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.
Once you have completed 'your bit' keep checking back to see the progress; everyone should check in before the next lesson.
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.
Imagination:
ReplyDeleteImagination is an important part of the system. Stanislavski believed that an actor must understand the entire plot the the character they are portraying. To truely understand out character we must imagine a life for them, and a plausible at that. By creating a personality and past experiences we can then 'become the role'
Relaxation:
Stanislavski taught that we must relax our muscles and mind. By not using any unnecessary muscle you prevent tension building and the creativity to flow. Relaxation allows the actor to concentrate on the performance.
Emotion memory:
ReplyDeleteEmotion memory is another element to Stanislavski's system. An actor is required to recreate emotional memory that has happened in their past in order to connect with the emotional situation that the character is going through and if the actor has not experienced that type of emotion, then they can use there imagination to do so.
Magic If:
Magic if is an important part of the system. Stanislavki belived that if you took on the role of a charcter for example: an actor had to player some one who was very depressed. And the actor honestly belived themselves that they were this character then they would need mental help. Which is when Constantin Stanislavki created magic if and this then means if you would put yourself in a positon to where imagine what you would actually be like in that situation. Stanislavki's also then belived that if you could make the audience believe in in the theoretical choices the actor made in that situation achieved scenic truth.
Owwww no fair, I'm left with the doozies :(
ReplyDelete(checks twitter for 10 mins)
Tempo/Rhythm-
alright so as far as I understand,
Tempo is basically the speed by which we live our lives.
We are not consciously aware of it but if we choose to think about it consciously we notice that the tempo of our lives rises when we are excited or adrenalin is released into our body from some part of our brain or other, also when we are bored our tempo drops.
Stanislavsky mentions in "An Actors Work page 488"
that it is easier for him to wish someone "good Tempo" rather than "good health".
My personal opinion on Tempo is that it is a good tool to be aware of as during a play Tempo is vital to maintain the audiences attention.
There that should be enough, I'm lazy so i think i'll just be satisfied with the one for now ;)
you guys just take all the ones we have covered ¬_¬ a little unfair you should have done one we have one we haven't then we all could have...
ReplyDeleteThrough line of action (also known as the spine) was suggested by stanislavski as a simpler way of thinking about characterization. Now in this day and age modern people when writing a play with think of a theme and a point of the play before writing it to help figure out some of the characters history to fit in with the theme to help the actors have a better understand of there character. Stanislavski refers to through line of action in 'an actor prepare' and 'my life in art'
Given circumstances can also be tied in with the magic if it is were the actor must take the given circumstances and apreciate it as the truth some circumstances are;
"the play's narrative; its facts, events, epoch, time and setting; conditions of life; interpretation by the actor and director; and, finally, the design element - costumes, lighting, sound," (quote from the bbc website)
sources;
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A5133151
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_line