Sunday 25 September 2011

What's a practitioner?


Practitioners

A practitioner, in theatre terms, refers to a figure in the field of performing arts who has, in some was, redefined the area in which they work.  You need to be aware of a whole series of practitioners in order to fully appreciate the development of the theory of the stage.  During classes we will be exploring the work of Stanislavski; this study will be supported if you all have a basic understanding of the practitioners that came after him.

Each of you is to research one of the names on the list below and post a six bullet point overview of their life and work.  

You are not to create the list from the first six things you find out.  Visit a series of sources and decide what six key details you should include to well represent the figure.

Practitioners

Bertolt Brecht
Antonin Artaud
Edward Gordon Craig
Peter Brook
Lee Strasberg
Augusto Boal
Keith Johnstone

Make sure your response is of a decent length and include the sources you use at the end.

Tuesday 20 September 2011

The System


Constantin Stanislavski and The System

 In the early part of the 20th century Constantin Stanislavski, a Russian actor and theatre director, changed the nature of performance permanently.  Once Stanislavski's 'System' had been conceived, codified, developed and practiced it spread throughout the developed world.

Stanislavski's ideas, theories, methodology and pedagogy still underpin all modern performance theory.

As we go through our learning together we will always share the workload.  

You will learn more from each other than you ever will from me, and that is how it should be!

Each of you is to complete a piece of research into one of the areas of Stanislavski's system which are listed below.

You are not to copy and paste; I will put random sections into a clever search engine which will tell me whether you have plagiarised work and where from.

Write about what the term means; what you understand it to mean; your thoughts and opinions on it.

Try to complete all the terms between you.  Feel free to comment on each other's posts.  

Once you have completed 'your bit' keep checking back to see the progress; everyone should check in before the next lesson.


Elements of The System

Communion
Emotion Memory
Given Circumstances
Imagination
Magic If
Objectives
Super - Objective 
Relaxation (of Muscles)
Symbolism
Tempo -Rhythm
Units / Episodes
Through Line of Action 

If everyone does two then we're onto a winner.
No copying and pasting allowed!

Try to take pleasure in the gathering of knowledge.