In todays lesson we focused on Stanislavski's Truth, Belief and Magic 'If'.
TRUTH: -
Stanislavski stated that truth on stage was different from truth in real life. Stanislavski was all about creating the appearance of truth on stage, his actors obviously didn't take what was happening on stage as the truth but rather they had to imagine that what was happening on stage to be true.
The activity: -
Our teacher got a piece of paper and scrunched it up into a ball, he then told us that the piece of paper was a baby bird. We were to pass the piece of paper around in a circle and mention things that we noticed on the 'baby bird'. As we began to pass the 'baby bird' around the circle it was difficult for us to really visualise the 'baby bird' because it was obviously a piece of paper, but as I started to name features of the baby bird such as "Look at how pointy his beak is" I felt myself starting to develop a bond with piece of paper, because I was being so careful and taking such caution in handling it, I generally thought that what I was holding was a baby bird. After the 'baby bird' had been passed around a few times and we had all named certain features, our teacher then took the 'baby bird' dropped it, and with a loud stomp crushed the 'baby bird', this was followed by a long silence as myself and my partner could not believe what we had just witnessed, for a while I was actually upset. I did experience difficulties in this activity, especially when it came to really thinking that what I was holding was a 'baby bird'. But this helped me to understand the theory of truth that Stanislavski stated, because my acting especially when our teacher killed the 'baby bird' was realistic I reacted the same way even if the 'baby bird' was a real baby bird.
BELIEF: -
Stanislavski said that an actor must believe in the words of his character, he did not however say that an actor must believe that he is the character but merely imagine the situation that the character is in.
The activity: -
In this activity I was given an envelop with a blank piece of paper in it. It was my job to open this envelop and imagine what was written on it. I imagined that I had received a letter accidentally from the post man that was meant for the next door neighbour, I tried to act as normal as possible as this was not a big deal, I did however begin to become curious in what could be written inside the letter, I showed this by holding the letter in both hands and turning it over in my hands. Egged on by my teacher and partner I decided to open the letter, but still hesitating in wether or not to open it, finally I came to the decision to open it, as I open the letter itself I did it slowly to resemble a sort of fear of what could be written inside. I imagined that the letter was from the next door neighbours son explaining that he had divorced his wife, I read this allowed and it really helped to have my teacher and partner acting along with me as I could feed of their emotions and responses to the letter and its contents. I did not get time to finnish the rest of the story as I ran out of time. But this activity helped me to understand the importance of belief in acting. Stanislavski's encouraged his actors to believe in the imaginative creation of the situation rather that to fully believe them for two reasons, first it helped an actor to react and behave in a natural way so as to create the effect of realism, and secondly if an actor actually believed that they were a character then they would be mentally ill and need help.
MAGIC 'If': -
Stanislavski created the technique called Magic 'If', this is when an actor asks themselves what if I was in this characters position and how would I behave. By doing this an actor can make theatrical choices that were realistic to an audiences point of view. Given circumstances help Magic 'If' because an actor can take the circumstance and really think how they would react in the situation given.
The activity: -
In this activity we were firstly asked to cook. I am not used to cooking so I just did what I thought was natural, I stood static and started to get ingredients ready, I looked about me to get other things that were necessary for cooking. Our teacher stopped us and said that we must be cooking for a reason, he told us to give ourselves our own given circumstance. I imagined I was cooking for my girlfriend, my acting changed from being static to more lively movement and I tried to look as though I was nervous. Our teacher stopped us again and gave us his own given circumstance, he told us that we were head chef in a three star michelin star restaurant and on that night a food critic was coming. At this point my movements became almost frantic and I was rushing around everywhere, I imagined that I was going around checking on everyones cooking and taking orders at the same time. My voice was not matching my movements and my teacher told me that I had to improve it, so I began to raise my voice more to try and show authority, our teacher then said to us that the critics order had come through, I then made my movements even more frantic and my voice even more louder. When we were told to stop my teacher pointed out a few things that I had done wrong, first of all with the given circumstance as a head chef, head chefs don't rush around the kitchen they have their own little area of work and are not as frantic as I was. The given circumstance did help my acting even though I didn't have the technical characteristics of a head chef, my movement and voice changed completely from when I was just cooking for my girlfriend. I think that Stanislavski thought that the Magic 'If' was so important for actors to use because actors need to be able to put themselves in the characters position and be able to make realistic decisions that an audience would be able to relate too.
What I think is good about this piece of work-
I think that I have given good detail on the activities and what we did.
What needs to be improved-
I think that the definitions for Truth, Belief and Magic 'If' need to be stronger
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