"Единственный зритель, которого должен представлять себе автор, это идеальный зритель, то есть он сам. Все остальное имеет отношение к театральной кассе, а не к драматическому искусству."
Nabokov [ The only spectator, who author should invision, is an ideal spectator, i.e. himself. The rest has relation to box office, not to dramatic art. ]
... in acting classes you frequently hear about "the beat before," i.e. what was happening to a character before he or she is brought on stage. Many acting excercises focus on playing out the beat before as preparation and exploration of character -- also the beat after...
Montage does it in film... I, viewer, do the acting.
An Actor's Handbook: An Alphabetical Arrangement of Concise Statements on Aspects of Acting
Book by Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood, Constantin Stanislavsky; Theatre Arts Books, 1963 [questia]
[ see biblio in Biomethod ]
Film Acting? Actor = Method + Camera = Biomechanics
To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting by Michael Chekhov, Nicolai Remisoff; Harper & Row, 1953 - Chapter 1: The Actor's Body and Psychology
- Chapter 2: Imagination and Incorporation of Images
- Chapter 3: Improvisation and Ensemble
- Chapter 4: The Atmosphere and Individual Feelings
- Chapter 5: The Psychological Gesture
- Chapter 6: Character and Characterization
- Chapter 7: Creative Individuality
- Chapter 8: Composition of the Performance
- Chapter 9: Different Types of Performances
- Chapter 10 How to Approach the Part
The Actor's Ways and Means by Michael Redgrave; W. Heinemann, 1953 - I Cause and Effect
- Ii Instinct and Method--I
- Iii Instinct and Method--Ii
- Iv the Theatre and the Word
The Technique of Acting by F. Cowles Strickland; McGraw-Hill, 1956 - Chapter 1: The Nature of Technique
- Chapter 2: A Beginning Exercise
- Chapter 3: The Entrance
- Chapter 4: Phrasing Actions in Relation to Thoughts
- Chapter 5: Progressions
- Chapter 6: The Use of Techniques to Build a Climax
- Chapter 7: Timing
- Chapter 8: The Size of a Performance
- Chapter 9: Pointing
- Chapter 10: The Invention of Actions
- Chapter 11: Timing, Rhythm, Tempo, and Pace
- Chapter 12: Style
- Chapter 13: The Design of a Role
Acting (Re)considered: A Theoretical and Practical Guide by Phillip B. Zarrilli; Routledge, 2002 - 1: General Introduction
- Part I: Theories of and Meditations on Acting
- 2: Introduction
- 3: The Actor's Presence
- 4: On Acting and Not-Acting
- 5: “just Be Your Self”
- 6: The Actor's Emotions Reconsidered:
- Part II: (Re)Considering the Body and Training
- 7: Introduction
- 8: An Amulet Made of Memory:
- 9: Meyerhold's Biomechanics
- 10: Etienne Decroux's Promethean Mime
- 11: Actor Training in the Neutral Mask
- 12: Bali and Grotowski
- 13: Culture is the Body
- 14: My Bodies
- 15: “on the Edge of a Breath, Looking”
- 16: The Gardzienice Theatre Association of Poland
- 17: Effector Patterns of Basic Emotions
- Part III: (Re)Considering the Actor in Performance
- 18: Introduction
- 19: Brecht and the Contradictory Actor
- 20: Dario Fo
- 21: Forum Theatre
- 22: Resisting the “organic”
- 23: Rachel Rosenthal Creating Her Selves
- 24: Task and Vision
- 25: David Warrilow
- 26: Robert Wilson and the Actor
- 27: Anna Deavere Smith
Acting by John Harrop; Routledge, 1992 - Chapter 1: Acting and the Phenomenological Problem
- Chapter 2: Acting and Semiotics
- Chapter 3: Acting and Athletics
- Chapter 4: The Psychology of Acting
- Chapter 5: The Psychology in Acting
- Chapter 6: The Dynamics of Acting: Skills
- Chapter 7: The Dynamics of Acting: Process
- Chapter 8: The Dynamics of Acting: Style
- Chapter 9: The Cybernetics of Acting: Space and Design
- Chapter 10: The Cybernetics of Acting: Director and Rehearsal
- Chapter 11: The Cybernetics of Acting: Audience and Critic
- Chapter 12: Acting as Danger and Sacrifice
- Coda
ACTION : On the stage you must always be enacting something; action, motion is the basis of the art . . . of the actor; . . . even external immobility . . . does not imply passiveness. You may sit without motion and at the same time be in full action. . . . Frequently physical immobility is the direct result of inner intensity. So I will . . . put it like this: on the stage it is necessary to act, either outwardly or inwardly. Everything that happens on the stage has a definite purpose. . . . All action in the theatre must have an inner justification, be logical, coherent and real . . . and as a final result we have a truly productive activity. . . .
Stanislavsky
It's easy for me to love actors, I am a director. Actors do not love actors. They do not love anybody, they love acting. Like children, who love life only...
Sergey Yursky: Главным исходным свойством драматического артиста Михаил Чехов считает воображение. [Michail Chekhov: fundamental quality of actor ("dramatic artist") is imagination.]
