Stanislavski method – Basic categories

Action

An actor must always be active externally or internally. One can be immobile but be active psychologically, inner action. All action must have a purpose and be logical.

“If”

This is a magic word which unleashes your imagination which makes the actor become the character asking themselves questions about the character which stimulates creativeness.

“Given circumstance”

All conditions in which the actor works: the plot, the lighting, the people. An actor must become familiar with and a part of his environment.

Imagination

This must be “alert, rich and active” so that the actor can interpret the lines and fill them with the meaning that lies behind the subtext.

Concentration and attention

This keeps the actor focused on what is happening and helps him relax, and helps the audience pay attention to what the actor is telling them.

Relaxation and muscles

Unless tense muscles are relaxed, an actor’s normal mental activity and therefore the spiritual life of the character he portrays, is impossible.

Units and objectives

An actor has various sequential objectives in his role. To accomplish these he must break his presentation into units, each of which helps accomplish an objective.

Feeling of truth and belief

When an actor is carrying out an action uses “IF” and thinks of given circumstance he will not over act and the action will be truthful. Without forcing one’s self he will believe in what he’s doing therefore he would be doing it as in real life.

Quote: “To find… truth, an actor must see, watch, and absorb all possible impressions around him. An actor must learn to be aware of what surrounds him.”  

Emotional memory

Stimulation of actor’s emotion through the recall of experienced ones.

Communication

An actor should hear see and understand what is being said to him on stage and others on stage do the same. If an actor communicates consciously he will get carried away and merge with the character he is playing. Actors must communicate with each other on the basis of a living relationship between people, not by means of memorized behaviour nor formally and artificially.

Adaptation

Actors must adjust to one another on the stage and must creatively adapt himself to inspiration or to unexpected changes. 

Arthur Miller

Arthur miller was born on October 17^th 1915. In his later life after being in the public eye being married to Marilyn Monroe and being under scrutiny by The House of Un-American activities committee which tried to flush out communists (was created 1938 after the cold war). After all of this Arthur had to write under an alias which was Matt Wayne.  

Arthur miller’s work are usually allegories (parallel, saying one thing when you mean something else) for example the crucible has a under meaning of a political witch hunt, from this example we are able to presume that we need to read between the lines when reading his plays.

Many of Arthur Miller’s plays touch on theme of the American dream, in the 1920’s there was more wealthy affluence  and people were able to live freely until the wall street crash in 29 which plunged an extreme amount of people in to poverty and Miller’s parents some of those affected  by the tragedy. The American dream is unrealistic and many people strive for something which they cannot achieve making them feel like they are unworthy.

Miller was influenced by Ibsen who was described as the father of modern theatre working in a realistic time line which explains why in Miller’s plays the narratives are set over days or weeks.