Lesson 1

Lesson 1

In today's lesson we explored different types of Stanislavski' methods. We started by exploring 

Melodrama. A dictionary definition of melodrama is: a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions. Melodrama is usually a type of drama that most audience members can't relate to as it is so exaggerated.

In the 18th century, melodrama was usually a spoken word piece accompanied by music. However by the end of the 19th century, melodrama had died down to a specific genre of salon entertainment: basically rhythmically spoken words. This exercise helped me understand melodrama a lot better and understand that it used to be a very popular genre of theatre. 

After this exercise, we then partnered up and were instructed to stand one behind the other, with the person behind's hand on the other person's shoulder. The person behind then had to describe the most beautiful place they've ever been to and the person in front had to 'paint' the description with an imaginary paintbrush. I described a beach I went to in Hong Kong. We then switched round and my partner had to describe his worst fear while it was my turn to paint. His happened to be spiders. I found this exercise really helpful in aiding the opening of my imagination as when I painted the first spider, I had imagined it to be humongous, like something out of Harry Potter. So this exercise obviously helped me open my imagination. Stanislavsky would always advise his actors to open their imaginations before acting. It helps with getting more and more immersed into your character and the world of the play you are studying.

The next exercise we did focused on naturalism. Naturalist theatre is when the play is very realistic and life like. Stanislavsky wanted to move towards this genre. In this exercise we had to mime making a cup of tea. The first time we did it we had to make it at the same speed as you would in real life. This took quite a while. The second time, we had to take all the unimportant parts out of the tea making, and then run the process again. This is more how naturalist theatre works. This can also be called a slice of life. The sitcom 'The Royle Family' is an example of "slice of life". The show almost runs in real time making you feel very involved. It also shows every day family life which is relatable to almost anyone who watches.

The Magic IF...

The 'Magic If' was a way that Stanislavsky would get actors to use their imagination. Our class split into two groups and one group had to walk around the space and the other group would shout different scenarios such as: What if you just stepped in lava?' The other team would then timely react and act out that scenario. Stanislavski believed that an actor can't fully immerse themselves into their character, but they CAN believe in the probability of events. Even if the events are not realistic or you have not experienced them before, you can still tap in to emotional memory and try and relate to it in a certain sense. 

I found this useful as it helps open your mind and helps you, as an actor, to start believing in the probability of all events in preparation for your character. It was also useful to analyse other actors when they reacted to the Magic If's to see how much each person would immerse themselves and how much they would allow their imagination to take control. During this exercise you had to make sure that you were using a good balance of imagination and level headedness as too much imagination can make it over the top and almost melodramatic, but too little imagination makes it much less interesting for an audience. Linking to this, we also explored how Stanislavski wanted to break away from melodrama which was a very common genre of acting in Russia at the time. He wanted to move into naturalist acting, to make theatre a lot more relatable and realistic.

Given Circumstance

After this, we looked at given circumstances. Kieran sat in a chair, and the rest of us had to make up the given circumstances. Where he was, what time it was, what he was doing, why he was there etc.. We gave a lot of detailed circumstance and Kieran to had to react internally to this. Internally is a key word because as we were studying naturalist acting we had to make everything as if it was real life. I had to do this in an exercise later on in the lesson and I found it difficult. For example, one of my given circumstances was that I had a heavy bag. In real life, I wouldn't have reacted as did when I was on stage, but naturally I reacted as an actor would: I shifted the bag from one shoulder to another and made sure my audience knew that I had a heavy bag. However, this was wrong, as in real life you wouldn't make sure that everyone around you had a heavy bag, you would acknowledge it yourself, and carry on with your life. The purpose of this exercise was to work internally in your head. I found it difficult as more information was given to me as certain bits of information were not as important as others, or another piece of information would be given and it's more important than another but you have to not disregard the other. I found this challenging to balance so much information of different importance.

Circles of attention

We then did an exercise on circles of attention. In a basic description, a circle of attention is the world around an actor. So a small circle of attention for an actor would be: his/her thoughts or things within a very close vicinity around them. A medium circle of attention would be the immediate surroundings: houses nearby, people nearby, sounds from other places. And a large circle of attention could be: the country where the character is, or the location of the character but on a larger scale. Thinking about your circles of attention is very useful for characterisation. You can get a lot of context and personality ideas just from doing this very useful and simple task. 

WANT! DO! FEEL!

Finally, we did an exercise based on this sheet:

We partnered up and were instructed to create a short scene around the lines:

A: Hello

B: Hello

A: You're late

B: I know

Gabriel and I decided that I (A) would be an esteemed meditation teacher, and he (B) would be a budding student who was late for my lesson. We ran through the scene and then were instructed to add objectives for our characters. As simple as it is, it really makes a difference. My character's objective was "to teach meditation uninterrupted". It then adds much more character and meaning to your script. It helped me really connect with my character as you actually have a reason for your acting, the objective.


These are some facts I have about act 4, which is the act I will be studying -

FACTS ABOUT ACT 4 – THE SEAGULL

·      It is two years later than Act Three

·      Masha and Medvedenko visit Konstantin

·      Sorin is in poor health

·      Paulina says she feels sorry for Masha because of her unrequited love for Konstantin

·      Dorn and Medvedenko argue

·      Dorn asks Konstantin about Nina

·      Treplev tells Dorn that Nina had an affair with Trigorin, became pregnant, the baby died and Trigorin left her for Arkadina whom he was with while he impregnated Nina, cheating on them both.

·      Konstantin recounts how Nina played starring roles in summer theatre plays outside of Moscow that moved to the provinces but that she played her parts badly

·      Masha went to see Nina but Nina refused to speak to her

·      Arkadina and Trigorin enter and Trigorin is friendly to Konstantin

·      Konstantin is left alone in his study. He looks over his writing and criticizes himself out loud for being a cliché

·      Nina comes through the window to Konstantin

·      Konstantin professes love for Nina

·      Nina professes to Konstantin her love for Trigorin

·      Konstantin shoots himself