Michail Chekhov: St. Michail -- Artist and/or Craftsman (author, medium, messanger) [ ru - windows ]
... Существует небезосновательное подозрение, что он вообще не принадлежит к числу художников. Он ремесленник. Всего лишь обладатель определенных данных и набора приемов, которые более или менее успешно использует по чужому заданию. Немало крупных деятелей театра откровенно (или случайно пробалтываясь) видели в актере лишь инструмент, куклу, фигуранта, сверхмарионетку, полость, в которую нужно дуть, чтобы получить определенный тон... резонатор.
Для Станиславского образ - результат всей работы, если она была успешной. ["Image," according to Stanislavsky -- and M. Chekhov.]
Для Чехова образы - ежедневный материал работы.
System: В чем разница? В первом случае ищется сходство "я" и персонажа. Это обживание пространства. Это еще не искусство, это поиск своей органики в предлагаемых обстоятельствах.
Один подход: мы много нашли, много наработали, теперь попробуем сформулировать сверхзадачу. (M. Chekhov and Method)
Другой, "чеховский подход": мы почувствовали атмосферу целого, мы можем в психологическом жесте выразить его структуру, теперь пора заняться деталями. [ From "Details" to the "Whole" or vv.]
1. "System" -- У Станиславского главная линия натяжения между телесной и эмоциональной сферами: от физического действия к пробуждению живого чувства.
2. "Biomechanics": Мейерхольд - гипертрофия возможностей тела, все остальное в буйной смеси отдано режиссеру - автору спектакля (Director's Theatre).
3. "Epic Theatre": Брехт - нарочитое приглушение эмоций. Усиление рационального начала в артисте.
Чехов - в своей системе упражнений и приемов активно использует три первые сферы, но единственную цель видит в пробуждении энергии души. Он говорит: "При выполнении любого физического упражнения нужно прежде всего иметь в виду... психологический его аспект", он говорит о "мыслящем сердце". Но цель... цель всегда "...духовный элемент, или, точнее... искры от пламени, лучи, идущие от нашего высшего, сияющего духовного начала". [ "energy of the soul" and "thinking heart" -- ho to teach it? ]
... the most interesting and most unknown. The Book of Spectator has a page "SpectActor" -- this is where to start. Not on the webpages for my classes. There must be some place for "metaphysics of theatre"...
Stanislavsky: We need a régisseur (director) who is a psychologist, an artist. . . . In order to teach others, a régisseur must himself know his subject . . . in the sense that he should to some extent be an actor in his own right. . . . He should himself sense the actors' psycho-technique, methods and approaches to their parts, all the complicated emotions that are connected with our profession and with performing in public. Otherwise he will find no common language with which to speak with them. The joint work of the director and the actors, the search for the essential kernel of the play begins with analysis and proceeds along the line of through-going action. Later comes the determination of the through line in each role--that fundamental impetus of each part which as it derives naturally from its character, fixes its place in the general action of the play.
This is what the work of a present-day director should, in my opinion consist of. . . . As for . . . directors, one can only advise them not to foist anything on their actors, not to tempt them beyond the range of their capacities, but to enthuse them. . . . Stimulate in an actor an appetite for his part. This preserves the freedom of the creative artist.
-- Collected Works, Vols. VI and VII
-- Stanislavski's Legacy
[ questia ] DISCIPLINE :
An iron discipline . . . is a necessity in any group activity. . . . This applies above all to a complex theatrical performance. . . . Without discipline there can be no theatre art!
-- Building a Character
DIRECTOR (RÉGISSEUR)
The responsibility for creating an ensemble, for its artistic integrity, the expressiveness of the over-all performance lies with the director. This applies also to the external shaping of a performance.
Stanislavsky
MAGIC IF From the moment of the appearance of [the Magic] If the actor passes from the plane of actual reality into the plane of another life, created and imagined by him. In order to be emotionally involved in the imaginary world which the actor builds on the basis of a play, in order to be caught up in the action on the stage, he must believe in it. . . . This does not mean he should give himself up to anything like hallucination, . . . quite the contrary. . . . He does not forget that he is surrounded by stage scenery and props. . . . He asks himself: "But if this were real, how would I react? What would I do?" . . . And normally, naturally . . . this If acts as a lever to lift him into a world . . . of creativity.
The secret of the effect of If [is] that it does not use fear or force. Another quality: it arouses an inner and real activity. . . . an instantaneous inner stimulus, . . . adds a whole series of contingencies based on your own experience in life, and you will see how easy it will be for you sincerely to believe in the possibility of what you are called upon to do on the stage. --An Actor Prepares
--My Life in Art
The Technique of Acting by F. Cowles Strickland; McGraw-Hill, 1956 - Chapter 1: The Nature of Technique
- Chapter 2: A Beginning Exercise
- Chapter 3: The Entrance
- Chapter 4: Phrasing Actions in Relation to Thoughts
- Chapter 5: Progressions
- Chapter 6: The Use of Techniques to Build a Climax
- Chapter 7: Timing
- Chapter 8: The Size of a Performance
- Chapter 9: Pointing
- Chapter 10: The Invention of Actions
- Chapter 11: Timing, Rhythm, Tempo, and Pace
- Chapter 12: Style
- Chapter 13: The Design of a Role
theatre theory and 
blog: anatoly-film
