Stanislavski’s acting technique has inspired all of the major acting methods developed in America in the 20th century, but many beginning actors still find it difficult to understand. For a quick look at the basics of the “Stanislavski system,” below are four of Stanislavski’s acting principles, each illustrated with a simple acting exercise.
1) Use your imagination to create real emotions on stage
Stanislavski encouraged his students to use magic if they believed in the circumstances of the play. The actors use their imaginations to answer questions such as:
“What if what’s happening in the scene is really happening to me?”
“Where do I come from?”
“What do I want?”
“Where I go?”
“What am I going to do when I get there?”
A simple exercise that you can do anywhere to develop your imagination is simply to observe the people around you as you go about your daily life (for example, on the subway or in a coffee shop). Then make up details about their lives and use your observations to create a biography for each person. The next step is to write the biography of a character you are playing.
2) Action versus Emotion
Stanislavsky encouraged his students to focus on actions rather than emotions. In each scene, the actor has a objective (a goal of what you want to achieve) and you face a series of obstacles. To achieve his goal, the actor divides the scene into beats, each beat being a active verbsomething the character does it to try to reach your goal. Here are some examples of active verbs that can be actions in scenes:
Help
Hurt
To praise
To ask
Let
Hold
Convince
A simple exercise to get used to this way of working is to take a piece of paper and continue this list, adding as many active verbs as you can think of.
3) Relaxation and Concentration
Actors who study Stanislavski’s method of acting learn to relax their muscles. The goal is to use no more muscles than are necessary to perform a particular action on stage. They also work on concentration in order to reach a state of loneliness in public and not feel tense when performing on stage. In this acting technique, relaxation and concentration go hand in hand.
Here’s a simple Stanislavski concentration exercise to get you started…
Close your eyes and focus on every sound you hear, from the loudest to the quietest: a door slamming in the distance, the rustling of leaves on the trees outside, the hum of the air conditioner, etc. Try to focus solely on the sounds, excluding everything else from your mind. The next step is to open your eyes and try to maintain the same amount of focus.
4) Using the senses
Stanislavsky’s students practiced using their senses to create a sense of reality on stage. For example, if your character just walked in and it was snowing outside, they can work on an exercise to remember what it feels like to be outside in the snow so they can get a clear idea of where they came from.
Here’s a quick example of how you would approach that type of exercise…
Close your eyes and imagine that you are outside in the snow, then ask yourself the following five questions:
Do you see? Is the snow pristine? Muddy? Is it shining in the sun? Is it more of a dark and cloudy day?
What do you smell? How cold is the air that enters your nostrils and goes down to your lungs?
What do you hear? Are you calmer than usual?
What do you feel? How does snow feel when it falls on your face? It’s sticky? Powdered? Wet? Do you have cold toes?
What do you taste? Imagine that a snowflake falls on your lips. What does it taste like?
Do you have a dry throat from the cold?
Of course, there is much more to Stanislavski than these four principles of action. Among other things, Stanislavski developed various exercises to help actors build a character “from the outside in” through physical appearance and voice. These techniques are described in his book, building a characterthe second in a trilogy of essential acting books from this great actor and director.