Konstantin Stanislavski's methods specialize within the form of 'naturalism', and 'the process' in which the actor undertakes, through these methods, inspreparation for a role is actually known as 'the method'.
"A talented actor is only the raw material to unfinished work."
So far we have learned about various approaches Stanislvaski takes/took to prepare one's self - psychologically - for a role. We have learned about the different ego states in which characters, and ourselves as real living human beings, are in. These ego states can change and create the skeletal basis for a character and their behavior. The said ego states are: Adult, Parent, Child and Little Fascist. The Adult state is simply the state of an adult and how they 'normally' act to and around others; depending on who they interact with, linking to the next ego state. A child is, like the adult ego state, is simply acting in the manner of a child. An example of how we could play upon these ego states is the use of voice, especially for the child ego state. This also applies to the Parent ego state and the way they talk to (their) children in a certain manner, which has a subtext when looking at it from a non-child perspective; for example the parent may be sarcastic or condescending towards their child, or at least sound it through their tone of voice. And Little Fascist is the 'little devil' that lies in all of us. The behavior we commit that often seems distant from our usual selves. For example, in this ego state, you - as a real life person rather than a character - may spontaneously say something to someone nastily and when you look back on it later, you question yourself almost in a sense of, "was that really me?" It's the rash behavior and things we say/do in the heat of the moment, that seem far from our 'usual selves'.
We have learned that for every action an actor makes, it must provoke and create a reaction - whether it be emotional, from a character's internal perspective, or physical. To gain an understanding of this in a lesson, we participated in an activity that took use of this idea. The given situation was that the male character was attracted to the female character, in the totally improvised scene. The male actor had to demonstrate this through, not just the contextual qualities of the speech being said but, a physical action - though subtly. The female's mentality was however, the opposite; she isn't particularly attracted to the male, but she's too polite to just tell him straight. The subtlety of the physical action of each character was the proxemics between the two of them, and how both tried to change them in opposite ways. The male wanted to get closer, whereas the female wanted to move away - without the intention of offending and certainly not doing so as the scene plays out. As well as learning and gaining a pure understanding of action and reaction, we also gained an insight into subtext.
We next looked into Units and Objectives - two terms that I was vaguely familiar with from the previous year. A Unit is basically a scene, or a section of a text. An Objective is a goal that you, as the character, have within that unit/scene/section that provokes a mentality towards others; linking to that of action/reaction. A Super-Objective is basically the character's end game, ultimate goal, that they hope to achieve during or by the end of the story. Some characters may meet their objectives and their super-objective, but some however may not - as people do and don't in real life. With this constantly in your head as the actor in character, it's a really useful and effective method of mentally remaining in character and understanding the way your character works; always aware of what they constantly want, what their end game is, etc. It also helps maintain focus throughout.
Another useful Stanislavskian technique is what's known as 'The Magic If'. This can have two similar, but still different, meanings; both with identical uses and outcomes. One instance is 'what if I were this character; what would I do; how would I feel?' This means that you subconsciously bring something of yourself to a character - extremely helpful in being naturalistic when acting. The other instance of the magic if is also, 'what if this happened [to me, as the character]?' Basically it's that idea of 'what if?' You have to pretend as an actor that you have no idea of what comes, because you're a character with no idea of your future; so there has to be a totally constant thought process of various mental possibilities - 'what if?'
