What skills did Stanislavski think a successful actor needed?
Constantin Stanislavski was really the first to introduce a definite method that can be employed in specific ways for any given role. He revolutionized the way we think of acting and felt that an acting technique is absolutely essential for the actor’s continued growth as an artist.
A successful actor needs three things: a vivid imagination, a desire to perform and a dedicated commitment. Another point an actor should be aware of is, that it is the responsibility of each actor to examine the techniques, and make informed decisions, in order to better his performance. A definite technique is what actors need most and the more talent an actor has the more he cares about his technique.
He uses many aspects in his system to help the actor prepare for a role and the imagination plays the biggest part. The imagination is the formation of a mental image of something that is not perceived as real and is not present to the senses. Every invention of the actor’s imagination must be thoroughly worked out and solidly built on a basis of facts. It must be able to answer all the questions of how, who, why and when. No person on the stage can be convincing without this skill. An actor, when beginning a role, must be able to ask himself how he would act in the situation given by the playwright. This is Stanislavski's "Magic If," or the 'Given Circumstances.' The given circumstances are everything the actor knows about his character and his character's relationships to others on the stage. Imagination is activated by the actor's discovery of these circumstances. The actor must begin to answer not only how anyone would act in the given circumstances, but how and why does his character act in a particular way? As soon as the actor employs the word "if," he is able to enter a new realm of reality, through his imagination. ”Every movement you make on the stage, every word you speak, is the result of the right life of your imagination.” To get a students imagination to work Stanislavski firstly finds out if it is active if it isn’t he would ask them a few questions. If the student responds thoughtlessly, he wouldn’t accept the answer. Then, in order to give a more satisfactory answer, the student must either rouse his imagination or else approach the subject through his mind, by means of logical reasoning. Work on the imagination is often prepared and directed in this conscious, intellectual manner. The student sees something, either in his memory or in his imagination, certain definite visual images are before him. For a brief moment, he lives in a dream. After that, another question and the process is repeated. So with a third and fourth, until I have sustained and lengthened that brief moment into something approaching a whole picture.
