Explain how one practitioner attempted to challenge the theatrical conventions of his day. Support your answer with examples from his theory and practice.

Stanislavski sought to challenge these conventions when he had finished schooling. Stanislavski believed that acting should be the art that teaches an actor to intentionally produce natural action. He believed that everything to do with acting and set should be realistic to ensure believability, not only for the actor but for the audience to.  We might assume that believable acting is simply a matter of being natural; but Stanislavski discovered first of all that acting realistically onstage is extremely artificial and difficult so he created a system over a period of thirty years called the rehearsal process which he believed took at least a year to complete before performing.

The most fundamental principle of Stanislavski's teaching is that the actor must live the life of the character that he is portraying, he must learn to think like the character and behave as the character would, therefore the portrayal is not confined to the performance but will, to some degree, begin to overlap into the actor's own life. The basis of this approach was that actors must believe everything that is happening on stage. He made this possible by teaching actors to recall their own personal feelings and emotions and use them on stage. Observation was also another key point of Stanislavski's teachings. He believed that studying people and their behaviour was very beneficial for an actor. The more time an actor spent observing, the better actor he or she would become. He believed this was the only way to achieve total realism and, to reinforce this; the actor must also extend this by using his imagination.

Stanislavski developed the fourth wall convention, ordinary the fourth wall was broken, meaning the actors would talk to the audience. But Stanislavski changed so the actors were required to behave as if unaware of the audience, as if the action were taking place in some far off location, the audience merely witnessing the action. Therefore Stanislavski allowed the actors to face their backs to the audience, making the play then became more realistic and more meaningful to those who witnessed it.

Stanislavski believed the design aspect of a production needs as much effort as the acting. He believed actors should wear realistic costumes this meant the designer would research, make sketches for the costumes and if the play was in another country they might have to visit that county to make it realistic. The set was extremely important to him, the set would be extremely detailed and three dimensional leaving little to imagination making it highly naturalistic. The set would also be historically accurate by designers researching the place and period and there would be detailed sound effects and evocative lighting making it seem as if it was real. Sets would have to have meaning behind them and tell a story, if there is a mirror on the wall, the designer must invent a history of where it was bought, by whom and how it has come to be in this particular location. Stanislavski joint directed the play ‘Seagull’ which Stanislavski made a notebook for which proved evidence of how thoroughly he would research for a play as the book was full of stage designs, descriptions of settings setting diagrams of movement and auditory elements like sound effects, phrasings, pauses, tempo and vocal rhythms. Also in the preparation for his production of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ which he directed and played the lead, he visited Venice to research locations and buy fabrics, furniture and props.  He prepared a detailed production plan and made his costume designs for his play by observing people like an Arab he had met in traditional clothing for his country.

Not only did Stanislavski make great changes in his time but he is still very influential today. Most drama schools teach Stanislavski’s method making actors more professional and melodramatic acting only really exists in pantomimes. The audience in a theatre now sit quietly and the lights are off to keep the audience focused so they learn more from the characters while they are on stage.