Studying Konstantin Stanislavski as a theatre practitioner in your classroom? Not sure where to start? Or MAYBE you’re someone who just wants to learn who Konstantin Stanislavski was? I have got you covered.
I have created a digital teaching resource on Konstantin Stanislavski that you can use in your classroom. The resource gives you an introduction to who Stanislavski was on a Google Slide presentation. It is supported by a digital workbook that students can edit on their devices to reinforce what they have learned! I have also provided flashcards on Stanislavski’s methods and a word search of key terms.
Click here for access to this resource.
So, what’s my story?
Why am I here, on the internet, reaching out to fellow drama teachers like YOU….. Let me tell you. I am a high school drama teacher based in New Zealand. I’ve been teaching for five years and I LOVE TEACHING DRAMA – However, being in sole charge of the drama department at my school did prove to be quite isolating – especially as a beginner drama teacher! I didn’t have much to go off of, and asking for advice from other teachers sometimes felt overwhelming. My goal is to support other drama teachers out there on a similar learning journey. I have decided to create all of the resources, planning templates, and lesson plans that I wish I had been given when I first started teaching drama, my Stanislavski Digital Workbook is one of them!
Read this if you’re asking yourself – where do I even begin with teaching Stanislavski’s method?
The following post will guide you through how to teach about Konstantin Stanislavski and his method’s from top to bottom in your drama class. I remember studying Stanislavski for the first time at university – and I remember how hard it was to initially grasp my head around who he was and how to put his ideas into practice. My goal is to make this information as straightforward as possible so you can go straight into implementing it in your classroom.
How have I used Stanislavski’s methods in my teaching?
I tend to introduce Stanislavki as a practitioner very early in the year during our first unit of work. The first unit of the year is usually the drama techniques standard, students perform a scene from a larger play and get assessed on their ability to use the four drama techniques of voice, body, movement, and space in their performance. In the marking criteria it states that the performance should be, “sustained, convincing, and have impact”, using Stanislavski’s principles, students can achieve this criteria.
A View From The Bridge
It is important to use a play that has layers of meaning so that the students can play with character dynamics and bring the subtext to life. I like to use A View From The Bridge by Arthur Miller. The drama teacher at my school before me recommended it to me when I first started, and I have used it in the classroom ever since.
It is nice to start the unit by reading through the whole play as a class so that the students get an idea of the world of the play and where their scene fits in to it all.
Once I have read the play with the class, I usually get the students to work with someone they are comfortable with (as there are some heavy themes in this play) and they choose a scene that they would like to work on for their assessment. If the students are finding it hard to select a scene, I will usually find a few options (3-5 scenes) that they can choose from to narrow it down for them. Once their scene has been selected – we won’t focus on the play for a while but focus on learning about Stanislavski and his principals and do some physical activities.
Later in the unit, we will apply what we have learned to the specific characters and scenes – this helps the students bring believability to the performance of their characters, as well as solidifies what we have learned about Konstantin Stanislavski in class.
Meet the theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski
Facts about Konstantin Stanislavski
Stanislavski was born in Russia. Interestingly, his birth name was Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev but he changed his name to Konstantin Stanislavski when he was 23 years old and wanted to pursue his acting career. Stanislavski was his stage name from 1885 onward. Stanislavski began acting when he was 14 years old. He had wealthy parents who owned a dramatic company called The Alekseyev Circle. When performing, Stanislavski felt awkward and unnatural, it is thought that his acting method’s originated because Stanislavski himself was in fact, not a good actor, and wanted to find a way to perform a believable character. However, this is speculation. Stanislavski went on to be the founder of The Society of Art and Literature in 1888 and The Moscow Art Theatre in 1897. Stanislavski was the originator of ‘believable acting’ as he wanted to create a sense of truth on stage.
Stanislavski’s ambition to be an actor
Stanislavski was primarily a teacher of acting. He was also an actor and a director but was not a playwright. Stanislavski’s family fortune enabled him to practice his art, his main goal was to understand and convey the internal forces and feelings of the characters he was playing. As previously mentioned, there has been a case made that if Stanislavski possessed a natural talent for acting, he may not have spent his life creating the Stanislavski approach to acting. He was the inventor of a defined system to help actors prepare to perform their roles believably on stage.
Naturalism vs. realism
THEY ARE DIFFERENT THINGS! In a few words, naturalism can be defined as, the imitation of surface-level behaviour. Realism is natural truthfulness. Using naturalism, playwrights take on a sympathetic view of humanity. With realism, they take on an empathetic view. It IS possible to create a sense of truthful acting in a scene or play that is surreal. When acting, Stanislavski felt that copying a demonstration of someone else’s work could only be partially successful, lacking creativity and depth.
