how integrate what I already use?

beta.vtheatre.net -- new generation of pages [Web2.0]?

list of directors on my Directing Theatre webpages :

• The Russians
•  * Meyerhold
•  * Stanislavsky
•  * Lubimov
•  * Tairov
•  * Vakhtangov

[ special unit for online use? ]

vids = web-video = clips

• I have to figure out how to use "social bookmarking" for having links by categoris -- Summer Tasks

web.vtheatre.net & classes [ without anatoly ]

Nothing is done about Caligari'09 !!!

  There are some useful blogs/posts/groups I donot know how incorporate ...

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The Method of Physical Action

Below is a summary description of the steps of the 'Method of Physical Action' as introduced by Stanislavski and as it has evolved over the years into modern theatre in my own words using the technical terms.  Please note that these ideas pertain to the notion of the 'Realism' style of theatre where the goal is to recreate a performance with similarities to our true behavior patterns as humans.  This is not what is commonly referred to as 'Method Acting,' which is commonly confused by being associated with the teaching of Stanislavski.  'Method Acting' is actually the opposite in many ways to the 'Method of Physical Action' and was introduced by a student of Stanislavski’s who wanted to focus on the psychology and emotion of the moment.  The 'Method of Physical Action' is what is generally taught today in most academic settings with some small variations from institute to institute.

 

"The day that I stop having butterflies before I go on is the day I stop doing theatre."

 

Given Circumstances

Always be able to answer these questions:

-Who is your character? (Character Definition)

-What is your character's objective? (Motivation)

-Why do they want that? (Justification)

-Where are they? (Setting)

-When is this? (Setting)

 

Relax

If you are not relaxed, you bring yourself onto the stage with you.  All of your personal and external factors are with you on stage, your inhibitions and tension.  You are not free to be an alternate character in an alternate world.  It is impossible to get 'into character' and into the scene without being relaxed.  Relaxing is the first step towards acting.

 

Focus

Focus is what allows you to be in a scene, to concentrate on the action involved.  You're focus must be divided between lines, blocking, character, technical details and finally the scene.  The previous items should only consume a maximum of 20% of your focus, allowing you to devote at least 80% of your focus to the scene work.  Anything less than 80% is dangerous.  The more that your lines, blocking and character become second nature, the more you can focus on the scene at hand.  A weak focus or poor attention span from external distractions is also dangerous and will affect your performance.  The more of your focus you can devote to the scene, the better the performance every time.  Try to eliminate distractions and sharpen your focus.  Relaxing will help to achieve this as well.

 

Communicate

It doesn't matter how focused or relaxed you are, how great your actions and character is if this can't be communicated to an audience.  Projection, pacing, speech patterns, articulation and even blocking are all technical factors that help communicate a message to an audience.

 

Character

Character is very important but low on the development steps of creating a good scene and ultimately a good performance and show.  A character is defined by both the physical (age, height, race, inabilities, deformities etc.) and psychological (morals, beliefs, attitudes, hopes, fears) factors.  General character development includes the walk, the disposition, attitudes and hopes, accents and other generic environmental factors.  A character is then further defined by their actions and reactions to stimulus.  These types of things need to be mastered early on in the process however, because like lines and blocking, an actor's 'character' is not something that should be thought about during a scene and should not take up any focus, but just done as though it were second nature.  Remember that defining a character is defining a set of limiting factors.  At the onset, a character trying to get around an obstacle can make any conceivable adjustment in the world at all to achieve their means.  As we continue to define our character, we are really defining not 'what my character does', but 'what my character does not do'.  "My character can't do 'x', 'y', or 'z', so he generally does 'n'.  Developing a great character can only take you so far however in the context of the show.

 

Justification

No person does something for nothing.  'Because the director told me to' is never a good enough reason to do something on the stage and certainly should not be you're character's response.  At every turn a character wants something.  Even when they are giving to someone else, they want the satisfaction of being somebody who does good things.  At every moment your character is vying for something, trying to get something, to achieve some objective.  The golden-objective of every character (beyond the scope of the script) is 'happiness'.  The super-objective is the ruling goal the character's trying to achieve throughout the script.  Each scene has its own objective which can be broken down further into beats or 'steps towards achieving a scene's objective' that can be described as the character's intention.  Each of these larger-to-smaller character 'wants' are considered to be the character's motivation.  Intention is the justification of the actions character within a scene. 

