Term 2 unit 5&6 PETER GILL & THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE (research work)

Peter Gill's Background

Peter Gill was born in 1939 September 7 and raised in Cardiff, Wales. He was educated at St Illtyd's College, Cardiff. He lived from the 1960s until 2006 in a small flat in the Thameside house formerly belonging to George Devine and later bought by playwright Donald Howarth and his civil partner George Goetschuis.

Gill was an actor from 1957-1965, he then directed his first production in August 1965 at The Royal Court Theatre. Having begun his career as an actor, he is now best known for his work as a director and playwright. He became an Assistant Director of the Royal Court Theatre in 1964 and then an Associate Director in 1970. He was the founder director of Riverside Studios in 1976. From 1980 to 1997, he was the Associate Director of the National Theatre and also the founding Director of the Royal National Theatre Studio in 1984 to 1990.

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview with Peter Gill in 2008 & 2009 for its "The Legacy of the Englis Stage Company" collection held by the British Library.

Many directors in the generations after Gill's including Sam Mendes, Nicholas Hytner and Richard Eyre have become wealthy from putting on songs and dance shows. So does he ever feel a twinge of envy? This is what he said "I'd like the money. But I wouldn't like to do a musical under the thumb of Cameron Mackintosh. I wouldn't have the competence. I'd simply have to do what I was told, which isn't directing."

Informations from link below: 

http://www.petergill7.co.uk/

History of the Royal Court Theatre 

I did my presentation base on this title. Here are all the research from me.

The first theatre on Lower George Street was opened in 1870 under the name of The New Chelsea Theatre. Several of early plays by William.S.Gilbert (an English dramatist) were staged here including Randall's Thumb, Creatures of Impulse. After that, Arthur Cecil (who had joined the theatre's company in 1881) was co-manager of the theatre with John Clayton. They produced a series of Arthur Wing Pinero's farces, including The Magistrate (1885) and The Schoolmistress (1886), among others. The theatre closed in 1887 and was demolished.

The present building was built on the East side of Sloane Square replacing the earlier building and opened in 1888 as the New Court Theatre. The first production in the new building was a play by Sydney Grundy titled Mamma.

By the end of the century, the theatre was called "Royal Court Theatre". It ceased to be used as a theatre in 1932 but was used as a cinema from 1935 to 1940, until it was forced to close due to serious damage caused by bombs during the World War II.

The building reopened as a theatre in 1952 and was taken over by the English Stage Company (ESC) in 1956. Royal Court became a subsidized theatre producing new British and foreign plays, together with some classical revivals.

In the early 90s, the main auditorium and the facade of the theatre were attractive, but the remainder of the building provided poor facilities for both audience and performers, the stalls and understage often flooded throughout the 20th century.

The theatre was on the brink of contravening health and safety regulations and guidelines, it had deteriorated dangerously and was threatened with closure. The Court was told that, within eighteen months, the building would be forced to close. In the same week as the New York Times described the Royal Court as the most important theatre in Europe, The Times called the building a 'DUMP'. One year later, the interior of the theatre was completely built, except for the facade and the auditorium, and reopened in the year 2000.

The Royal Court also presented two of Peter Gill's first plays, The Sleeper's Den (1965) and Over Gardens Out (1969) which were both written and directed by himself. Peter Gill also directed stories and plays from Chekhov and D.H.Lawrence. 

Informations above from link below:
http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/royal-court-theatre/history/

Term 2 unit 5&6 THE THREE SISTERS

THE THREE SISTERS by ANTON CHEKHOV

My Character

Masha, the middle sister, 23 years old. She is married to her husband, Kulygin, when she was 18 and just out of school. She once thought her husband clever but she has been disillusioned by his 'small-town mentality'. Masha falls completely in love with the idealistic Lieutenant-Colonel Vershinin at first sight when he starts going on about how life in the future will be beautiful. Vershinin clearly has a broader and more hopeful view of the world around him, and this is pretty refreshing for a lady as brilliant and as bored as Masha.

Masha did not try no hide her love towards Vershinin at all, they begin a clandestine love affair. There's a fire, and in the middle of the chaos, Masha confesses her affair with Vershinin to her sisters. When Vershinin has transferred away, she is very heartbroken but returns to life with her husband who accepts her back despite knowing what she has done.

Masha has a short temper, which is seen frequently throughout the play especially being really mean to Vershinin when he has to leave to attend to his crazy, suicidal wife. Masha is also the sister who disapproves the most of Natasha.

