Constantin Stanislavski's System
Constantin Stanislavski was a Russian actor, theatre director and teacher and profoundly influenced 20th century theatre with “The System”. Throughout he developed this system through a variety of techniques. Although it is complex with several aspects to consider, one of the basic goals of “The System" was to portray believable, natural people on stage as that would create a realistic performance for the audience. During Stalin’s control over Russia, Stanislavski was determined to keep the survival of theatre. At this time during Stalin’s control, works of theatre were heavily influenced by the political voice of the USSR which was represented by Socialist realism. Stanislavski remained a realism follower “until 1970 when there was a movement back towards Stanislavski’s System”. (BBC Bitesize, Naturalism and Stanislavski).
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Stanislavski used different aspects to enhance the process in which actors become their characters for a deeper connection between the actor and the character they are playing.
Here are a few defining aspects. The "Magic If" consists of asking yourself a series a questions based off of "What would I do if I was in this situation.". Re-Education is when actors go through a process of rethinking what they do on stage which could be the way they walk or talk. The use of observation encourages students to observe the use of others’ physical traits. Observing the world around them, actors used imagination by looking at how people react as well as being in a group and alone affects their behaviour. Lastly, emotion memory. Stanislavski wanted his actors to actually feel the emotion that their character would feel. So, if a scene called for a tragedy, actors needed to put themselves in the mindset of the character's situation so that they would more or less experience the feelings of tragedy (sadness) and the same applies to all emotions (happy, surprised, worried, angry
etc...).
Focusing on emotion memory, the technique consists of an actor thinking of an emotion and using their own experiences. For Stanislavsky a way to achieve an accurate impression of a certain emotion, he suggested that performers should look into their personal memories and look back at past experiences where they felt the particular emotion they are using for their character. For example if the character has just been left out by someone, the actor would think back to where they in their life felt left out which allows them to connect to the character and the emotion the character is feeling which results in an accurate performance. However emotion memory does have some limitations. Although it is effective, it needs to be looked at carefully or an actor could lose themselves in their own emotions when they are supposed to be feeling the character’s emotion. This taking away the actual acting and it becomes self indulgence. In Jean Benedetti’s Stanislavski, An Introduction, he states that “ the evocation of past experiences produce negative results - tension, exhaustion, sometimes hysteria” this effects their use of the emotion and may not be so accurate. (Benedetti, pg. 64).
Stanislavski used different aspects to enhance the process in which actors become their characters for a deeper connection between the actor and the character they are playing.
Here are a few defining aspects. The "Magic If" consists of asking yourself a series a questions based off of "What would I do if I was in this situation.". Re-Education is when actors go through a process of rethinking what they do on stage which could be the way they walk or talk. The use of observation encourages students to observe the use of others’ physical traits. Observing the world around them, actors used imagination by looking at how people react as well as being in a group and alone affects their behaviour. Lastly, emotion memory. Stanislavski wanted his actors to actually feel the emotion that their character would feel. So, if a scene called for a tragedy, actors needed to put themselves in the mindset of the character's situation so that they would more or less experience the feelings of tragedy (sadness) and the same applies to all emotions (happy, surprised, worried, angry
etc...).
Focusing on emotion memory, the technique consists of an actor thinking of an emotion and using their own experiences. For Stanislavsky a way to achieve an accurate impression of a certain emotion, he suggested that performers should look into their personal memories and look back at past experiences where they felt the particular emotion they are using for their character. For example if the character has just been left out by someone, the actor would think back to where they in their life felt left out which allows them to connect to the character and the emotion the character is feeling which results in an accurate performance. However emotion memory does have some limitations. Although it is effective, it needs to be looked at carefully or an actor could lose themselves in their own emotions when they are supposed to be feeling the character’s emotion. This taking away the actual acting and it becomes self indulgence. In Jean Benedetti’s Stanislavski, An Introduction, he states that “ the evocation of past experiences produce negative results - tension, exhaustion, sometimes hysteria” this effects their use of the emotion and may not be so accurate. (Benedetti, pg. 64).