Konstantin Stanislavski and politics
Stanislavski was a strong believer that the actor should not try and project a political message. Political messages may emerge from the work, but there should be no attempt to compromise the integrity of the production by substituting truthful acting with preaching. In saying this, Stanislavski did promote some of the most socially conscious playwriting in theatre history.
The 9 Principles that I teach in my classroom
1. Emotional Memory
The memories that we have in our life are all stored in the nervous system – they don’t just disappear. Stanislavki’s theory was that if he could train his actors to access their previous emotional responses to real life experiences, he could create an environment whereby the actors weren’t acting their feelings, they were genuinely feeling them. Thus making their performance more realistic and believable for the audience. Stanislavski was interested in finding the triggers for these specific emotions for example touch, smell, or sound, the memory comes flooding back, bringing with it the associated emotion. Emotional memory is an essential part of realistic acting and is the root of where ‘method acting’ originated from.
2. Circle of Attention
The circle of attention is to do with the specific area of focus in which the actor should be concerned. It is the world of the play on stage. The circle can be enlarged or reduced depending on the nature of the action taking place on stage – the actor must control this and not let anything steal their focus. In Brechtian theatre, the actors will occasionally break the fourth wall by engaging with the audience. The circle of attention is in direct contrast to this – Stanislavki wanted his actors to be absorbed in the the world of the play on stage, in turn, the audience members would be ‘drawn in’ to this world.
3. Unit, Objectives, and Obstacles
Stanislavski would break a play up in to ‘units’ each unit would be defined by a piece of action or event. Within each unit, an actor will have to meet a particular objective for the character that they play. Actors must clearly understand the objective of the character in order to appreciate their motivation and play their character with truth. They must recognise whether their objective is achieved within the unit, or whether an obstacle – usually another characters objective – has prevented it from being achieved. Actors are asked, what tasks does your character wish to solve? What do they want? etc. These questions help with the transition between unrealistic and realistic acting.
Activity
Answer these questions about your character:
- Who am I?
- Where am I?
- When is it?
- What do I want?
- Why do I want it?
- How will I get it?
- What do I need to overcome?
Read the script carefully – get an understanding of the character’s needs, wants, and desires
Work out how the character would behave in certain situations.
What’s their objective?
Break the script up in to units – individual objectives leading up to the main objective
What is your character’s motivation?
4. Super-objective and through-line of action
The super-objective is the ultimate ambition of the character and may be linked to their accomplishment of immediate objectives within their units. Stanislavski explained about how the fulfilment of each objective, leads to the next objective as the ‘through-line’ of action. The actor must navigate his or her way through the play using immediate objectives and individual units. The super-objective is not always a certainty, it is often subject to change. To recognise the super-objective is a useful way for an actor to determine the characters ambition and motivation throughout the play.
5. Given-circumstances
Given circumstances are to do with the context of that character – their social, historical, and political background. Knowledge of the given circumstances cannot be achieved without a thorough exploration of the text and a clear understanding of the directors interpretation.
To have an understanding of a characters given circumstances you must do deep research into the character, who are you? Where are you? What are your relationships like? What happened in your life before this play started? Stanislavski believed that the actor’s entrance on stage is not the beginning of the character – but a continuation of the character’s life after preceding circumstances and events.
6. The Magic ‘If’
The idea of the ‘Magic If’ is associated with the actors appropriate and effective use of imagination. What would life be like ‘if’ they were in the same situation that the character is in. It is about ‘walking a mile in another person’s shoes’ and exploring empathetic observation. Imagination must be supported by research led by the director in to the historical details of the situation that the character is in. It is the word ‘if’ that is like a lever to lift the actor from the real world in to the world of imagination and creativity, to believe you actually have to ‘become’ the character that you are playing.
When teaching his students, one of Stanislavski’s most famous quotes was, “I don’t believe you” his students weren’t merely meant to be taking on a role they were to BECOME the role, the Magic ‘if’ helped them to achieve this. This also helped actors if they needed to improvise in character in a believable way.
7. Subtext
Subtext is all about the meaning behind the words on the page. A character may say one thing, but actually mean something else, we can understand their true thoughts and feelings through their tone and the way they deliver the line in terms of the use of the four drama techniques (voice, body, movement, space). Stanislavski was Interested in the idea of subtext as he wanted to create a naturalistic approach to acting. One of his most famous quotes is, “Spectators come to the theatre to hear the subtext, they can read the text at home.”
