Realism & Naturalism (1) - Stanislavski & "After the End"

In today's lesson we started work on naturalistic drama. We discussed Stanislavski and what we all know about him so far; having learned a little bit about him for GCSE and doing a research blog for previous units (http://lornaclarkra.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/stanislavski.html) I already knew quite a lot about him. I really like realism in plays, as the audience becomes engrossed in the performance and feels a connection with the characters (as the characters are believable). I personally think that method acting is not for me, but I do find it helps me to create thorough back stories and assign colours to characters (for example, if the character I am playing is very innocent and naive I may choose white or pale pink, whereas if I was playing a provocative yet mysterious character I may choose a deep red). By assigning colours to characters, I find it easier to snap into role by imaging (or even looking at) this colour before the performance begins (as well as thinking about what has just happened to my character).

We also discussed Stanislavski's three key words to becoming a character:

• Mind: refers to what is going on in the characters mind. To understand this the actor will have to do research - discover (or create) their background, consider relationships and consider what has just happened to them and how it will affect their state of mind. 
• Feelings: refers to what emotions they are experiencing. To make the characters emotions convincing, an actor will have to immerse themselves within the emotion. An actor can tap into their own emotional memory, as it were - for example, if a character has to feel grief, then they can think to when they experienced a loss
• Will: requires you to think objectively. For this, an actor could use Stanislavski's method of "the magic if" - for this, an actor asks themselves a series of questions regarding what their character would do/feel in different scenarios and what would have happened to them had they got to this location sooner/later.

I found this discussion very useful as I will now use these methods, as well as my own colour method and writing exercises (i.e. creating a back story and writing in role), when creating and then developing a role.

We then split into pairs to put what we have learned into practice. Ollie and I were given the first 12 pages of "After the End" by Dennis Kelly. We did a quick read-through and then wrote down the first things that came to mind. We knew the location by reading the stage directions, but we then tried to establish the relationship between the two characters, Mark (M in my notes) and Louise (L in my notes). We then added a little bit of staging (sitting on the floor and making natural movements as and when - i.e. not acting while acting to look as natural and therefore believable as possible).

 At first, we admired Mark for saving Louise and felt sympathy for both of the characters due to the horrific situation they are in. However, when reading it again, we felt a little bit suspicious of Mark due to him avoiding answering questions with a definite answer, seeming worried when Louise states that she remembers "pieces" and that a pub wall "sheltered" them from the atomic bomb explosion... This then lead us to believe that maybe there wasn't an explosion, and Mark had in fact spiked her drink at the pub and kidnapped her. To see if we were right in thinking this, we quickly looked up a brief synopsis of the play, and discovered that our suspicions were in fact true. When we then performed a section of our extract to the others it felt really uncomfortable for us, as we knew what was really happening. However, despite the scene now feeling creepy, I had to play my role in a naive and trusting way (as at this point my character believed Mark) as the audience had to believe Mark as well at this point.

I enjoyed performing this scene, as I enjoy naturalistic drama (though I find it a little bit tricky as I'm used to Musical Theatre and "theatrical" drama!). I enjoyed the challenge of having so many lines that overlap in one scene and having to make each line audible and believable at the same time. I also liked the challenge of having to make my movements naturalistic, whilst having difficult lines to focus on. I was conscious of my movements, as I wanted them to look natural, but consciously thinking about my movement was the worst thing I could do - as I should have just moved without conscious thought and therefore just reacted naturally! I am looking forward to continuing with this script and learning to act as naturalistically as possible.