 

A beat can only be changed by one of three things: the character 'wins' or obtains their goal; the character has definitely lost their goal; something more important has come along and the current beat is interrupted; each of these results in a beat change.  When beat is won it's time for the character to move on to the next step in achieving their larger goal. An example is when the character needs to steal something and they've obtained the item, now they need to use that item. When the beat is lost the character will need adjust the steps in their larger goal to accommodate the loss.  An example might be trying to get to a location first to impress some girl.  If the character got their second, they will never be able to be first (without altering time and space).  The character will need to do something else to impress the girl. When something interrupts the beat, something more important has come along.  An example is when trying to steal an item; the character hears a door close down the hall.  Suddenly, it's more important that the character hide. At each beat change a character will experience a discovery.

 

Conflict

As each character within a scene strives towards their own intentions within each beat they will inevitably run into obstacles whether physical (both human and inert) or psychological. The character will then make an adjustment to try to get around the obstacle.  For example, in trying to get someone's attention, the first time you might just say their name; if they don't hear you (an obstacle), you might say their name again.  If they still don't hear you you'll need to make an adjustment around the fact that they didn't/can't/won't hear you.  So, you might say their name a little louder.  Then you might start flailing your arms, then banging stuff.  Finally, maybe throwing something at them or somehow physically accosting them.  This introduces conflict and it is conflict that an audience has come to see and it is conflict that makes good theatre.  This is what makes an audience sit on the end of their seat asking the question 'who is going to win' and 'what is going to happen'.  Frequently physicalization will come out of this, which adds dynamics and conflict to a scene.  Your character will create obstacles to other characters as they make adjustments to achieve their intentions within a beat.  The best actors are the ones that create greater obstacles and adjustments.  A character should never give up on an intention because of obstacles unless there is a beat change (win, lose, interrupt) rather they should continue making adjustments.

 

Relationships

Start with the question: What is my relationship to the other character in the scene I am about to do?  Facts are never enough....once you know the fact of the relationship, you are ready to explore how you feel about this other character...you must go further, into the realm of emotion.  You need to ask questions about your attitude toward the other character.  Do you love him?  Do you hate him? Do you resent him?  How much? Do you want to help him?  Do you want to get in his way?  What is your history?  What do you want from him?  What do you want him to give you?  These are the most important questions to ask.  The answers to them will allow you to function emotionally in the scene.  That is your goal.

 

Trust

You also need to develop a trust between yourself and your counter-parts.  A kinetic kind of a relationship where you offer up your trust in each of the actors and let them know that they can trust you. This trust will allow you to take chances with each other and to 'go there' in a scene.  Continue to foster the trust and bond between each other as you move forward.  It is these actor to actor relationships that can make a production special and life as an actor fulfilling.  Finally, an actor must also trust themselves. 

 

Decisions

It is ultimately our choices as actors within a scene that differentiates us as good actors and bad actors.  Through experience and training an actor should be able to make better decisions (better adjustments, greater urgency, and better levels) than another.  If in a situation choices a,b,c,d,e,f,g all exist, early actors will make the obvious and safe choices perhaps a and b.  Some actors will go too far and choose g, and the best actors will choose e or f.  No matter what, actors should not make small meek choices that are just enough, half do the decision they do make or be afraid of embarrassment.  That is not exciting theatre, it's that 'pulls it off'.  If you make a decision for your character you need commit to that decision 100% within the scene regardless of whether or not you think it is the right decision.  Do not 'mostly' do it because you are unsure. This is notion of 'going there' and 'going to the extreme' and it should be a driving factor at all times.  Small theatre is more embarrassing than making an embarrassing decision.

 

Urgency

How important is this beat or super-objective in the scene?  What are the consequences of failure and achievement? What is the risk and reward of this action?  By adding riskier actions and rising the importance of what you are doing, you heighten the drama of a production.  This is known as 'raising the stakes'.  At all times you want to find an opportunity to raise the stakes.  If you do action A in such a way, will you just get caught and that's a little bad or if you do action B in an even more severe way will the risk reward be greater.  If so, choose B - assuming we logically and justifiably have built our way there - never do anything out of context or character.  Raising the stakes is a more advanced development in an actor's steps toward creating great scene work, where the prior factors must be considered first.  An actor's energy is also important in a show because it is the energy that elevates the urgency of the situation and what draws the audience to the end of those seats.

 

Discoveries

Every scene is filled with discoveries, things that happen for the first time.  No matter how many times it has happened in the past, there is something new about this experience, this moment.  Acting is a whole series of discoveries from beat to beat.  Every discovery is a part of a beat change. Something is learned, something has changed.  You will now be able to make a different adjustment or create a new obstacle.  Even something as simple as having called his name out a second time and realizing he didn't respond is a discovery and you will need to adjust and perhaps shout.  Every single discovery your character has (and there are many of them) is a true and new discovery for that character.  It is because of this that you should never anticipate the beat.  If the action hasn't happened yet, there has been no discovery and no knew knowledge, so there is nothing to act upon for the character.  Just because you the actor knows what about to happen in the scene next, your character has not yet had that discovery.  You will only fall out-of-character and do something unjustified.

