The Routledge Companion to Studio Performance Practice

Franc Chamberlain, Bernadette Sweeney

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000402117
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre Direction & Production

The Routledge Companion to Studio Performance Practice is a unique, indispensable guide to the training methods of the world's key theatre practitioners.

Compiling the practical work outlined in the popular Routledge Performance Practitioners series of guidebooks, each set of exercises has been edited and contextualised by an expert in that particular approach. Each chapter provides a taster of one practitioner's work, answering the same key questions: 'How did this artist work? How can I begin to put my understanding of this to practical use?' Newly written chapter introductions put the exercises in context, explaining how they fit into the wider methods and philosophy of the practitioner in question.

All 21 volumes in the original series are represented in this volume.

1 Stanislavski (1863–1938)

Bella Merlin

DOI: 10.4324/9781003182115-2

Introduction

There are many excellent books putting Stanislavsky’s ‘system’ into practice (see Selected Bibliography at the end of the chapter). So in this chapter, I’ve chosen to craft the exercises around three different areas: Introduction to ‘round-the-table analysis’ and Stanislavsky’s ‘system’; Introduction to the Method of Physical Actions; and Introduction to Active Analysis. The first section is a mixture of devised exercises and some of Stanislavsky’s own, while the second and third sections begin by analysing Stanislavsky’s rehearsal practices to try and piece together some practical strategies.

Introduction to ‘round-the-table analysis’ and Stanislavsky’s ‘system’

The implication of this section is that students sit round a table and analyse a text. Wrong! It’s vitally important that, from the first encounter with Stanislavsky’s ‘system’, actors understand that it’s practical and experiential, not dry and intellectual. Therefore, these exercises are essentially theatre games, designed to be fun as much as informative.

Relaxation

Muscular relaxation was the starting point for all Stanislavsky’s work. So, as soon as you realise that physical relaxation liberates your imagination, the sooner you’ll understand that everything is psychophysical, even analysis of character. Stanislavsky’s own exercises in ‘Relaxation of Muscles’ (Chapter 6 of An Actor Prepares) are very accessible, and are probably inspired by his reading of yoga practices.

Exercise 1.1

Lie on the floor, and work through the body, consciously tensing and releasing each set of muscles from the feet, the calves, the knees, the thighs, the buttocks (then the whole leg), the stomach, the chest (then the whole torso), the upper arms, the lower arms, the fists (then the whole arm), the neck, the face, the whole scalp.

Adopt a series of poses (‘sitting up straight, half sitting, standing, half standing, kneeling, crouching, alone, in groups, with chairs, with a table or other furniture’ (Stanislavsky 1980: 102)). As you adopt each pose, make a mental note of which muscles are involved in the task, and how few are actually needed to carry it out efficiently. Then relax whichever muscles are unnecessarily employed.

Given circumstances

The first component to negotiate in Stanislavsky’s ‘system’ is ‘Given Circumstances’, as these determine most of the choices an actor, designer, director and even marketing manager will make about the production of a particular play. It’s worth remembering that the space itself (in-the-round, street theatre, proscenium arch, black box studio) and the nature of the project (Is it a schools project or a major tour with a big television name in the leading role? Is the design ‘economical’ or does a large budget influence costume and set?) are just as much given circumstances as anything gleaned from the playtext and historical research. The following series of simple improvisations unlocks the importance of even the most basic facts.

Exercise 1.2: working with one given circumstance

One of the two volunteers selects a card on which is written a PLACE.

Having only this one piece of information, you then begin an improvised scene, using minimal furniture or props as required.

