Meisner & Stanislavski
Clash of the Techniques.
Magic If & As If The ‘As if’ (Meisner) Example: Meisner would state… to walk with a stone or object in your shoe, therefore disturbing the natural way of your walk, ultimately creating a limp, he would then ask for this walk to be rein acted on stage; Resulting in an authentic limp. The ‘Magic If’ (Stanislavski) This was an important factor in acting, To create an illusion of reality on stage. Example: A method used by Stanislavski. He would observe, the way an individual would walk, move, he would then have an actor, or himself rein act how that individual moved.
Avoid a Cliché!
Activity One
Sound
Naturalism Stanislavski
If there was to be a piece of music, there would be a radio on, or someone singing, on or off stage, but that person would still have to be there. Realism Meisner You could still have this in realism, but you would have background music; say someone is remembering something, the music played would be associated with that particular memory, The music would be playing in that characters mind, so only that character and the audience would be aware of the music. All others on stage are to be oblivious.
Lighting Naturalism Stanislavski Say if it was to be set in a club, the club has dim lighting, the lighting in the theatre would need to co-inside with the scene currently being performed. If was to be set in a sunny street, the lighting would represent the sun and be a general wash/straw. In Realism Meisner It would be the same but, there would be a lighting to reflect the mood, for example, if something shocking were to happen, the lights could turn red, this is completely abnormal.
Naturalism Stanislavski
Acting
This is just acting, how something would be in real life, if one were to be holding up a mirror to a real life event, that is how the scene would unfold. Naturalistic voices, non exaggerate, the fourth wall is always included during a Naturalistic piece, as if the audience were to be ‘Flies on a wall’ Realism Meisner Realism opens up a door to many more options in theatre, such as; acting out flashbacks, a variety of lighting effects, and sounds. Various ways of acting such as tableaux’s, physical theatre, and speech, such as idioms and onomatopoeia,
Units and Objectives Stanislavski made a system in which one were to go through a script, line off sections of the script, using a slash ‘/’. Perhaps where a character enters, exits, the topic of conversation changes, or when something were suddenly to happen. This would be a unit
Units and Objectives Meisner uses a different form of units and objectives, this method is called ‘The Four Givens’. In which he would ask his actors after they obtain a script… Preps: ‘How am I feeling?’ As Ifs: ‘Who is the other person?’ Objectives: ‘What do I want from them?’ Stakes: ‘Why is it important to me?’ Meisner does this when creating characters in order to make them three-dimensional. Meaning that they are performing as a believable character.