The setting of the play

Setting of this play is given as "a provincial city". The Three Sisters takes place in a province because the emotion that occurs on stage is centered around what the main characters think of where they live. Olga, Masha, Irina and Andrey all feel that their lives would be much better if they were living in Moscow.

More specifically, all of the action takes place at the Prozorov's house. The Prozorov family can be seen as a rich family as their wealth and refinement are evident in the decor, the piano, the presence of servants and the ability to host a big birthday party. It may be a boring town, but at least they're living the cushy life.

A couple years have passed (Act 3), and the sisters have retreated to the attic at the demand of Natasha. There's a more claustrophobic feeling in that smaller room.

By Act IV, Natasha has succeeded in almost entirely evicting the Prozorovs from the house. Even her husband Andrey pushes the baby carriage around in the garden while her lover Protopopov sits inside. The sisters are bidding farewell to the departing soldiers, and Masha now totally dissociates herself from her home. "I'm never setting foot in that house again," she says.


Themes of the play

Relationships - This play is all about relationships between the characters, Masha regretted it for being married to Kulygin in the first place when she was only 18. She meets Vershinin and totally falls for him after listening to how he says about knowledge. Besides, Vershinin has married to a woman and had two kids, but he talked about how not comfortable it is when he's being together with his wife during the play. And for Kulygin, he confesses to Olga that he would want to marry her if he wasn't Masha's husband. Here's another example, Andrey and Natasha. Throughout the play, Andrey shows more of his soft and cowardly side by how he did not fight back with Natasha even when she treated his sisters badly.

Conflicts - Whenever there's relationship in a play, there will be more conflicts around, not only for the moments when actors show it directly to us during the play, most of it was what we think about it. When Kulygin says "Masha loves me, my wife loves me". It may be a very normal sentence for a husband to say, but for me, it sounds like Kulygin was trying to make Masha feels better or beloved as he knows that their relationship is falling apart. Conflict can sometimes be seen as subtle, something that was made up in audience's mind. It depends how much the actor wanted to show. In the play, all character seems to have their little story behind, it makes more conflicts between each character when they are together. Especially when the main characters are a family.

Term 2 unit 5&6 STANISLAVSKI SYSTEM

Stanislavski System

STANISLAVSKI'S SYSTEM was developed through his own cross-cultural experience as an actor, director and businessman. He constantly updates his method through inter-disciplinary studies absorbing from a range of sources and influences, such as the modernist and avant-garde developments, yoga and Pavlovian behaviorist psychology. He believed that actors needed to inhabit authentic emotion while on stage so they could draw upon feelings they'd experienced in their own lives. 

Stanislavski was involved in a long and arduous practice making every actor better prepared for stage performance and eventually producing a less rigid acting style. He also developed exercises that encouraged actors to explore character motivations, giving performances depth an unassuming realism while still paying attention to the parameters of the production.

Although very complex, one of the basic goals of the "Stanislavski system" was to portray believable, natural people on stage. His actors worked hard to deliver perfectly believable performances, as none of his actors wanted to hear his famous verdict, "I don't believe."

Elements of his system...

• The magic "If" - A simple way of beginning the Stanislavski Method is to ask yourself "What would I do if I were in this situation?" This is a good way to consider natural reactions to the events in the story. However, Stanislavski also realized that these types of "what if" questions do not always lead to the best characterization. "What would I do?" might be a very different question from "What would Hamlet do?". 

• Re-Education - Actors must rethink the way they move and talk while being onstage. Theatre began in Ancient Greece with masks and choreographed sequences; styles may have changed in subsequent centuries, but they were still characterized by an actor's overemphasis found in early theatre. However, in real life, we don't behave that way. Stanislavski compelled actors to find ways to exhibit true-to-life human nature, while still being able to project loudly enough for audiences to hear. 

• Observation - Stanislavski was the ultimate people-watcher. He encouraged his students to carefully observe others, focusing on their physical traits just as much as their personalities. Every character should exhibit unique traits, many of which can be inspired and adapted from an actor's observation. 

• Emotional Memory - Stanislavski did not want his actors to simply create a facsimile of an emotion. He wanted his actors to actually feel the emotion. Actors needed to put themselves in the mindset of the character's situation so that they genuinely experience the feelings of intense sadness. However, for actors not able to connect with the character's emotional state, Stanislavski advised performers to reach into their personal memories and draw upon a comparable life experience. 

