow.
‘Rhythm’ was, internally, the intensity of the emotional experience.
Externally, it was the pattern of gestures, movements and actions
(Benedetti 48). Stanislavski believed that tempo-rhythm was extremely
vital in order to execute physical actions in a concrete and truthful
manner. As early as 1918, Stanislavski understood the importance of
physically and emotionally giving richness to a character through the
understanding and creation of tempo-rhythm. He likened the temporhythms of action to those of music. Just as music had various
movements like legato, staccato, andante or allegro in a continuous line,
so should stage action and speech. This would not only make the
action organic, but also help stir the actor’s emotions.
Emotional
Memory
Emotional Memory requires that an actor recreate an event from the
distant past in order to regenerate the ‘feelings’ experienced at that
time. These feelings, thus regenerated, are then used in the current
acting situation in order to fill out the role with ‘human depth and
personal involvement’ (Benedetti 66). The necessity of the event being
from the distant, rather than recent, past is because Stanislavski felt (at
that time) that time distilled events and feelings, acting as a ‘splendid
filter for remembered feelings.’ Stanislavski believed that the quality of
the actor’s performance depended upon the sincerity of his experience.
This sincere experience went through a ‘time filter’ that transformed the
quality of the experience into a ‘poetic reflection of life’s experience’
(Stanislavski quoted. in Moore 42). On stage the actor lived, not a real
life, but a true stage experience. From this, one can gather that stage
emotion is not the same as emotion in life, because as Stanislavski put
it, on stage it is a ‘repeated’ experience, not a ‘primary’ one. The actor
can stir the needed emotion in him/ herself by remembering a parallel
situation having a similar emotion. This emotion would then need to be
brought out at the exact moment when called for on stage. This
‘evoking’ of past experience was called ‘Emotional Recall.’ Thus,
through rehearsal and training techniques, the actor developed a
conditioned reflex.
Play Against
When exploring the subtext beneath a line Stanislavski believed that we
often played against the truth to imply to our fellow actor or audience
that we were feeling a different emotive state. For example a past
event has made you emotionally exhausted but you portray to your
fellow actors in the present time that you are fine. This added another
layer of truth, as the audience feels empowered as they know past
events and can see how the character reacts to internal problems and
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how it affects their expressive skills as a character.
Muscular Memory
Is how our body remembers and refines body-movement. Stanislavski
believed that our body could recall specific action play whether we had
the props or not and create the action believably for our audience.
Given
Circumstance
The setting in which the scene is situated is called the ‘given
circumstance’. This environment could be shown through set, props or
other stagecraft. It could also be shown using the non-naturalistic
elements of mime.
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