Theatre studies lesson 24/9/13 Subtext

Stanislavski was once quoted "Spectators come to the theatre to hear the subtext." This is very true as the text only conveys so much, it is an actors job to interpret it and create subtext. The definition of subtext is the underlining personality of a dramatic character as implied or indicated by a script or text. In todays lesson we were given four lines:
1. "I'm sorry
2. "Really?"
3. "You know you can trust me"
4. "Thanks"
We were allowed five minutes to come up with a given circumstance, and our teacher had to identify what the situation was. It was difficult to display what the circumstance was as there were only for lines. In he end our teacher was unable to identify the circumstance, as we did not choose the correct  situation for the lines which made it confusing. 

Theatre Studies lesson 20/9/13

In todays lesson we focused on making our performances believable to the audience. We did this by creating a situation in which we had to walk through a door. I chose to create a situation where a man had lost his car keys and was late to work so needed to find them in a hurry. It became apparent that what I was portraying to the audience was not believable and as I was forced to keep repeating myself from the beginning, it was frustrating but I began to understand what our teacher was trying to do. I had to fully believe what I was doing because if I didn't the audience would also not believe what I was doing and that is key in Stanislavski's methods.

Theatre studies lesson 19/9/13

Todays lesson was interesting as we experimented with External and Internal Monitor while also including Inner and Outer Tempo-Rythm. These are two of Stanislavski's methods of helping actors to make their characters more realistic. We practiced Inner and Outer Tempo-Rythm by setting out six chairs in a line, myself and Jack sat on the far two chairs, our teacher told us that we had to move chair by chair until we reached the end, and at that point we would move back in the other direction. Our teacher would tell us how fast or slow we were to move chairs. We did this until he felt that we had got the hang of it. He then made it harder by instructing us to imagine we were having a phone conversation and still listen to the command of how fast or slow we had to move and talk, this helped myself and Jack to become more in tune to our voice and actions. We practiced External and Internal Monitor by using a golf club and a table, this may sound unusual but is was very useful it made us aware of our surroundings and to be able to control certain body parts while relaxing others.