The Stanislavski System Read online

  Most exercises should be done to music.

  1. Sit, stand, walk. Justify everything you do. For example, sit at a window in order to see what is happening in the house opposite. Sit in order to rest.

  2. Stand to be photographed. Stand in order to see better.

  3. Walk to pass the time. Walk to annoy the people who live in the apartment below.

  4. Clean your bureau drawers.

  5. Count the numbers of objects on a table.

  6. You have to leave school because you cannot afford to pay tuition. A friend wants to help you but she has no money. She brings you a valuable brooch. You refuse the gift but your friend insists, lays it on a dresser, and leaves. You walk with your friend to the door. When you come back, you find that the brooch has disappeared. Can anyone have taken it while you weren’t looking?

  7. Burn a letter. First, think why you do it. Then, think what you may have done in a real situation when you had to burn a letter.

  In all improvisations the actor must think in three steps: beginning (exposition), development, and end. Think of your actions, not of your feelings. Do not try too hard, but do not be nonchalant or careless. Be concrete in what you do. Do not do anything “in general.” “In general,” said Stanislavski, “is the enemy of art.”

  Always have an important objective. “Purposefulness connects the simplest (physical) action with the most complex (psychological) action. This connection was discovered for the first time by Stanislavski as the objective nature of the actor’s work, which from beginning to end, in its best or worst manifestations, is the art of action” (P. M. Ershov, Directing As Practical Psychology).

  ELEMENTS

  OF AN ACTION

  The elements described in this section are important aids in carrying out the truthful, logical, concrete action; therefore the “turning on” of an actor’s subconscious, so that he will create intuitively, subconsciously, depends on them.

  The “Magic If”

  Stanislavski did not think that an actor could honestly believe in the truth and reality of events on stage, but he said that an actor can believe in the possibility of events. An actor must only try to answer the question, “What would I do if I were in King Lear’s position?” This “magic if,” as Stanislavski called it, transforms the character’s aim into the actor’s. It is a strong stimulus to inner and physical actions.

  If carries the actor into the imaginary circumstances. In asking, “What would I do if I were …” an actor does not have to force himself to believe that he is such a person in such circumstances. If is a supposition, and it does not imply or assert anything that exists. Through it an actor can create problems for himself, and his effort to solve them will lead him naturally to inner and external actions. If is a powerful stimulus to imagination, thought, and logical action. And, we have seen, a correctly executed logical action will stir the actor’s inner mechanism of emotions. *

  Improvisations (see instructions on pages 22–24)

  1. You are dressing for an important reception. What would you do if the lights suddenly went out?

  2. You have made all the preparations to go on vacation (tickets, hotels, and so on). What would you do if someone at your office called and told you that you must postpone your trip? While building the circumstances, see in your mind real persons whom you know in life.

  3. You are on a train going to an important conference. What would you do if you suddenly realized that you were on the wrong train? Do you know where you are going, whom you are going to see, what for? What if you were a king; a spy; a teacher?

  Given Circumstances

  Given circumstances include the plot of the play, the epoch, the time and place of the action, the conditions of life, the director’s and the actor’s interpretation, the setting, the properties, lighting, sound effects—all that an actor encounters while he creates a role. A person’s psychological and physical behavior is subject to the external influence of his environment, and an action makes clear what a certain character does in the given circumstances of the play and why he does it. The character is built with these actions in the given circumstances. The actor must become so familiar with the environment of the play that he becomes part of it. The nuances and the color of the action will depend on the circumstances which provoke it. Only after the actor has studied the play, the events, and the given circumstances will he be able to select the actions which will involve his emotions and other inner experiences.

  Improvisations (see instructions on pages 22–24)

  1. Put on a clean shirt after a day’s work in a mine. Take your time to build the imaginary circumstances. You may be going to a party, or there might have been a serious accident in the mine.

  2. Pack to go on vacation.

  3. Pack to leave for war. Think of people you know in real life whom you would leave behind. Think hard and build the imaginary circumstances which could arise in real life.

  4. Enter your apartment after a party.

  Imagination

  Since the imagination plays a dominant role in the actor’s task of transforming the story of the play into an artistic, scenic reality, an actor must be sure that it functions properly. The imagination must be cultivated and developed; it must be alert, rich, and active. An actor must learn to think on any theme. He must observe people and their behavior, try to understand their mentality. He must be sure to notice what is around him. He must learn to compare. He must learn to dream and with his inner vision create scenes and take part in them.

  A playwright rarely describes the past or the future of his characters, and often omits details of their present life. An actor must complete his character’s biography in his mind from beginning to end, because knowing how the character grew up, what influenced his behavior, and what he expects his future to be will give more substance to the present life of the character and will give the actor a perspective and a feeling of movement in the role. If an actor does not fill in all these missing events and movements, the life he portrays will not be complete.

