Approach To Acting
There is a story of an actress who had once been in a play directed by Stanislavski. She came to him years after the performances and informed him that she had taken very copious notes on him and his technical approach during rehearsals. She wanted to know what to do with these notes and he replied, 'Burn them all.' The anecdote, whether true or not, is illustrative of Stanislavski and his approach.
Stanislavski believed throughout his life the dictum that an actor should approach a role as directly as possible and then see if it "lives." If the actor connects with the role and the role is brought to life, then a technique or a system is not necessary. In this sense, the actor does not so much become someone else as he becomes himself. This achievement in acting may only happen once or twice in one's life, so the remainder of one's performances require technique. Each individual actor, however, must decide whether or not an approach or technique to their acting 'works' for them in their performance. In essence, his constant goal in life was to formulate some codified, systematic approach that might impart to any given actor with some grip on his 'instrument', that is, himself.
Stanislavski, a man of institution, his own Moscow Art Theatre and its associated studios, was a great believer in formal (and rigorous) training for the actor. His interest in deeply analyzing the qualities of human behavior were meant to give the actor an awareness of such human behavior and how easily falsehoods, or aspects of behaviour that an audience can detect, are assumed by an untrained or inexperienced actor in performance. Stanislavski once insisted that all actions that a person must enact, such as walking, talking, even sitting on stage, must be broken down and re-learned. For example, his book, translated into English as "Building a Character," gives a description of the correct way of walking on stage. Such rigors of re-learning were probably constant throughout his life.
Read more about this topic: Stanislavski's System
Famous quotes containing the words approach to, approach and/or acting:
“A novel which survives, which withstands and outlives time, does do something more than merely survive. It does not stand still. It accumulates round itself the understanding of all these persons who bring to it something of their own. It acquires associations, it becomes a form of experience in itself, so that two people who meet can often make friends, find an approach to each other, because of this one great common experience they have had ...”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“The modern world needs people with a complex identity who are intellectually autonomous and prepared to cope with uncertainty; who are able to tolerate ambiguity and not be driven by fear into a rigid, single-solution approach to problems, who are rational, foresightful and who look for facts; who can draw inferences and can control their behavior in the light of foreseen consequences, who are altruistic and enjoy doing for others, and who understand social forces and trends.”
—Robert Havighurst (20th century)
“Often, when there is a conflict between parent and child, at its very hub is an expectation that the child should be acting differently. Sometimes these expectations run counter what is known about children’s growth. They stem from remembering oneself, but usually at a slightly older age.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)