The Key Principles of Stanislavski’s Approach to Acting and Examples Using One or More Pieces of Theatre I Have Worked with Reflecting on the Challenges and Benefits of the System.
Constantin Stanislavski was a Russian actor and theatre director. Stanislavski is very famous for his acting system that he developed through the years, known as the Stanislavski system. The Stanislavski system has many steps/elements to help an actor prepare a role. The steps are, units and objectives, magic if, before and after, emotional memory, motivation, and subtext. Stanislavski thought that with these steps the actor would be able to prepare a role that was true and realistic, and in turn would help create a realistic play.
Units and objectives is an important part of the Stanislavski system, in this element you were to create bit objectives, what you’re trying to achieve within a certain section of text, unit objectives, what you’re trying to achieve in a certain scene within a play, and a super objective, what your main goal as a character in a play is. These objectives are used to help create focus for your character and internalize what the character is trying to achieve, which helps you get yourself into the character’s shoes. I used this part of the Stanislavski system during my monologue; we sat down together and took about 10 minutes to write out our bit objectives, unit objectives, and super objective. I found the unit and bit objectives easy, however my bit objectives turned out a little more like subtext when they could have been broader. I found determining the super objective in this case a tad more difficult because I had not read the entire play at that point and I did not understand my character very well at that time.
The magic if is another big role in the Stanislavski system. With the magic if you are to imagine yourself in the situation your character is in so that you can accurately portray how the character would react. Although this sounds like a fairly simple element and easy to grasp, actors can often find it difficult to imagine their selves in the character’s situation because it might be completely different than a situation
Units and objectives is an important part of the Stanislavski system, in this element you were to create bit objectives, what you’re trying to achieve within a certain section of text, unit objectives, what you’re trying to achieve in a certain scene within a play, and a super objective, what your main goal as a character in a play is. These objectives are used to help create focus for your character and internalize what the character is trying to achieve, which helps you get yourself into the character’s shoes. I used this part of the Stanislavski system during my monologue; we sat down together and took about 10 minutes to write out our bit objectives, unit objectives, and super objective. I found the unit and bit objectives easy, however my bit objectives turned out a little more like subtext when they could have been broader. I found determining the super objective in this case a tad more difficult because I had not read the entire play at that point and I did not understand my character very well at that time.
The magic if is another big role in the Stanislavski system. With the magic if you are to imagine yourself in the situation your character is in so that you can accurately portray how the character would react. Although this sounds like a fairly simple element and easy to grasp, actors can often find it difficult to imagine their selves in the character’s situation because it might be completely different than a situation