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| The Stanislavstree & Stanislavski Techniques |
'Magic if' is a technique that is used to inspire the actor's creative state. For example, What would you do in this situation?' The key to 'Magic if' is to make the actor think about what to do in a situation or circumstance.
Advantage: It helps the actor think about what they would do if they were in a difficult situation or circumstance.
Imagination (Visualisation)
The Stanislavski term 'Imagination' is the actor's capacity to treat fiction circumstances as if they were real, to visualise the details of the characters life specifically, and also to fantasize about the events of the play. Visualisation is the key to turning what is going on onstage into theatrical reality which links to the term 'realism', but if this doesn't happen then it won't be realistic and it won't be acting. The key to using imagination is to connect to your character and create belief that you are them. Doing this will make your acting look more realistic (realism) and also, naturalistic (naturalism).
Advantage: It helps actors to make their characters more realistic and to connect to their character to create belief that they are them.
Disadvantage: It may not make their performance more realistic.
Given Circumstances
Given Circumstances is an important term of Stanislavski's. The environmental and conditional conditions will influence your performance. For example, if I had just got off a 13-hour flight from Hong Kong then this would affect the way I would speak and move. Stanislavski believes that given circumstances should be soon as we are given a script. There are two forms of given circumstances, physical and mental. An example of a physical circumstance is having an itch on your neck and constantly scratching your neck during your performance to show the audience that a bad cough is your physical given circumstance is. An example of a mental given circumstance would be having a craving and a constant need for a cigarette, so you would need to constantly feel your cigarettes in your pockets to show us that a craving for a cigarette is your mental given circumstance. We used this technique in one of our three performances we did. We had to choose two physical given circumstances and two mental given circumstances to include in our performance, and the others would have to guess what our given circumstances were.
Advantage: It helps the actor to make their character more realistic.
Circle of Attention
The term 'Circle of Attention' is a devised theory of Stanislavski, and it is to help actors feel less tense while on stage. This is comprised of three circles that the actor should concentrate on. The actor should start by focusing on a small circle, then extend their focus to a medium circle, before finally moving their focus to a large circle. The circle of attention is also used to separate the audience from the actors concentration and allows the actor to connect to the world of their character.
Advantage: It makes the actor feel less tense while on stage.
Disadvantage: It may confuse the actor about where they need to focus their concentration on.
Subtext Motivation
The term 'subtext' is what is underneath the actual meaning, so therefore 'text' is the actual meaning. We did an exercise in class, where Jamie and Bubu performed some of the script from Gotcha. So Jamie and Bubu had to read the lines and also act how the characters in the script were feeling, and at the end of every full stop we had to say what we thought they were feeling and also thinking.
Advantage: It allows the audience to look at how they think the character is really feeling in the script and what they're thinking as well.
Emotional Memory
The term 'emotional memory' means an actor recalling an event that happened in the past and regenerating the feelings that they had at that time. So these feelings that have been regenerated are then used in the current acting situation in order to play the role with 'human depth and personal involvement'. We did an exercise in class about emotional memory. This involved all of us sitting on a chair with our eyes closed thinking back to an event that happened in the past and how that event made us feel; and we had to choose two of four following feelings that the event made us feel. Those four were: frustrated, sad, cheated or fed up. Another part of the exercise was when we were sitting in our chairs around the room, we had a part of the script with us and our teacher would come round and randomly tap someone on the shoulder and they would have to read part of the script in a voice that showed those two feelings.
Advantage: It allows the actor to use these regenerated feelings to help them in future performances that.
Disadvantage: The regenerated emotions may not fit the character they are acting in their current piece.
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