  A rich imagination will also contribute when an actor interprets the lines and fills them with the meaning that lies behind—the “subtext.” The lines of the author are dead until an actor analyzes and brings out the sense that the author intended. A simple phrase such as “I have a headache” may mean various things; the person who says it may be afraid that the headache is a symptom of a serious illness; he may want a pretext to go away; he may be hinting to guests who will not leave. The meaning, the thought, the intention, and the gestures of the body are all important—not simply the words. If an actor with the help of his imagination finds interesting meaning behind the words and his body “speaks” before and after the words, his intonations also will be expressive and interesting. “Spectators come to the theater to hear the subtext,” said Stanislavski. “They can read the text at home.”

  Every word and movement of an actor on stage must be the result of a well-functioning imagination. Everything you imagine must be precise and logical. Always know who you are, when your imaginary scene is happening, where, how, and what for. All this will help you to have a definite picture of an imaginary life. Creative imagination will help an actor to execute actions naturally and spontaneously—this is the key to his emotions.

  Improvisations (see instructions on pages 22–24)

  1. In your mind, go through a walk from class to home. Imagine being at home cleaning your room. Follow your logic and closely watch the work of your imagination. You will gradually stop being an observer and merge with the “you” you are watching. You will be in the state which Stanislavski calls “I am,” which means “I live,” “I exist.”

  2. Describe a person whom you have met recently and who impressed you. Try to guess his interests.

  3. Look at a picture of an unknown person. Explain who this could be. Try to guess the person’s profession, what his family is like, what his tastes are; learn to judge from his attire, eyes, hair, and so on. Look at a pictu
re of a landscape; then close your eyes and tell of its mood and of everything you saw in minute detail. Repeat this exercise several times, gradually diminishing the time you allow for examining the picture.

  4. In your imagination, travel around the world.

  5. Quickly make up answers to the most unexpected questions.

  6. You are a member of a scientific expedition. Your plane is out of order. Decide where the forced landing takes place. Use your imagination to develop this accident in the greatest possible detail.

  Do not imagine anything vaguely. Use all possible concrete, consecutive details. Logic and proper sequence will make what you imagine real. As you work on a role, your words will become your own when you have your own vision, your own picture of the events and of the people. You have to achieve a continuous, logical chain of images in your mind, related to the given circumstances.

  In trying to make decisions, you will be led to actions. And a truthful action is the “key” which turns on your emotions.

  Concentration of Attention

  Several decades ago, when actors of the Moscow Art Theater began to study the Stanislavski System, they would spend ten or fifteen minutes in complete silence in order to concentrate. A well-known actress used to put a shawl over her head, and no one dared to approach her lest he interfere with her “concentration.” At that time, Stanislavski believed that concentration was the key to achieving the creative state on stage.

  Following scientific laws, Stanislavski said that an actor must concentrate his attention on stage objects sufficiently attractive to offset the distracting factors beyond the stage. He must not, however, try to forget the audience. For the actor to try to force himself into believing that he is alone, that he does not see anybody or hear anything in the audience, would also be contradictory to the art of the theater. The audience is an important co-creator of the performance. But it is possible to be without fear, to feel at ease, to forget one’s worries and everything that interferes with stage creativeness, and to achieve what Stanislavski called public solitude. * This is possible if an actor gives maximum attention to the physical action and to all that his imagination is able to build around it. A concrete thought, a body expressing it, and a concrete physical action will hold the actor’s attention. Fully concentrated attention depends on the thorough execution of the physical action.

  On stage an actor has to learn anew to see, to hear, and to think, because the natural psycho-physical union is broken and this produces paralysis of his faculties. Actors frequently only pretend that they see or hear or think. If an actor is to be a live human being on stage, his faculties must function as they do in life. An actor’s eye that really sees attracts the spectator’s attention and directs it where he wants. An actor’s eye which does not see takes the spectator’s attention away from the stage. An actor can make himself actually see anything on the stage—a vase, a picture, a book—by building around it some imaginary details which will make it attractive to him. The more an actor exercises his concentration, the sooner it will become automatic; finally, it will become second nature to him.

  At the start of training, it is necessary to practice with an object nearby. The actor must examine it in every detail. He must be relaxed and not make too great an effort. It is his imagination, not his body, that must make the effort to see. There must be no physical tension while he is concentrating his attention on the object. Every action must be executed with the amount of concentration that it would require in life. An inexperienced actor always feels that he does not give enough. “Cut ninety-five per cent,” said Stanislavski. An actor need not try to amuse the audience. If with the help of his imagination he sees the object and his body, the spine, projects his thoughts and feelings, the audience will also be interested.

