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 just 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. This is the only way to achieve total realism and, to reinforce this.
The actor should draw on his own experiences, wherever possible, to understand and interpret the emotions and events that the character will experience, and the wider the actor's experience of life then the greater his insight and comprehension will be. However, although drawing on personal experiences is often the only way to achieve complete empathy with the role, it is essential that these emotions and reactions become absorbed in the fictitious world of the character itself, and are not just reproduced mechanically, otherwise the illusion of reality will be lost.
Stanislavski's teachings are best defined in the following quotes:
The more an actor has observed and known, the greater his experience the clearer his perception of the inner and outer circumstances of the life in his play and in his part
This work is not done by the intellect alone but by all your creative
forces, all the elements of your inner creative state on the stage
together with your real life in the sense of the play
Therefore, to follow the teachings of Stanislavski it is necessary for the actor to totally immerse himself, body, soul and mind, in the part that he is playing.
Before the realistic drama of the late 1800s, no one had devised a method for achieving this kind of believability. Through their own talent and genius, individual actresses and actors had achieved it, but no one had developed a system whereby it could be taught and passed on to future generations. The person who did this the most successfully was the Russian actor and director Konstanin Stanislavski.
To insure that the actor/actress was to be in character they had to follow these points:
1. To make the outward behaviour of the performer - gestures, voice, and the rhythm of movements- natural and convincing.
2. To have the actor or actress convey the goals and objectives-the inner needs of a character. Even if all the visible manifestations of a character are mastered, a performance will appear superficial and mechanical without a deep sense of conviction and belief.
3. To make the life of the character onstage not only dynamic but continuous. Some performers tend to emphasize only the high points of a part; in between, the life of the character stops. In real life, however, people do not stop living.
4. To develop a strong sense of ensemble playing with other performers in a scene
In his training Stanislavski created something called emotional memory where you would have to recall an emotion you’ve had and put it into action. This proved very effective but could be believed to be damaging so then he used another technique called method of physical actions. Although lesser known, this theory was just a total reversal of his previous work, but a more integrated psychophysical approach.
Here are also Stanislavski’s techniques:
Relaxation
When he observed the great actors and actresses of his day, Stanislavski noticed how fluid and lifelike their movements were. They seemed to be in a state of complete freedom and relaxation letting the behaviour of the character come through effortlessly. He concluded that unwanted tension has to be eliminated and that the performer at all times attain a state of physical and vocal relaxation.
Concentration and Observation
Stanislavski also discovered that gifted performers always appear fully concentrated on some object, person, or event while onstage. Stanislavski referred to the extent or range of concentration as a circle of attention. This circle of attention can be compared to a circle of light on a darkened stage. the performer should begin with the idea that it is a small, tight, circle including only himself or herself and perhaps one other person or one piece of furniture. When the performer has established a strong circle of attention, he or she can enlarge the circle outward to include the entire stage area. In this way performers will stop worrying about the audience and lose their self-consciousness
Action Onstage
What? Why? How? An important principle of Stanislavski's system is that all action onstage must have a purpose. This means that the performer's attention must always be focused on a series of physical actions linked together by the circumstances of the play. Stanislavski determined these actions by asking three essential questions: What? Why? How? An action is performed, such as opening a letter (the what). The letter is opened because someone has said that it contains extremely damaging information about the character (the why). The letter is opened anxiously, fearfully (the how), because of the calamitous effect it might have on the character. These physical actions, which occur from moment to moment in a performance, are in turn governed by the character's overall objective in the play.
All these techniques helped the actors prepare for there roles and perform ten times better on stage then they would have.