Possible places are:

• a mountain top
• your grandmother’s sitting room
• a hospital waiting room
• a café or diner
• a beach
• the head teacher’s office
• a birthday party
• your lover’s bedroom
• a lift or elevator
• a broken-down car
• the edge of a cliff
• a graveyard
• in this very space (classroom, studio, rehearsal room, stage, etc.)
• the foot of the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building
• a railway station

Although the emphasis is on exploring one given circumstance, you also have to engage in limitless attention to your partner and constant adaptation, as all the other given circumstances (who you are, why you’re here, etc.) are invented as you go along. Being this inventive also adds the element of play, as you have to accept what the other actor says, adapt to it and build upon it to maintain a convincing and action-driven scenario. During the first exercise, two discoveries emerge very quickly: that given circumstances are the vital building blocks out of which all plays and dialogues are constructed, and that it’s incredibly difficult to work from only one specified given circumstance. So, another is introduced.

Exercise 1.3: working with two given circumstances

A number of TIMES are written on cards, and two more volunteers are called up.

One of you selects a PLACE card, and one selects a TIME card. So you might find yourself in ‘the boyfriend’s bedroom on Christmas day’ or ‘the top of a mountain in spring’ or ‘the head teacher’s office at 2 a.m.’.

Now justification becomes one of the components with which you have to work: after all, why on earth would you be in the head teacher’s office at 2.00 a.m.? At the same time, you still have to pay limitless attention to each other and adapt to any other given circumstances that you each introduce into the improvisation (e.g. ‘Fancy meeting you here, Grandad!’, or ‘Now, Biggins, what are you doing in my office at 2 a.m.?’).

Possible times are:

• Sunday teatime
• the day World War III breaks out
• 10.30 p.m. – the winter solstice
• Hallowe’en
• dawn
• 2.00 a.m.
• election day
• lunchtime
• now
• ten minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve
• a family get-together or alumni reunion
• 9.07 a.m.

Objectives

Even with the addition of a second given circumstance, actors often find the dramatic action hard to maintain. It quickly transpires that the difficulty is that they don’t know why they’re there, or to put it more succinctly – they haven’t got an objective. So the next stage is to introduce objectives.

Exercise 1.4

Two volunteers select a PLACE and a TIME card.

Then you’re each given a card on which is written an objective. While both of you know the two given circumstances, you’re only aware of your own objective. Often, the more opposing the objectives, the greater will be the dramatic tension, but – more importantly – the harder you’ll have to work to attain your own objective.

Possible objectives could be:

• 1a to make yourself understood
• 1b to get your partner to leave the room
• 2a to undermine your partner’s authority
• 2b to find out the truth
• 3a to lighten the atmosphere
• 3b to arouse suspicion
• 4a to persuade your partner to do something for you
• 4b to disguise the fact you’re a pathological liar
• 5a to win your partner’s affection
• 5b to deflect attention
• 6a to control the situation
• 6b to control the situation
• 7a to find out who the other person is while concealing who you are
• 7b to find out who the other person is while concealing who you are
• 8a to find out if your partner would be a compatible date – maybe, yes??
• 8b to find out if your partner would be a compatible date – maybe, no??

Note that 6, 7 and 8 involve the same (or similar) objectives: this can also produce some very intriguing results. You don’t have to be too obvious with your objective. It’s far more interesting to be inventive and indirect: after all, it’s not a competition, it’s the creation of dramatic tension.

Afterwards, the rest of the group can hazard a guess at each volunteer’s objective.

Inner actions

The tendency with these exercises may be that the spoken word dominates the improvisation. So the next ingredient to add is inner action.

Exercise 1.5

Again, two volunteers select a PLACE and a TIME card.

Then, you’re each given a card on which is written a line of dialogue.

This can be from anything – from Chekhov to Game of Thrones.

For the duration of the improvisation, you can say nothing but the words on the card. These words may be spoken once, or repeated in full or in part, as often as you deem appropriate.

The major rule, however, is that no words other than those that appear on the card can be spoken at any point. This means that your task is to find the precise moment when your line of text fits absolutely with your own inner action and with the silent action existing between yourself and the other actor. So you have to listen to the spatial dynamics between you both as much as to the words that you speak.

