In today's lesson we watched a power point about Konstantin Stanislavski about his life and the environment he was bought into.
I learned that just 7 years before he was born, Russia were still using "serfs" which means slaves, in households of wealthy people, which would have been his parents and family, as they too were wealthy people who owned land and lived in a big house, which in those days in Russia, gave people a massive social status.
I also learned that Stanislavski was in a partnership with Nemirovich-Danchenko who had similar interests and goals as himself and created the Moscow Art Theatre together, which is still standing now.
I discovered he wrote books about acting, which were "An actor prepares" "Building a character" and "Creating a role"
He also wrote a few other books for inspiring actors...
- An actors work on a role
- An actors handbook
- A life in letters
- My life in art
All of which including methods and beliefs he had, and educational information for actors, teachers and inspiring actors.
The powerpoint today gave me new knowledge of Stanislavski, and i will use this knowledge throughout the course, as the more knowledge I have of him, the more I will understand and interpret his methods and ideas.
Exercises from today's class…
Today we took part in two exercises, all were based on Naturalism and status, which are very different but at the same time a good mixture, as the exercises were testing our ability to portray naturalism and to see every bodies individual reactions..
The first exercise was unexpected!
We were all getting on with our lesson and suddenly LUCY announced that she had lost her earrings her sister had bought for her, she was looking for them and asked if we could help her look for them, naturally most people began to help her looking gradually more and more people started looking and opening the blinds in order to let more light in, I found this strange as no body had left the room and they would have been in the room somewhere, I sensed that something was a bit strange but I just got on with it and looked for a little bit, but after a few minutes I did not feel the need to carry on looking as most people were and it was getting a bit crowded around the area she said she had put them. After five or so minutes LUCY and ANDY announced that she had not lost her earrings and that it was an EXERCISE! Initially most peoples reactions were comical and humorous, but it was a very good exercise for actors as the tutors were able to see how every body reacted, and who were the leaders, the accusers and the observers.
We did this exercise a second time round, knowing that it was not real, and I feel it did not work for me personally and most people in the class as we all knew it was not real, so none of us had the energy nor determination to "find the earrings" as we knew it was not true.
I enjoyed this exercise as it was new and interesting, it showed peoples different characteristics and who was the most concerned and who was not, I was one of the few that were not too concerned in all honesty, as in my mind I knew if she had lost her earrings, they would be in the room somewhere as no body had left the room.
The second exercise we were taught today was my favourite so far, as it allowed us to show our acting ability and to also include our own personal emotions into the exercise.
Each person individually left the room and were told various natural scenarios which happen in every day life and just simply had to react to the scenario and portray how it would look as a performance, and personally i included how i would feel in real life, in order to have a sense of the naturalism.
Each person acted the scenario out in silence in the middle of the studio and the rest of us acted as an audience and merely just observed and let our imaginations take over.
A few people started off as just DEMONSTRATING to us what they were doing, but when they did it a second time, it was much more natural and we as an audience found it easier to watch and ultimately more interesting.
MY SCENARIO
The scenario I was given today was that I had just been informed that my boyfriend had been sleeping with my best friend.
This exercise to me was very emotional and actually made me feel sick and scared. As I have a long term boyfriend and I was imagining how it would feel to find this out in real life, and it naturally made me shake and have butterflies in my stomach.
It was very personal to me, and being able to bring this fear and sadness into acting was a good opportunity for me, as it was real and natural reactions and acting, therefore creates good naturalistic acting.
I chose to sit on the floor in the studio, instead of the furniture that was organised for me, as it was supposed to look like my bedroom, but as I felt so saddened and hurt, i chose to sit on the floor. I did not even realise I had sat on the floor, but naturally that is what I would have done, I was just feeling it the whole time as if it were real, and this helps me a lot in my acting to be able to bring my own real emotions into it.
I researched Stanislavski's methods and I read that in some of his performances, he allowed his actors to bring forth their own personal emotions and experiences, in order to create richer and more rounded characters. This is a great method, as it feels real to the actor, there fore it will naturally appear more real to the audience.
I really enjoyed todays exercises, I feel I have learned a lot about myself as an actor, and also about acting techniques which will benefit me in the present and future.
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