1 McClain Stone Book Reflection JMC 4403 PR Campaigns Dr. Tsetsura April 08, 2014 A Practitioner Prepares: A Systematic Public Relations Campaign An Actor Prepares, 1936, by Constantin Stanislavski is the diary of a student of Tortsov’s acting class during his first year of training. Kostya, the author of the diary, and his friends have little to no previous acting experience. In the novel, Stanislavski describes his system of preparing for a role in the theater. He addresses many assumptions and habits that the young actors have formed that do not correspond with his system. The “system” is not a precise routine, but a systematic breakdown of the natural order of theatrical truth. The system that Stanislavski describes can be applied to the public relations field, especially a public relations campaign, because it is a means of mastering the craft of creating a campaign, stimulating internal creativity and imagination, as well as sticking to the main objective of a campaign. The different areas of acting skill in the book can also describe what drives and motivates the different steps of a public relations campaign. These skills include action, imagination, concentration of attention, relaxation of muscles, units and objectives, faith and sense of truth, emotion memory, adaptation, inner motive forces, the unbroken line, the inner creative state and the super objective. Stanislavski’s system is meant to teach actors how to develop within their character without speaking and acting mechanically, while also breaking through distractions and letting their character arise in the forefront of their minds. Throughout this book, by interchanging the word “actor,” with the words “public relations practitioner;” as well as the word “stage” with “campaign” the system could easily be applied to the campaign that I am working on right now. I often saw how my professor was trying to push us to look outside of the method we thought we
2  knew, pushing us to dig deeper into our creativity and to stick to one main objective of our campaign. We must compare the campaign and its steps to art. Only then can we completely absorb the spectator and help them to understand and experience the inner workings of the campaign. While reading this book it is clear to see how the methodology of how to prepare for a role could be applied to preparing and implementing a public relations campaign. Stanislavski (1936) says, “Whatever happens on the stage must be for a purpose� (37). This can be applied at the beginning, middle and end of any campaign. Everything one does within a campaign must have a purpose and be relatable back to the main objective of the campaign, which in my case is to increase engagement with frequent museum attendees and to maintain a positive attitude within museum members. Therefore, everything we do in the campaign must be relatable back to the main overall goals and objectives. In the theater, as well as in a campaign, one must act with motive; all actions must have an inner justification, be logical, coherent and real (Stanislavski, 1936, p. 49). The beginning of every campaign starts with research and Stanislavski stated: When you begin to study each role you should first gather all the material that have any bearing on it, and supplement them with more and amore imagination, until you have achieved such a similarity to life that it is easy to believe in what you are doing. In the beginning forget about your feelings. When the inner conditions are prepared, and right, feelings will come to the surface of their own accord. (p. 57) Imagination is a major factor in every campaign; one must use active thoughts as not to force their imagination. Imagination helps with the little steps that create the bigger picture of the campaign. Imagination can develop and refurbish something that has already been built. There
3 must be a well-defined objective in place for the imagination to build on. As public relations practitioners we must be able to recall certain sensations that make us feel certain ways in order to develop imagination and position it in a campaign. Another element affecting the overall objective is attention. Practitioners must be able to stay on track and focused on the goal that they are trying to accomplish through the campaign. In the attention chapter of the novel, the director, Tortsov, gave his pupils a compilation of tests where the students had to look at an object for a short amount of time, and then later recall everything about it. This was nearly impossible for the students because their attention was occupied by other distractions. Attention is such an important factor in any public relations campaign because practitioners must use talents to break through the noise and clutter in order to have the message received by the audience. Stanislavski (1936) echoed many times that, “You must have something which will interest you in the object of your attention, and serve to set in motion your whole creative apparatus” (p. 97). This uses the idea of pathos to grab an audience’s attention and to keep it by having an interesting and motivating objective. The objective stays the same but the public relations practitioner’s job is to heighten the reactions of the audience’s emotions to the objective. This will change their attitude and their behavior. However, in order to do this, the communication must be a conversation. In the theater and public relations you must know the audience. In the chapter on “relaxation of muscles,” the public relations mindset takes away the theme of conciseness. A public relations practitioner cannot let something unimportant detract from the goal of the campaign. Therfore one must be goal-oriented and concise. This calls for attention and quick adjustments on behalf of the controller throughout the campaign. Nothing
4  should ever be done without justification. If there is a justification behind the action then it will always be real. Action with reason becomes credible, if an action is performed on stage without justification, then it seems phony, the same can be said for a campaign. In order for something to be seen as credible it must contain truth and the audience needs to have faith in the objectives. Before commencing a role or a campaign one must establish the key to the main objective, the different steps of getting into character can be compared to the matrix steps used in a campaign. Strategies and tactics work together to create the larger objective; the director insists that each bit must have a detailed development. The details do not guide a role or campaign, conversely the objective chooses the channel. According to Stanislavski (1963), a general theme is divided into units and objectives, in turn giving rise to action. Attitude, awareness and behavior are the three things affected by the objectives in a campaign, as well as a part in the theater. Accordingly the objective must be active. It is essential for actors and practitioners alike to paint a picture for the audience. The audience is impressionable, so an impression must be made and remembered. In order to do this, practitioners must know the audience and relate to them emotionally; an audience will have a deeper, broader emotional memory if they can relate to the experience of a campaign. One of the difficulties that come with creating a campaign is standing out from the clutter that surrounds our everyday, while still remaining relatable to the audience on an emotional and personal level. Actors must use the feelings of an audience in order to create a mood and atmosphere of a performance; practitioners should do the same during a campaign for their client. In the book, adaptation is defined by Stanislavski (1936) as, “the inner and outer human means that people use in adjusting themselves to one another in a variety of relationships and also as an aid in effecting an object� (p. 242). Adaptation is conforming to the problem at hand,
5 and that problem is always changing throughout a campaign. When attempting to persuade someone to have an attitude or behavioral change, one must adjust to the circumstance of the audience. Throughout the campaign our “director,” or professor, has pushed us to adjust to different circumstances. At first we were resistant to this adjustment, but when we saw the problem from different angles we were able to push our campaign and our objectives to a new level. The masters of our being are feeling, mind and will. At least one of these masters must be touched by a campaign in order to have any effect on the audience. Our mind must receive a message, which in turn, hopefully stirs our feelings and arouses our will to act. This cannot be done unless the strategies and tactics align with the overall goal of the role or campaign. Stanislavski (1963) describes, “little individual lines flow together and form one large current that represents the life of a whole day” (p. 276). If a public relations practitioner were to look at this quote they would realize that the little individual lines were the tactics, the large line was the objective, and the whole day was the campaign itself. The “elements” of a role also known as, the strategies and tactics of a campaign move forward pushed by inner ambition, becoming unified to carry out a purpose. A great campaign begins with intricate research to grasp the delicacy of the audience’s perceptions and uses the harmonious co-operation of strategies and tactics to reach the overall objective. A main theme must be secured in an actor’s mind throughout a performance; this theme gave birth to the play and should be the source of the actor’s artistic creation. If we look at “theme” as an objective, “play” as a campaign, and finally “actor” as practitioner; we will see that a campaign is an art and should be treated as such. There is no system to follow, only steps which must be adjusted to different circumstances in order to guide the methodology of a campaign. Above all, the objective must be preserved, and all distractions must be both
6 Â comprehended and avoided in order to break the barriers and reach the audience in a personal way so that the campaign will be received, remembered and acted upon. The elements of this book interrelate to form a web of knowledge that can be applied to a public relations campaign.
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References Stanislavski, Constantin. (1936). An Actor Prepares. New York, New York: Routledge.