8. Communion
Communion is all about playing the action to the other characters on stage rather than out to the audience. Before Stanislavski became of influence, melodrama was the way of the theatre. Stanislavski was not a fan of melodrama as it was over the top, not believable, and done in a presentational way to the audience. Stanislavski wanted actors to direct their action toward the other characters on stage. In real life, when we are talking to another person, we only focus on each other, this in turn makes the actors more believable on stage and draws the audience in to the world of the play. Actors must be committed to their circle of attention, the other characters on stage, and the believability of their role. You must hear and understand each other, what do you and the other character want from each other in the scene?
9. Tempo-Rhythm
Every character and person has a natural tempo (or rhythm) that they lean toward. For example, an energetic or anxious person might have a fast tempo-rhythm, while someone who was suffering from depression may have a slow tempo-rhythm. Every situation, relationship, and circumstance impacts our rhythm so a characters tempo can change throughout the performance. For example, even a high tempo-rhythm character might have a slow tempo-rhythm at a funeral. Stanislavski made his students explore what their characters natural rhythm would be, and how this would change throughout the play/why.
Stanislavski’s Introduction Exercises For The Classroom
These activities are centred around the magic ‘if’, relaxation, given circumstances and objectives. I found these activities years ago while I was studying at university – I don’t claim them to be my own, nor can remember where they originally were sourced from. I won’t take credit but will share them below as they have proved effective in my classroom space when learning about Stanislavski. Please leave a comment below if you are aware of where they were originally sourced.
The Magic ‘if’
Walk around the space as (if) you are walking through, water, fog, mud, on the ice, with a sprained ankle.
Student’s can reflect on how their movement changes in these scenarios, their character doesn’t just ‘walk’ they need to use the magic if approach in order to adapt the way they’re walking for believability.
Relaxation
The purposes of the warm up is to relax the voice for speaking/singing, prepare the body and face for moving so that the actor can communicate more clearly, and portray certain emotions and actions within a performance.
It is also to help clear the mind in order to help the actor be more focused, which then also helps keep nerves at bay if the actor is more certain of what they need to do within a performance.
- Lie down on your back with your arms by your sides, palms facing down, and knees bent, with the bottom of your feet touching the floor.
- Begin by taking a deep breath in through the nose, count to four, then slowing release through the mouth. Repeat this ten times.
- Now turn your attention to your feet, and remember to breathe at a comfortable pace. Tighten the muscles in your feet for ten seconds. When finished counting release and breathe.
- Now move on to the calves, and repeat the same exercise again.
- Continue this exercise on every part of the body: the thighs, your lower back muscles, shoulders, upper arms, wrists, hands fingers, neck, and then “scrunch” up your face into a tight expression. And remember to breathe at a natural rate throughout this exercise.
- After this, you should feel quite light, as if you could just drift to sleep. This is something that should be done everyday, in order to reach a state of control over the tension in your body during performances.
Testing the inter-relationship of magic if with given circumstances to aid belief
Find your own space. You are cooking. There is your stove in front of you, saucepans and so on. Now begin.
Who are they? Where are they? – students can decide this
Now start the exercise again, but this time:
- You are an older sibling having to prepare supper for younger siblings. They are fussy; neither eat the same things; Mum, however, has specified they must have a balanced meal…
- You are a busy chef in a popular restaurant at half past ten on a Saturday night. Orders are coming from all directions, it is hot, the noise level is insane…
- You are preparing a supper for a significant other, wanting very much to impress with your capability; your parents are out for the evening, your special visitor is due to arrive in half an hour…
Students should see at the end of this:
- How important detail is to aid belief- The fuller the circumstances, the easier it is to believe.
- How different circumstances will change the basic action and prevent the actor from acting ‘in general’. The first instruction, simply ‘to cook’ will lead to acting ‘in general’. The different given circumstances will dictate how the actor cooks, in quite a unique fashion according to each set of circumstances.
Explain how this exercise needs to be used when studying a text for such directions as ‘Enter Beatrice’. The details of, from where? to where? what time of day? what state of mind is Beatrice in? and so on, will all affect the way Beatrice enters the stage.
Related Articles:
- Master Class
- Britannica
- Drama Classes
- Backstage
- City Acadamy
- Amazon – An Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavski
Still Feeling Lost?
No worries! I have the resource for you! Follow the link to purchase my Konstantin Stanislavski Bundle.
What this bundle includes:
- 14 Google Slides with information on Konstantin Stanislavski
- A digital workbook with guiding questions that can be posted on your Google Classroom page – answers are found in the Google Slide presentation
- Printable flashcards on Stanislavski’s conventions and theories – spare flashcards included for students to write their own questions on
- Printable Stanislavski themed word search
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post, if there is a specific topic you would like me to post about or create a resource for, comment below! I look forward to hearing from you. I aim to help you save time and provide the resources you need to confidently teach drama in your classroom.
you might also like my blog on directing your class play!
One Response
Thanks again!