4/10/13 Relaxation Lesson

What was total relaxation? 
Stanislavski said that an actor must be complety relaxed before they are to perform. He believe that an actor must have complete control of all motor and intellectual faculties and to be able to do this an actor's muscles must be totally relaxed.
Stanislavski's reasons?
Stanislavski's reasons behind this is if an actor is not totally relaxed it will show on stage and make his performance unrealistic.
The problems with it?
The problems with this theory is an actor cannot be totally relaxed before they go on stage as in many cases it is necessary for there to be tension in the muscles as this will help to make their character realistic. Take a ballerina for instance, their whole body is taught at points which help when performing, it gives the fluidity when they move.
Relaxation exercises 
Our first exercise was we were to sit in a chair and imagine what animal is most like to Aston, I chose the sloth as I felt it most related to Aston and his situation, he is slow in his mind, he cannot remember certain details of his past so like the sloth he is slow. We sat for 5 minutes and visualised out animal. Then we were asked to act in 5 stages, first stage was to act 75% animal and 25% human, in this exercise it was all about body language as vocals could not be used, in order to display the sloth side of Aston I was hunched over, my arms were left to dangle and i moved very lowly. The second stage was to act 50/50 half sloth half human, I toned down the dangly arms and hunched back but still kept elements of it. The third stage was to act 25% sloth and 75% human, my acting started to become more natural but the slowness was still present. The final stage was to be 100% human/Aston, I acted in the way that I think Aston would behave, but I still kept the slowness about him. I displayed the tension points in Astons personality by using the sloth and how slow it is, and I related the slowness and almost frustratingly slow to the aspects of Astons personality. The other activity we did was we lay on the floor and relaxed all our muscles, our teacher then talked to us in a very calm manor he explained how all of the lights in the room were being extinguished, as each light was turned of I felt myself becoming more relaxed.