Mrs Griffifths

Rehearsal methods:

Stanislavski-

Stanislavski’s method of acting is very realistic. He believed you should become you’re character as opposed to representing them (like Brecht suggested). And, in order to do this, he created a variety of techniques to use in rehearsal.

One of those techniques was ‘emotion memory’. This was where an actor would assess what emotion their character was feeling, then recall a memory where they were feeling the same. The actor could then recall that event and it would aid them in realistically portraying the character’s emotions.

Stanislavski also believed that all speech had a rhythm and tempo and that focusing on the pace and how you say things would further improve the realism of your performance. Another factor he considered important in maintaining realism was to never break the fourth wall. This was so the audience would feel as if they’re watching a story unfold, and not be part of the story.

He thought that characterisation was incredibly important. He devised a rehearsal method whereby actors took part in hot seating with ‘magic if’ questions. These were questions querying thigs such as ‘what if it were you in this situation?’, ‘what if the circumstances were different?’ and, ‘what if this factor was changed?’ etc.

Stanislavski also focused greatly on eradicating unnecessary movement. He believed all movement should have a motive- that no-one gestures of changes where there standing without it relation to their objective and/ or super objective. Their objective is the character’s intention for hat their saying, what they want (similar to actioning text); whereas their super-objective is what they want above all else and is usually discovered through analysis of the script and deciphering it’s subtext (the character may not even know what this is themselves).

Katie Mitchell-

Mitchell is also a practitioner who mainly focuses on realism, with long and arduous rehearsals perfecting this, following the methods of Stanislavski. Mitchell’s rehearsal methods also appear to draw priority to characterisation due to her often making references to neurology and psychiatry. She ensures all actors have a complete, in depth, understanding of the script and their character and uses improvisation (particularly of unscripted past events of the characters) to further develop this understanding. Mitchell is slightly less strictly realistic than Stanislavski in that she has experimented with the use of media, such as video projections.