Konstantin Stanislavski was one of the most influential modern theatre practitioners whose productions were always naturalistic. He believed that actors should inhabit the role that they were playing in order for them to know and understand exactly what their character’s thought processes are, how they think and know the details of their character’s lives on and offstage. To do this, Stanislavski invented various different techniques that could be used in order to create performances the were as realistic as possible.
Naturalism refers to theatrical movement towards the late 19th and early 20th century (France) and is similar to realism in that it portrays real life on stage, however naturalism is a heightened version of realism and takes into consideration that a human character is formed by what they have inherited from their family and their environment, therefore providing the actor with an understanding into the background into their character. Within a naturalistic performance, there will be no reference to the supernatural, for example, ghosts, spirits or gods due to the fact that naturalism attempts to determine underlying forces that are scientific and have a reasonable explanation. This is because naturalistic writers were influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution which suggests that humans were evolved from apes and not created by a God. This theory was heavily suppressed when it was first released as it contradicted the beliefs of the heavily religious victorian society.
In naturalistic performances, close attention is paid to historical accuracy, meaning that costumes, set and props will be extremely detailed in order to achieve a high level of legitimacy. Stage time equals the real time for example, an hour in the theatre equals an hour for the characters on stage, therefore no jumps in time are allowed. The characters are often working class but occasionally are middle class as it is easier to explore disreputable subject matters that were popular in naturalistic performances such as suicide, prostitution, prejudice, disease, sex and racism as they were previously considered taboo subjects that were not appropriate for realistic performances due to the middle social class of the characters that were heavily utilised and explored in realism. When performing a naturalistic play, the actors would speak their lines as if they were talking in normal, everyday speech instead of Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter as it often required an artificial acting style and was not how people naturally spoke to each other.
In a naturalistic performance, a sense of understanding can be created between an actor and the audience as everything that happens on stage could easily happen in real life. This means that the audience may be able to relate to a particular character facing as particular situation as they may have been through similar situations in their own lives, thus creating a sense of sympathy and understanding. However, a naturalistic performance could also make the audience feel excluded as these performances tend to create a fourth wall which separates the actors and their characters from the audience.
“The system” refers to the methods and techniques created and used by Konstantin Stanislavski in order for his actors to execute a good performance and create believable emotions and characters. It requires the actor to use their emotional memory and recall their past experiences and the emotions that went with them and utilise these emotions in order to interpret the way in which their character feels and successfully present their character’s emotions to an audience.
The given circumstances are the environmental and situational conditions that will influence the portrayal of a character in a particular scene or moment. This is the information about a character that you start off with, for example, age, gender, their current situation, their relation to and relationships with other characters.
An objective is the reason for a character’s actions and refers to a character’s wants within a play. Stanislavski believed that each character will want to achieve something by the end of the play, therefore an actor will ask themselves, “what is my character trying to achieve?’, “why is my character trying to achieve this?”, “what does my character gain by achieving this?” So that the actor is provided with a better understanding of their character’s desires, ambitions and the motivations behind them.
Motivation refers to Stanislavski’s belief that everything an actor does on stage needs to have a motive and a goal whether it be a line, a gesture or a movement. In Stanislavski’s model, he combines feeling, emotions and urges with the mind and rational thought to create the will and intention of an action which then leads to an external action being carried out.
‘The magic if’ is a technique that encourages the actor to ask themselves what they would do if they were in their character’s situation. The actor then asks themselves more questions centred around the word ‘if’; for example, “how would I respond if she said that to me?” Or “how would I behave if I was facing these problems”. By asking these questions to themselves, the actor attains a better understanding of the given circumstances surrounding their character.
The subtext is the actual meaning and motivation behind the various lines spoken and actions performed. Knowing the motivations behind each line allows the actor to understand what their character truly means by their words and their actions.
Stanislavski believed that addressing everything to the audience shatters the whole point of acting as it destroyed the presentation of naturalism as one does not look away from the person they are addressing in everyday life. This led to Stanislavski then developing the fourth wall. This is an imaginary wall at the front of the stage, separating the audience from the actors.