Becoming a Character

Stanislavskis System

Introducing Constantin Stanislavski

Born in 1863, into a family of performers. He became an actor and progressed to become a theatre director and teacher Became frustrated with the artificial acting style of the period, so developed a new approach to acting: The System.

What is the Stanislavski System?

The

System is a set of ideas, exercises and techniques that an actor can use as part of an intense character development process which strives to make a performance real and not artificial.

Key ideas within The System revolve around:

Relaxation, Concentration, Action, Imagination, Motivation, Magic If, Given Circumstances, Tempo/Rhythm, Emotion Memory, Adaptation, Units and Objectives

Relax, Concentrate and let your imagination come alive

Practical Task: Relaxation Exercise

Imagination
Not a single scene, not one single step onstage must be performed mechanically, without an inner reason, that is without the imagination.

Stanislavski
Practical Exercise: Pretend Bird

Newspaper Exercise: Realism

Whether or not you are aware of what your chosen headline may actually be referring to, your task is to re-enact the circumstances (via actual knowledge or educated guesswork) as realistically as possible. Rehearse and perform the scene for the class.

Things to consider include:

Believable characters Audience empathy with characters Life like blocking of character movement Only one role per actor Realistic costumes Carefully considered gestures Believable use of voice by the actors

Visualisation
Imagination is the actors ability to trewat fictional circumstances as if they were real. Visualisations are the pictures we see in our minds eye. As actors, we use our imagination to visualise everything, from the circumstances of the play, what we want, how we will achieve it, our characters past, to the events of the play.

The 10 Commandments

1. Who are you? 2. Where and when are you? 3. What do you want? 4. Why do you want it? 5. How will you get it? 6. Why do you want it 7. What will happen if you dont get it? 8. What will happen if you dont get it now? 9. What is in your way? 10. What must you overcome?

Visualisation Exercise Reflection

What was effective about your performance? (Did you achieve a realistic scene with realistic characters?) If we had done this task with no tasks before would it have been as powerful or as realistic?