Creating A Role by Constantin Stanislavski

Author:Constantin Stanislavski [Stanislavski, Constantin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2012-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

*Pushkin, Boris Godunov.

CHAPTER SIX

Analysis

TODAY OUR LESSON began with a placard on which was inscribed: The Process of Studying the Play and the Role {Analysis).

Tortsov said :

“Let me repeat that the best thing that can happen to an actor is to have his whole role form itself in him of its own accord. In such instances one can forget about all ‘systems,’ techniques, and give oneself up wholly to the power of magic nature. This, alas, did not happen to any of you. So we tried all possible means available to nudge your imagination, attract your feelings, in order to get you to put natural, direct, intuitive life if not into your whole role at least into a part of it. Some of this work was successful ; in different spots in the play there were flashes of life. Now evidently we have gone through all the paths of direct, immediate, intuitive approach to Shakespeare's work. What else can we do to produce new patches of light in the places that have no life in them; how can you be brought forcibly closer to the inner world of the characters shown on the stage? For this we need the process of analysis.

“What does this analysis consist of and what is its purpose? Its purpose is to search out creative stimuli to attract the actor, lacking which there can be no identification with a part; the purpose of the analysis is the emotional deepening of the soul of a part in order to comprehend the component elements of this soul, its external and internal nature, and indeed its whole life as a human spirit. Analysis studies the external circumstances and events in the life of a human spirit in the part; it searches in the actor's own soul for emotions common to the role and himself, for sensations, experiences, for any elements promoting ties between him and his part; and it seeks out any spiritual or other material germane to creativeness.

“Analysis dissects, discovers, examines, studies, weighs, recognizes, rejects, confirms; it uncovers the basic direction and thought of a play and part, the superobjective and the through line of action. This is the material it feeds to imagination, feelings, thoughts, and will.

“As you see, analysis has many missions to perform, but in the first instance, at the beginning of our work, it tries to seek out, understand, and put the right value on the most precious pearls, the creative stimuli set in the work of a writer of talent or genius, pearls which have remained unnoticed during our first casual approach to the play. The talent of an actor is sensitive, it reacts to all that is fine; creative stimuli naturally arouse a creative response in him. This response in turn throws areas of light in the dark stretches of the play and evokes genuine, if brief, sensations. These partial sensations serve to draw the actor closer to his role. Thus our first objective now is to seek out the creative stimuli the playwright embedded in his work to excite the actor.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.