Building a Character by Constantin Stanislavski & Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood

Author:Constantin Stanislavski & Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood [Constantin Stanislavski]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781135855338
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

2

When Tortsov came into class today he said to Sonya with a laugh:

“Well, how is our ‘wonderful individual’ today?”

Sonya answered that the wonderful individual was very well, and as she said it she accented it perfectly.

“Now repeat the same words with the accent on the first word,” proposed Tortsov. “Incidentally, before you make this test I must acquaint you with two rules,” said Tortsov interrupting himself.

“The first is that an adjective modifying a noun does not take any accent. It defines, supplements the noun and combines with it. This rule is implicit in the meaning of the word adjective.

“On the basis of this rule it would seem that you could not do as I proposed and put the accent on the first word, namely the adjective.

“But there is another more powerful law which like the psychological pause transcends all other rules and regulations. This is the law of juxtaposition. On the basis of this we are obliged at all costs to emphasize words in juxtaposition which express thoughts, feelings, notions, concepts, actions, images, etc.

“This is especially true in speech on the stage. At first do this as and how you like. Let one contrasting part be expressed in loud, the second in soft tones; one in high the other in a low voice; one in this or that colour or tempo, the other in a contrasting one. All that is required is that the difference between the two ideas be clear and as vivid as possible. On the basis of this law, if you want to put the stress on the first of your two words, on the adjective, you must have a noun after it which implies a contrast.

“So that the words will say themselves naturally and spontaneously you should think to yourself before pronouncing them that you have in mind not a ‘horrid’ but a ...”

“Wonderful individual,” Sonya took the words quite naturally out of his mouth.

“That’s it, exactly!” was Tortsov’s encouraging remark.

Next he gave one, two, three more words and then four, five, six and more until she had a whole story. “A wonderful individual came here but did not find you at home, so, in a state of distress he went away, saying he would never return.”

But as the phrase expanded Sonya redoubled her accents until she was soon so involved in them that she could not keep the phrases apart.

At first Tortsov was much amused by the distress on her face. Then he turned serious.

“Your panic,” he said to her, “stemmed from your feeling that you must pile on instead of take off the accents. The fewer there are of them in a phrase the clearer it becomes, that is if the few accents are on the key words. It is just as difficult an art to diminish the accents as it is to put them on. But you must learn both.”

As Tortsov was playing in an evening performance he interrupted the class at this point and turned us over to Rakhmanov for a period of drill.

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