Chapter 8: Faith and a Sense of Truth

When offstage, “confine your thoughts to what the person you are portraying would be doing if
he were placed in analogous circumstances” (Stanislavski 156).

Stanislavski teaches that in order to keep yourself in the part, you need to keep a constant
physical acting with no interruptions and it should flow. “Do you realize that you have succeeded
in establishing, in a solid and permanent manner, the long sequence of individual moments of
the true physical action of this exercise?” (Stanislavski 156). As a theatre student, this can help
me to stay focused in my character and not break the concentration.

Stanislavski introduces how your body can play a big role in your performance. How the body
moves can tell a lot about a person and especially the character. He also shows how important
it is to have every movement motivated. “It is made up, as you have seen, of living physical
actions, as motivated by an inner sense of truth and a belief in what the actor is doing.”
(Stanislavski 156). This can help me anytime I have to move on stage, It can help keep me in
focus with the scene and the character I’m playing.

Stanislavski believes that an actor should be concerned with how the character would act when
a certain thing happens to them rather than how they would feel. “We were not concerned with
the actual naturalistic existence of what surrounds us on the stage, the reality of the material
world!” (Stanislavski 141). As a theatre student, I can use this when I’m acting and when
something happens to my character, rather than just thinking about how the character would
feel, I can incorporate how the character would react.

Chapter 9: Emotional Memory

Emotional Memory

Stanislavski emphasizes how the bigger your emotional memory is, the better you are at playing
a character. “The brader your emotional memory, the richer your material for inner
creativeness.” (Stanislavski 201). If you have gone through life and experienced things, you are
guaranteed to have more material when it comes to playing a certain role that expresses a
certain emotion. This can help me when I’m trying to portray a certain emotion because I know
the basics of a variety of emotions.

Stanislavski shows the importance of educating yourself not only through books and school, but
also through experiencing life. “He should know, not only what is going on in the big cities, but in
provincial towns, far-away villages, factories, and big cultural centres of the world as well.”
(Stanislavski 207). The more you travel and physically experience different cultures and
different countries and cities, the more rounded you’ll be when it comes to play different
characters and different scenes.
AN ACTOR PREPARES
Chapters 4-7

All of your “tests” over An Actor Prepares will be extended response questions based on the
text. Each test will require you to respond to five prompts. For each response, you will:
-Explain Stanislavsky’s take on the topic. (2pts)
-Provide a correctly cited quotation from the text (1pt)
-Express how you will use this information in your career as a theatre student, performer,
and/or designer (1pt)

You will include all of these short essay responses on the Acting Theory page of your website.

The following is an example of what is expected:

Chapter 1: The First Test
Stanislavski stresses the importance of showing up to rehearsal on time. This is because
arousing “a desire to create is difficult; to kill that desire is extremely easy” (Stanislavski 3).
When actors are late to rehearsals, they not only take advantage of their team’s time, but they
also disrupt the creative process. As a performer, I now understand the importance of
punctuality and know to always arrive to rehearsal fifteen minutes early.

Chapter 4: Imagination
The importance of imagination for the actor.

Chapter 5: Concentration of Attention

Point of Attention.

What does Santislavski say actors should do at the end of every day? Why?

What should an actor do to hone their craft in daily life, in regards to surroundings or other
people?

Chapter 6: Relaxation of Muscles

Why must an actor believe in an action’s purpose?

What to do when performing single gestures.

Chapter 7: Units and Objectives

Describe Stanislavsky’s process for analyzing a play.

How does Stanislavski define objectives? What purpose do they have?

AN ACTOR PREPARES
Chapters 1-3

All of your “tests” over An Actor Prepares will be extended response questions based on the
text. Each test will require you to respond to five prompts. For each response, you will:
-Explain Stanislavsky’s take on the topic. (2pts)
-Provide a correctly cited quotation from the text (1pt)
-Express how you will use this information in your career as a theatre student, performer,
and/or designer (1pt)

You will include all of these short essay responses on the Acting Theory page of your website.

The following is an example of what is expected:

Chapter 1: The First Test
Stanislavski stresses the importance of showing up to rehearsal on time. This is because
arousing “a desire to create is difficult; to kill that desire is extremely easy” (Stanislavski 3).
When actors are late to rehearsals, they not only take advantage of their team’s time, but they
also disrupt the creative process. As a performer, I now understand the importance of
punctuality and know to always arrive to rehearsal fifteen minutes early.
Chapter 1: The First Test
What to do if a rehearsal seems stilted.

Chapter 2: When Acting is an Art (Choose 3)

The art of representation.

Mechanical acting.

Over-acting.

“Never allow yourself externally to portray anything that you have not inwardly experienced and
which is not even interesting to you” (Stanislavski 31).

Chapter 3: Action
“If acts as a lever to lift us out of the world of actuality into the realm of imagination”
(Stanislavski 49).