Informations from the link below:
https://www.thoughtco.com/stanislavsky-system-acting-method-2712987



What I think of the System?...

What Stanislavski concerned the most was naturalistic of each performance. Stories often go way more dramatic than in real life, it makes a performance more challenging especially when Stanislavski wanted his actors to perform them 'believable'. As not all human being will have an experience of facing any of the situations in a play or story.

I always believe in "QUALITY is more important than QUANTITY". Just like Stanislavski, he was an actor, and the way he acted was able to pass until our generation, people that know him will know how well he did in his acting career and how many nice performances he had directed. He gave himself achievements just to impress the audience. He wanted all performance to be perfect, and in the way he believes.

To be honest, before knowing that we're doing something related to Stanislavski, I've heard of him in some Chinese tv shows when I was little. But have no idea of who he is, his system went all over the world and was learning by actors from all different places. It was miraculous hearing this familiar name of his after so long and doing researches about this amazing person.

How is the System aiding me in my acting?...

By knowing the system, I will start to put my best effort into the character I'm playing for. Try to know the character in and out, watch some other versions of the play. Well understanding for the character I'm playing is leading me to perform in a more believable way.

While doing rehearsals, I will put myself in the situation, although I'm still not very good at it, Rob will sometimes tell me some other situations that I will probably face in real life, to make me react to that happening in the play more naturally.

Term 2 unit 5&6 KONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKY & ANTON CHEKHOV (research work)

Anton Chekhov's Background

ANTON PAVLOVICH CHEKHOV was born on January 1860 in Taganrog, Russia. His father, Pavel was a grocer with frequent money troubles. His mother shared her love of storytelling with Chekhov and and his five siblings. When Pavel's business failed in 1875, he took the family to Moscow to make a fresh start while Chekhov remained in Taganrog until he finished his studies.

In the autumn of 1879, Chekhov joined his family in Moscow. He enrolled in the university's medical faculty, graduating in 1884 as a doctor. With his father still struggling financially, Chekhov supported the family with freelance writing, producing hundreds of short comic pieces under a pen name for local magazines.

Few years later, Chekhov had become widely popular with a "lowbrow" public. He practiced as a physician and began to publish serious works of fiction under his own name. His pieces appeared in the newspaper New Times and then as part of collection such as Motley Stories.

In 1888, Chekhov published his first work "Steppe", an autobiographical work describing a journey in the Ukraine as seen through the eyes of a child. It was an important success earning its author the Pushkin Prize. Chekhov also wrote works for the theatre during this period. His earliest plays were short farces, however, he soon developed his signature style, which was a unique mix of comedy and tragedy. Plays such as Ivanov (1887) and The Wood Demon (1889) told stories about educated men of the upper classes coping with debt, disease and inevitable disappointment in life.

Informations from link below:

https://www.biography.com/people/anton-chekhov-9245947

Stanislavsky's Background

KONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKI was born Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev on January 1863 in Moscow, Russia. His father was a wealthy Russian merchant. His maternal grandmother was a notable French actress in Paris. Young Stanislavski grew up in a bilingual environment. He was fond of theatre and arts, studied piano and singing and performed amateur plays at home with his elder brother and two sisters.

Stanislavski studied business and languages at Lazarevski Institude, the most prestigious private school in Moscow. He did not graduate, instead he continued self-education while travelling in several European countries and studying at libraries and museums. Eventually Stanislavski joined his father's company, became a successsful businessman, and the head of his father's business.

In the year 1888, Stanislavski founded the Society for Arts and Literature in which he performed and directed for productions for almost a decade. In June 1897, he and his partner, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko decided to open the Moscow art Theatre, which would be an alternative to standard theatrical aesthetics of the day. They opened with staging of "Tsar Fyodor", a play by Aleksei Tolstoy, then stages "The Seagull" written by Anton Chekhov specially for the Moscow Art Theatre.

Stanislavski invited Anton Chekhov to see several plays while he brought the Moscow Art Theatre on tour in Sebastopol and Yalta in Crimea. Chekhov admired the company's stage production of his plays and respected the theatrical achievements of Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. He then collaborate with the Moscow Arts Theatre legendarily. It resulted in creation of such classics as 'The Seagull' 'Uncle Vanya' 'The Cherry Orchard' and also the play that we're working on 'The Three Sisters'. These four big plays which remained in the repertoire ever since.

Informations from link below:
https://www.biography.com/people/constantin-stanislavski-9492018