 

The Moment Before

Every scene you come in on, your character has come from somewhere else.  Some driving factor brought them into this space.  You have to know what you're coming from.  Were you just in a fight, did you get some good news, have you been chasing someone?  You may have to start talking to yourself, have to prep yourself physically (out of breath) but do not walk out onto the stage dry.  You should already be performing on the entrance not once you've entered.  On the converse, every exit should have a follow through.  Never reach the exit point and stop your performance.  There should be a complete follow through until you have cleared the entire exit and all site lines.

 

Humor

Humor is something that is difficult to find and perhaps more difficult to describe.  Humor is derived from the absurd, whether physical, ironic or abnormal.  Humor is used by man-kind as a way of dealing with the redundant and negative.  Humor is not jokes and is not 'being funny'.  It is the coin of exchange between human beings that makes it possible for us to get through the day.  There is humor in every scene, just as there is humor in every situation in life.  Even in our real lives with very serious situations, we use humor when we cannot bear all the heavy weight, to alleviate the burden by humor.  One must find the humor in every scene.

 

In regards to comedy, there is a sense of timing that must be considered.  Comedy generally comes in threes for a reason: 1)  Introduce  2) Setup  3) Punch.  1 is not enough, 2 starts the trend, and 3 finishes strong.  4 is just too much and is overdone.  A lot of comedy cannot be taught, but must be learned through exposure and experience.  The timing is just enough for the audience to understand the portion of an idea and then you deliver.  Delivery must be done in such a way that we set up an expectation in their minds.

 

As actors we have to be careful not to stifle an audience when they are enjoying a joke and not to sit and wait and assume laughter is coming when it’s not.  An audience is like a beating heart and you must nurture it.  The thing I love most about comedy is that so many people who come to see our shows have all the other crap they are dealing with in their own lives.  And not only can they relate when they see the humor in many things, but during that instantaneous moment that they respond involuntarily with laughter, no matter how bad things are, they are happy.  We give them that.  That is truly an important offering in the face of all those that mock comedy as an art.

 

Events

Understanding the course of events throughout the life of the character is important to being able to create 'the curve': The process of the character's growth throughout the show.  A character should learn things along the way and perhaps win something things and lose some other things, but ultimately be a changed person for better or worse.  These are the characters polar attitudes.  Knowing these events includes knowing the timeline of events that existed before the opening of the show.  As an actor, you will also need to know the course of events that exist in the show so that you don't start with a place that is too high and have 'nowhere to go'.  This is known as the 'build'. All scenes and monologues should have some series of levels (highs and lows to build to and come down from).  These pieces placed together are frequently known as 'coloring' the show.  If something is all at the same level we get annoyed and bored as an audience.  If there are not highs and lows and ultimately now growth, why do we care about these people and why did we come?  A good show will have plenty of color.  This is kind of light looking at the forest rather than the trees in terms of a performance.

 

Emotion

Emotion can be an evil friend and is not actually listed on the series of steps.  An early actor will 'play an emotion'.  They will be sad, they will 'act' scared or shy, or they will be angry.  This is known as indicating and is perhaps the worst form of theatre.  They are 'showing' an audience how the character is supposed to feel in that scene.  They are not able to respond to stimulus, there is a lack truth; they are not making decisions but just 'acting'.  However, a seasoned actor will respond to some action and it will be the urgency and the need of the objective that will drive the character into an actual emotion and you will be living it not doing it.  This is known as 'playing an action' which is good and is the basis for the method of physical action.  A shy person is not one show sits content being quiet with wide eyes and tentative movements - a shy person is someone who is trying not to be shy.  Their character's limiting factors prevents them from being able to say and do the things they want but at all times they are trying not to be shy when involved with any of their actions.  Emotion should be the result of actions and their consequences. That is true emotion and is encouraged.

 

Style

While there should be as much truth in the scenes and character as possible, you will always have a part of yourself on the stage.  The purpose of relaxing will eliminate any of your immediate self from the production but your character will still respond to events and make decisions in much the way you would when answering the question "if I were that person, what would I do if..."  This is what creates uniqueness from one talented actor to another talented actor.  This is known as an actor's style.  These things can only be achieved by experience, in both life and theatre.  The more experiences we have the greater pool we have to draw from when answering the 'what if' question and guides to making better decisions within a scene.  This is a good portion of bringing yourself on stage and is the part to be proud of.  All of our experiences both positive and negative have worked to make us better performers.  Continue to live and have more experiences.

