Stanislavski essay

Kris W 11D

My monologue for drama is centered on a young man, in his teens who wants to become an actor, only to be told by his father that that isnt what he wants his child to do. The monologue is about the teenager trying to convince his father that drama and actor isnt a bad thing, and that he would like nothing else than his fathers blessings. Using Stanislavskis method of acting I will learn how my character is to behave by learning who my character is. In a sense, actually becoming my character in essence which will allow me to display and purvey how and what I (as the character) am feeling at that very moment. Briefly explained, Stanislavskis method of acting are a set of techniques that are used to create realistic interpretations of the characters, the goal being to have a perfect understanding of the motivations and objectives your character has at that exact moment. These techniques are very mainly used in realistic plays, where the current objective would be to show an accurate idea of how a normal life would be. To begin with I will go over my script and look for things that could show and tell me about my character. I will then try to find what my character wants, the goal or the objective of my monologue, I will then discover and think about what is my obstacle. The Obstacle in my monologue in this case would be the father of the character because of his feelings toward me trying to further my interest in acting and not in science, which is what he would prefer to acting and everything that comes with it. After identifying what my goals or objectives are, I will need to figure how I will achieve them. To know when I need to have an objective I will break up my script into beats, which are short pieces of the script that each end with a different objective. The beats signify a change in attitude and temperament in the character and predominantly decide what the character and the actor will behave like next. Using objectives in your pieces of acting is a very crucial element of perfecting it. To know what to do you must be able to feel how the character you are portraying is feeling at that moment in the script and you have to be able to convey exactly and to the point that you are literally becoming the character (or how you would think the character would react). Obstacles also play a large part in the performance because they need a reaction to them, for example in my monologue my character has problems telling his father exactly what he feels he should be telling him, and instead says it only in a way that doesnt show his full intent and this is a problem for a character therefore creating an Obstacle for me and my character to finish or clear past. A part of Stanislavskis system is Motivation. He believed that an actor was affected by the mind or the actors emotions to inspire their actions and the actors motivation was their subconscious will to perform those actions. Motivation in this sense is seen as looking into your, or the characters past to find out and analyse why they have done the actions that have been done in the script. This helps greatly with trying to figure out the character and it makes it easier to be that character on stage because by the time you are getting ready to perform the monologue you will know why he is has done those specific actions and then you ultimately understand why you are doing them on stage. For me I would have to look into why my character likes drama and why he likes acting so much, which is a simple question with a somewhat simple answer. He likes to act because while acting he is able to try out new things, he is able to try out showing emotion and he is able to actually use emotion whereas in for example science you never use emotions to answer what the atomic mass of hydrogen is. So whenever I as my character start to speak about acting, I now know that I must speak about it with as much passion as I can to show just how love-struck he is about performing.

Stanislavski essay

Kris W 11D

Stanislavski had believed that what happened on stage would never be as true as compared to an event or an experience that had happened in real life. He thought that the performance should be a believable one, so that the audience watching the performance would think that its true because of how it has been shown to them. The magic if was one component of Stanislavskis system of acting; it is used to achieve the characters true emotions while acting. This is done by asking numerous questions about the character that will be portrayed and the actors themselves. The Magic If enables actors to place themselves in the same position of the character in the story and the first question they will ask themselves will be What if I were in the same position as my character? This method of the "magic if" had allowed actors to surpass the limitations of realism by asking themselves what would happen "if" the circumstances were different, or "if" the situation were to happen to them. By answering these questions as the character, the performance of the actors would then be believable and therefore be 'truthful in the portrayal of the character. Stanislavski had believed that should an actor complete this system then the desired emotion should be and most probably be created and experienced by the audience. But this system relies on the actors being somewhat different to the character, and not to play the character word for word as then he wouldnt be able to fully understand the motivations and the objectives of the character. By following closely to the principles of discovering objectives and motivations, Stanislavski believed a natural and believable portrayal of the character being learned could be achieved.

Biography "Stanislavski." Untitled Document. Web. 25 Aug. 2011. <http://www.kryingsky.com/Stan/Biography/bot.html>. "Stanislavski's System." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 26 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislavski's_system>. "What Is the Stanislavski Method of Acting?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. Web. 26 Aug. 2011. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-stanislavski-method-of-acting.htm