Directors notebook & Stanislavski

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This week we spent time working on our directors notebooks, however we did some practical sessions where we explored Stanislavski.

Tuesday:
In Tuesdays session we talked about the differences between naturalism and realism. This was to understand Stanislavski's methods. Stanislavsi was very into Naturalism and believed that theatre was supposed to depict a 'slice of life.' In his time theatre tended to be practised by inexperienced mediocre actors who had never been trained, Stanislavski wanted to train these actors in order to allow them to become believable characters. In class practised some of his techniques.

  1. We were asked to imagine that we were in various situations such as looking out onto a dessert, on top of a waterfall, in a field picking daisies... 
  2. We were then also asked to imagine that we were in our kitchen/bedroom and the things we did when we had to get up in the mornings. 
I found this task interesting as during the whole thing we were never once asked to act however all of us did. I found that at the beginning when we had our eyes closed it was a lot easier to imagine a setting then when I had my eyes open. I think this was because there were a lot less distractions. I also found that as the task went on it became easier to lose myself in the different scenes, this was probably because I was slowly losing my socialised self and instead taking on more of a character. By the end when we told to imagine our own rooms and houses I found it a lot easier as they were places that were so familiar to me that I could just see them. This task really showed the power of imagination, and how it is really key for creating believable characters and situations, your whole disposition changes due to where you are.

Second task:

  1. We were asked to imagine that we were a watchmaker who had just received a broken rolex.
  2. After a few minutes of individual silent acting we proceeded to do a relaxation exercise where we lay down and relaxed our whole bodies by tensing and untensing muscles.    
  3. After this we got up again and were asked to do the same task that we had previously done before the relaxation exercise. 
I found that the second time I became the watchmaker I moved a lot more of my body, and personally I think I became a more believable character because of this. I was a lot more aware of what every different part of my body was doing and found myself doing different movements from what I was doing previously. I also found myself imagining the space I was in more easily, which helped me to understand my character better. I think the relaxation exercise really helped to get rid of my socialised self and become more focused on the task I was doing. By giving me a blank mind I was able to imagine more clearly. I would imagine that this relaxation exercise is perfect when in rehearsals and you want to be able to step into character. We could use this technique at the beginning of a lesson, if ever we are performing a short piece. 

Third task: 
  1. We were asked to get into pairs and try and transmit a colour to our partner without use of voice or any type of movement. We were only allowed to use our eyes. 
  2. We had to think of a colour and transmit it by staring into the other persons eyes. 
At first I was slightly sceptical about whether this would work however it actually seemed to work (some of time) which was actually quite shocking. This exercise was meant to show that believable acting is not only about stage business but also about 'rays' which is Stanislavski's word for the connection between two people and the ability to make a character believable, for example you could get the same two people to do exactly the same thing the exact same way but one would still end up being more believable than the other. I think this exercise really helped to show this idea. 

Thursday:
On Thursday we spent the lesson talking over some of the things we had done in our directors notebooks. We also talked about how although Katie Mitchells guide to directing is different to Helen Leblique's it is also very similar in many ways. From the first 4 chapters I would say that Katie Mitchells rough guide goes something like this: 
  1. Read the play 
  2. researching any questions you have on the play 
  3. Creating a good knowledge of the historical time of the play 
  4. Timeline of play
  5. List of immediate circumstances 
  6. Researching writer and linking ideas in life to play 
  7. Researching Genre 
  8. Naming each act &scene 
  9. Noting down both characters intentions in each scene and their overall super objective. 
We also started work on the tasks in each chapter. 
 
Friday: 
On Friday we discussed how the theatre that we do is influenced by different areas of our life such as: 
  • Culture 
  • Society 
  • Home 
  • Family 
  • Friends/Relationships 
  • history 
  • School 
  • Interests 
  • activities
We were asked to write down how they affected our work individually, however I found this quite hard as I'm quite used to talking as a group (we) and when it came to finding my own individual reasons I found it difficult. We were then asked to decide which one we thought had influenced us individually the most and which one the least. I chose: 
  • Society (most) - I think the way people act in society and the pressures of society has really influenced my theatre. I find the topic of pressures of society really interesting and found myself using it in a lot of my previous theatre pieces such as my monologues in GCSE. For example in one I explored the pressures put on a teen when at a party. 
  • Home (least) - Mostly just because I didn't really know what it meant as there was a separate one for family. 


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