Magic If

Magic If is another one of Stanislavski's excises that help you get into character. Its all about putting yourself in the situation and seeing how your character would react to it. Asking yourself questions such as 'What if I were in the same situation as my character?' and  'How would my character react?'.

From doing this excise I deepened my knowledge of my character, because I had to think about my characters personality and how that would effect his or hers reaction. This made the performance realistic and the reactions more truthful. 

Emotion Memory

Emotion Memory is another one of Stanislavski's teachings. Its all about using your past experiences and emotions and using them in a scene. This makes the scene realist and giving it more feeling.

What We Did

We were given a blank letter and after reading the letter we either felt guilty or angry. Before we performed them we had to focus on a point in are life where we felt guilty or angry, and use that emotion in the scene. This task taught me how hard it is to uncover emotions, then have to put them away again. After watching a few performances I thought the best once's were when people really found a dark place inside, you could see there minds thinking about what is happening and you could see the emotion on there face.

I have decided to use Emotional Memory in my Spoonface monologue as it is an emotional piece. However my other to monologues are not as emotional therefore I might not used this technique. However I will experiment with it.

How to Focus and Block

When performing on stage it is very important not to let outside distractions distract you. As soon as you step out on stage you have to ignore any drama that was happening backstage and focus on performing. You also have to ignore any noise the audience may be making. To do so you can do focus excises, this helps to focus your mind and block out any other distractions.

What We Did

We had to lay on the floor, and tense different parts of our bodies. This focused my mind on how my muscles were feeling and how my body felt. Then we had to try and hear what was happening outside. Then focus our minds on how silent the room was. This really helped me to clear my mind, and focus on my surroundings.

Learning about your character

Everything that has happened to you in your life has made you the person you are today. This also applies to your character. There are many factors that you have to think about when your creating your character.
Stanislavski believed that to play a character naturally you had to become that character. You had to think about all the different factors that will effect your character's personality.

If your given a script, pay close attention to the stage directions. By reading between the lines you will get an idea about how your character acts and moves.
When thinking of your character consider:
1. Age
2. Family Backgrounds
3. Where they grew up
4. Where they currently living
5. How many friends they have
6. If they are single or in a relationship

Stanislavski also believed that an actor should not just play a character, but feel what the character would feel by using there own experience's or stepping into their shoes. This makes the emotions seem more realistic and natural.

Given Circumstance

Today we learnt about Given Circumstance. Given Circumstance is a principle created by theatre practitioner Stanislavski.

Actors would have to think about the environment and situations around them. This influence's how the character would act. For example, if the play was set around Christmas, the actor would have to think about how he would use his body language to show the audience what time of year it is.

What We Did

We were put into groups and had to keep the piece naturalistic. At random we were giving a location to set our piece, we were given a bus station. At the start we had a couple that had fallen out, however to keep it natural, rather than raising our voice's we changed our tone to portray anger.This kept the scene naturalistic because the couple would not want to cause a scene.

We were then given a time and date that our scene would be set. We were given '10 Minutes before Christmas' this changed our scene because we had to think about why our characters would be out late on Christmas Eve. We started the scene the same as before. However I suggested that to give the audience an indication about the environment and the climate, we did this by using our body language.