Emotion memory is used to bring back feelings you have already experienced. It requires the actor to open their emotional library and thus should not be treated lightly. It is an intensely personal activity that can take time; therefore it should be considered a private technique. The actor will get better results if they work on it unaided. Occasionally an actor won’t be able to summon a suitable emotion from their subconscious but there is always a certain emotion that can be emphasised and worked on to get close to the desired feeling. Having this realism in emotion is how Stanislavski’s work stood out from the acting of his day. It may seem common sense to us as actors today but it just goes to show how far Stanislavski’s system has penetrated the world of theatre today.
When using emotion memory, what the actor is really looking for is a physical reaction to the relevant emotion. In order for stage truth to prevail the actor must have the correct physical reaction. The key to re-creation of physical actions is to remember the small details of the moment and build upon them to create the whole picture. The answer is in using your 5 senses. Thinking of smells, sounds etc. to bring back the physicality of the moment. The effect of all this is that we find truthful physical action resulting from emotions; truthful because we created them subconsciously. We then recreate the physical reaction when desired by the character. This is a far cry from the declamatory style of Russian theatre as Stanislavski would have known it.
One important aspect of Stanislavski’s teaching that this method highlights is that the actors always remain themselves onstage. Stanislavski himself said that, “the moment you lose yourself onstage marks the departure from truly living your character and the beginning of exaggerated false acting.” He also argues that “The broader your memory of emotions, the richer the material for inner creativity.” However he concurs that no one has sufficient material for all roles so an actor must also observe other people. I think this is among Stanislavski’s most innovative method in that it provides a heightened sense of realism onstage and has contributed greatly to theatre as we know it today.
The next aspect of Stanislavski’s system I would like to outline is Given Circumstances. The given circumstances are the starting point for an actor whenever they are given a role to play. These are the facts that cannot be altered by the actor. They include; the story of the play, events, period, time and place of action, the conditions of the characters life, costumes, props and lighting. If the set is decorated in a certain way or the actor is asked to wear a certain costume you must accept that this is the way your character would do things even if you as a person would not. This works to give the actor a sense of background and a starting point from which to build a character and create a realistic performance. However Stanislavski felt, “all this must be made fuller and deeper by the actor.”
An actor needs to do research. They must fully understand the world in which their character lives, especially if it’s very different from the world in which the actor lives. A person’s psychological and physical behaviour is subject to the external influence of their environment, and an action makes clear what a certain character does in the given circumstances of the play and also why they do it.
Stanislavski suggested that rather than trying to achieve certain emotions the actor should direct his attention to the given circumstances since they are always within reach. He felt that there was a chance that sincere emotions would grow if the actor was sufficiently familiar with the given circumstances of the role in question. All this gives the acting purpose, and as Stanislavski taught, “Always act with a purpose.” This again worked to give an actor a sense of realism in their role creating an entirely new theatre experience for an audience confirming how effective Stanislavski’s system is.
The next aspect of his system that ties in perfectly with the pervious two is the Magic If. Having found the given circumstances of a role, the next step is to supplement the information found with imagination. “If I were in this situation, what would I do?” It acts as a key to unlock the characters imagination. The resulting actions will be true to you as an actor and therefore more believable onstage. By then placing your actions in the context of the given circumstances, you will be able to find truthful actions for your character in which you can believe.
For this to be effective it is vital fro an actor to be able to improve their imagination, in order to play roles further and further away from themselves. To make a character real the actor must use their imagination to fill in everything that is missing, much in the way a child would. They must be familiar with the life off stage, before and after the play, the intricate details of a characters life. Stanislavski often felt it was helpful to do “a day in the life of” your character. The actor should be fully aware of the day to day banalities of that characters existence. As Stanislavski said, “Magic If acts as a lever to lift us out of the everyday world and into the realm of imagination”
On the whole I think Magic If, Emotion Memory and Given Circumstances are Konstantin Stanislavski’s most important and enduring contribution to modern theatre. When an actor studies these methods they may think they are common sense and go without saying but this wasn’t always the case. It is Stanislavski hard work and finely honed system that has infiltrated the modern theatre world and has allowed the Theatre to be used as a moral instrument, which can civilize, increase sensitivity and heighten perception.