Possible lines of dialogue (from Chekhov’s The Seagull):

• ‘You’re so lovely . . .’
• ‘I’m not going to set foot inside this place again.’
• ‘How boring these people are.’
• ‘What’s the matter with you?’
• ‘I’m too simple to understand you.’
• ‘Maybe this is the very thing I needed.’
• ‘I’m not ashamed of my love for you.’
• ‘I’m sorry.’
• ‘I had a feeling we’d see each other again.’
• ‘Shut the window, there’s a draught’.

Possible lines from contemporary plays:

• ‘Touch me and I’ll scream.’
• ‘I want you to come with me but I don’t want you wearing my clothes.’
• ‘You have such beautiful hands.’
• ‘I’m not meeting anyone.’
• ‘I need you to come with me before he gets back.’
• ‘You going anywhere?’
• ‘Is your lover coming today?’
• ‘I’m not perfect, I know.’
• ‘I knew it wasn’t right.’
• ‘I thought I was a bird.’
• ‘Tell me what you want me to do.’

NB: The aim is not to say your own line as early as possible and then think, ‘Phew! I’ve done my bit. Now how’s the other actor going to get her line out?’ The task is to work together collaboratively and attentively, with – of course – a healthy whack of play. It’s important to stress that the improvisation doesn’t finish as soon as the second person has said her line. It may well be that, in the silence following the second line of text, a whole new dynamic unfolds, allowing the improvisation to continue (albeit silently) for some moments beyond the spoken word – or even until the workshop leader chooses to stop it.

For all its apparent simplicity (two given circumstances and one line of text each), it’s an incredibly complex improvisation, demanding great complicity between the two actors. It also unlocks subtext and the action inherent within pauses, as each actor waits to find the moment when their line of text is appropriate.

Actions

Exercise 1.6

To make the previous exercise even more complex but precise, the volunteers each select an ‘action verb’ from another set of cards. This action verb dictates the way in which you have to say your line once you’ve found the moment when it’s appropriate to speak it. The action chosen inevitably gives more information about the relationship between the two characters, and so provides you with a subtext underlying that one line of text. It’s tricky, but it’s fun!

Possible action verbs to be played on each line:

• to shock
• to frighten
• to bewitch
• to reassure
• to amuse
• to provoke
• to impress
• to intrigue
• to persuade
• to charm
• to belittle
• to confuse
• to infuriate
• to soothe
• to uplift

You could also try working with this chart of ‘actions’ which goes from ‘cool’ (on the left) to ‘hot’ (on the right) – and then find your own actions that you can ‘heat up’.

to tease	to goad	to humiliate
to praise	to celebrate	to rave about
to advise	to warn	to threaten
to encourage	to embolden	to inflame
to chide	to guilt	to shame

Sense memory and emotion memory

Much of Stanislavsky’s ‘system’ simply reminds us that we already possess the tools that an actor needs (body, imagination, emotions and human experiences). It’s just a matter of reawakening and provoking those tools so that they’re available to us at any chosen moment.

It’s the same with emotion memory, an element of Stanislavsky’s ‘system’, which can seem rather daunting. And yet it’s nothing more than a part of the matrix of human responses by which we live our daily lives. The following exercise, therefore, is extremely simple (though it does require some preparation on the part of the workshop leader). Through its simplicity, it can access a wide range of emotion...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• 1 Stanislavski (1863–1938)
• 2 Meyerhold (1874–1940)
• 3 Copeau (1879–1949)
• 4 Laban (1879–1958)
• 5 Wigman (1886–1973)
• 6 Chekhov (1891–1955)
• 7 Brecht (1898–1956)
• 8 Decroux (1898–1991)
• 9 Ohno (1906–2010) and Hijikata (1928–1986)
• 10 Littlewood (1914–2002)
• 11 Kantor (1915–1990)
• 12 Halprin (1920–2021)
• 13 Lecoq (1921–1999)
• 14 Boal (1931–2009)
• 15 Grotowski (1933–1999)
• 16 Barba (b.1936)
• 17 Mnouchkine (b.1939)
• 18 Bausch (1940–2009)
• 19 Wilson (b.1941)
• 20 Abramović (b.1946)
• 21 Lepage (b.1957)
• Index