 

Of course, I do some writing (Russian) ...

"Theatrical" applications of web.

"Web as Theatre" -- a new title to read [ biblio page @ web.vtheatre.net ? ]

-- anatolant.livejournal.com [RU-blog] new

Caligari Project --  pre-production and post-production

[ see "2008" pages in Virtual Theatre with anatoly anf Film-North ]

Form and Format -- ?

Instructions must go online! [ page to work on ] Where? In Method Acting directory? [ "Method Acting for Directors" ]

Total Actor Files [ "Screen Nostalgia fo Stage" ] ?

Questions, again!

"20th century : dramatic popuri"

Lab Theatre May 9, Fri. 6 pm.

Run-throu day [ raugh cut ]

direct.vtheatre.net/2008

"Project" -- because there is no script. "Dramatic composition in Six Parts" -- director's application...

http://direct.vtheatre.net/5/caligari.html -- a new page in "directing genres" part of directing class. But mostly http://stagematrix.com

also, http://shows.vtheatre.net/caligari.html

images -- http://picasaweb.google.com/anatoly.antohin/2009

and at photobucket.com

Caligari AK (stage version)?

web-show [ Stage 3 ]

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YouTube - Tracking the Internet into the 21st Century with Vint Cerf
   new : http://beta.vtheatre.net

virtual theatre with anatoly online?

maybe in 2009, or AFTER.

stagematrix.com

 

Fri. Directing class -- next : TEST (textbook) 

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Theater - MSN Encarta
for dictionary/glossary pages.

R/G are Dead (overview) -- prepare for "200 words" mini-review.

Topic : Presentational Theatre

Directing Genre -- Take Two (first : http://direct.vtheatre.net/1/genre)

Comedy as Tragedy (Postmodern Theatre).

Time of Tech weekend and what does director do?

Four Figures :

• Puppet -- new
• Spectator -- Horatio
• Player -- Father, Son and Holy Ghost (Shakespeare, Beckett, Stoppard)
• Public -- masses, crowd (rational?)

Pragmatism (Americana) and Theatre -- anti-theatrical culture.

In fact, very little of culture and a lot of civilization.

Spengler's conflict between Rome and Athens : New World and Europe?

 -- What about the last western country that believes in Christ of different kinds? "In God we Trust"

Made in USA and American Idealism...

http://shows.vtheatre.net/hamlet/webshow/0.html

Director's Thoughts. not Director's Notes?

There is no American Hamlet, but plenty of Rosencrantzs and Guildensterns -- and all of them are dead. Businessmen.

Americans put their feet on the table to rest, but they won't take out their shoes! They are silly because they are relaxing without getting of their three-piese suits.

Even health for them is WORK.

"We were called/send" -- R/G : my boys, this is not a calling! It's just a phone call!

1. Come and (en)joy [join] us -- First Player.
2. Player 2 (Castle, Palace, Show) -- watch your future.
3. Player #3 (Boat, Sea, England) -- Why didn't you jump to pirates with Hamlet?

Electric Chair and Waiting for... Godot? Where is this arm-chair? "LazzyBoy" -- throne of losers. Relax, Ros, rest, Guil -- when Rosencrantz takes off his shoes, and -- socks. Oh, you can walk on water, but barefoot only.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vtheatre

Three Chronotopes :

I. Shakespeare (Age of Modernity)

II. Stoppard (Postmodern)

III. Us -- After PoMo

...

Directors' Notes :

... Act One [1. Road & 2. Castle] + Act Two [3. Sea]  -- cuts.

... I have to remember that R/G is about me -- lost ("extra"), non-essentual ... and THEATRE, which passed by touching my face with its invisible wing.

What (historical) directions ? What could good directions be, besides stage directions?

Did Hamlet have his way out? Prince Hamlet, formerly known as "Prince" -- what was he doing in Eisinore?

Did he want them to take him back to the university, the two who knew him as Hamlet, not "Prince Hamlet"... And how they address him -- ?

Betrayal -- that was obvious.

... "America 2008" (politics)

R/G and Election Year (filmplus.org/politics/2008)? Personal Free Choice.

Friends? Each is not a friend to himself. And -- to save yourself you must save next to you. 

Not being free is a betrayal of self.

* Set design references both to Hamlet & Godot

scenes & NARRATIVES : Thought STORIES in R+G... Shakespeare & Hamlet + Beckett and Godot

... new : See the photos @ Theatre UAF official website! 2008 HAMLET (flickr slideshow) R+G are Dead

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, USA

[ official title? ]

to post to my google calendar.