  To facilitate concentration of attention on execution of physical actions Stanislavski introduced circles of attention. An actor must limit his attention to separate parts of the stage, which he establishes with the help of objects on stage.

  A small circle of attention is a small area that includes the actor and, perhaps, a nearby table with a few things on it. The actor is the center of such a small area and can easily have his attention absorbed by the objects inside it.

  The medium circle of attention is an area that may include several persons and groups of furniture. An actor should examine this gradually, not trying to take it all in at once.

  The large circle of attention is everything an actor can see on stage. The larger the circle, the more difficult it is to keep the attention from dissipating.

  When an actor feels that his attention is wandering, he should immediately direct it to a single object and concentrate on it. When he succeeds and surmounts the difficulty, he can redirect his attention—first to a small circle, then to a medium one, then to a large one.

  As well as learning to concentrate on things he sees on the stage, an actor must learn to concentrate on sounds he hears and on objects in his mind.

  Exercises and Improvisations

  (see instructions on pages 22–24)

  The Stanislavski System follows the laws of nature. In life, concentration is not isolated from the human act. Therefore, concentration should not be practiced separately from an action. Fulfill an action with adequate concentration. Always build the circumstances in which actions are fulfilled, possibly based on an analogous situation in your life. Know what you do, why you do it, where, when… .

  1. Examine any object that is close. Notice its form, lines, color, and any other detail. Then, without looking at it, tell what you remember. Gradually cut down the time allowed for absorbing the object. Build the circumstances. Do the same with an object at a moderate distance; with one far away.

  2. Listen to the sounds in the street in specific circumstances. Tell what you hear.

  3. Concentrate on an object in given circumstances. Gradually direct your attention to the small, to the medium, and to the large circles of attention and then back to the object.

  For a group:

  4. Count together to thirty. Clap your hands once when a number includes or may be divided by three. Then repeat the exercise, but clap twice when a number includes five or may be divided by five. If the number may be divided by both three and five, clap three times. Do the same counting in turn.

  5. All stand. Move the right arm forward, then up, out to the side, and down. Then do the same with both arms, but keep the left one movement behind the right. Then do the same while walking in a circle. After each movement, evoke an image in your mind of what you are doing and adjust your body. The body must express mental processes, thus achieving psycho-physical involvement.

  6. Try to identify sounds behind you (someone sweeping the floor, putting a letter into an envelope, for example).

  While the student actor is learning to fulfill a psychophysical action, his concentration develops. Observe and concentrate on people and nature. Enrich your impressions with music, paintings, literature. Penetrate into another person’s inner world. Try to understand the reasons for his behavior. Practice this in life and do it on stage.

  Truth and Belief

  Truth on stage is different from truth in life. In a play there are no true facts or events; everything is invention. To believe, on stage, does not mean that an actor must practice self-hypnosis or force himself to have hallucinations. An actor who believes that he really is King Lear is emotionally ill. Belief means that an actor treats things or persons as if they were what he wants the audience to believe they are. An actor knows that his fellow actor is not his father or an emperor, but he can treat him as his father or as an emperor. He can treat an object as if it were a fluttering bird. The ability of an actor to make his audience believe what he wants it to believe creates scenic truth. The moments in which he succeeds in this constitute art on stage.

  If an actor while carrying out an action uses logical consecutiveness, justifies everything with the help of the “magic if,” and thinks of the given circumst
ances, he will not overact and his behavior will be truthful. Without forcing himself, he will believe in what he is doing because he will be doing it as in real life. Physical actions without the help of any objects (“with air”) develop an actor’s concentration, imagination, feelings of truth and belief, feeling of the right measure. Such exercises teach an actor to achieve the maximum of truthfulness in his action. Stanislavski considered them as important as scales and vocalisms are for the pianist and the singer.

  A well-executed physical action is especially important to an actor during tragic moments in a play. While concentration on an inner tragic action may lead him to overact and to force his emotions (and emotions are “afraid” of forcing), a truthfully executed simple physical action justified by the given moment and connected with the needed emotion will involve his psychophysical apparatus and make his faculties function: his truthful emotions in the given circumstances will appear, and he will be introduced naturally into the inner experiences of the character he portrays.

  When an actor brings everything he does to the maximum of truthfulness, connects his mind and his body, and feels as if he were doing it in real life, he enters a state of “I am,” where he merges with his role. Even a small untruth in the execution of a physical action destroys the truth of the psychological life. Truthful execution of a small physical action helps an actor’s belief in what takes place on stage.