Sessions with Toby from the Donmar

7th February (Wednesday) 1st session

We walked around the space without leaving any big gap between each one of us. And each time, Toby will add in a movement for us and we need to quickly react to it when he shouted words that represent those movements.

Here are the words for the movements of this exercise

Clap - clap together

Jump - jump together

Side - use the fastest speed to move to the side, standing straight and be ready to get back into space

Center - quickly move to the center of the space, standing like the atoms in a solid.

Survivor - one person in the group stays standing, and the others will kneel down on the floor

Sacrifice - opposite from 'survivor', only one person will kneel down while the others stay standing at where they were.

TV - There will be an invisible television and all of us need to squeeze to the front together in order to watch what's on the television

What did I learn from above?...

This exercise is to let us work together and assemble with the others in a group. Like 'Survivor' and 'Sacrifice', none of us know who's going to be the one different, we can only communicate with each other by using eye contact. This exercise is also helping everyone to stay focus on the activity and concentrate on what Toby is going to say next in order to stay engaged with the group. I need to be in a multitask situation while assembling with the others because most of us forgot our first objective was to fill in the space whilst walking without leaving more gaps in between. 

Then, everyone stood in a circle like how we play 'WA'. But this game needed everyone to look down and when we were asked to look up we need to pick a person to look at. If the person you're looking at is also looking at you, then both of you are out.

What did I learn from this game?...
This was an intensive game, it made my heart pound as I was waiting for Toby to say look up, I do not want to lose the game so quickly, so in my heart, I was wishing that the person I'm going to look at wasn't looking at me. But it was also a surprise when you found out that the person you're looking at is also looking at you, it was something like a tacit understanding. I don't think it's a bad thing as if I am an audience, I would love to watch if there's something like that on stage. Looks like the characters on stage are related in some kind of way. 

"This is for you." "For me?" "Yes, for you." "Thank you." All of us sat in a circle facing everyone and someone started off with the first line by walking towards a person he wanted to pass an invisible gift to. The person receiving will say the pink lines. All of us need to react with each line we said, including when we're going to pass a gift to someone. It must be creative and contain with stories. 

I did mine like this...

When Malcom handed me a gift, I received it with full of confusion to show that he'll never give me a gift for nothing. I opened that gift, it was a smaller box inside and when I open the second box, again, a smaller one. As I was opening the gift I became more and more angry because of being fooled by Malcom. Bringing the anger with me, I hand another gift to Abdul angrily too, I walked to where he was sitting at a faster pace and saying my lines in a higher volume.

What did I get from above?...

I got to see different ways of how people reacting to their gift and how they tried to build the story. I found it interesting by them reacting with exaggerated facial expression. This was a game to build up our creative ability, to produce something that everyone else couldn't see with our actions and expressions. 

27th February (Tuesday) 3rd session

We did an exercise before starting the class. 
In the first round - we pointed at anything in the room and said their names out loud. 
In the second round - we pointed at anything in the room but saying names of other things. For example, I was pointing at the chairs but said bags. 
In the third round - we pointed at anything in the room and gave them random names that do not even exist. For examples, saying "rondidondi" or "gatalala" at anything. 
In the fourth round - At first, we need to point at a thing but not saying its name first, then point at the second thing and say the name of the previous thing. For example, I point at the lights first and then point again to the projector, but saying lights when I am pointing at the projector and so on.  

Which round I found easy and which is hard?...
The easiest one must be the first one because whenever I point at a thing, the name of that thing will pop up into my brain even without thinking of it. I think the fourth one is hard for me because I must be really focusing if not I will keep saying the original names of those things I was pointing. 

We did another exercise that was about improvising, everyone will be in pairs and we started off with saying "no, but..." whenever we wanted another person to stop telling the story, then we will need to start with another story until that person stops you with "no, but...". The second one was "yes, and...", this will able the story to continue but in their own different way. For example, Jaychelle started with a line "The other day, I was walking down the street..." then I interrupted her with "yes, and..." and continued with "... there was a homeless guy eating fried chicken..." and she will come in to interrupt me with her lines. 

What I think about this exercise?...
I found this difficult because I will run out of stories as the game going further and further. This exercise actually helped me to think faster and to pay more attention to one thing, I will definitely need to think fast during a performance and be able to improvise with something when other characters couldn't remember their lines. 


After that, everyone stood in a circle and one person went into the center and froze in a pose/action, the second person then had to go in to improvise a short scene with the first person, the first person will need to work with it as well. When people outside think the story was going bored, they could shout "freeze" and pat on the first person's shoulder then the person who shouted "freeze" will now be the second person. Only one person can shout "freeze" at a time. Everyone will take their turns to go in and improvise a scene base on the action of that person inside. 

What did I learn from above?...
Toby always reminds us of how we need to work as a group. This exercise helped us to be brave and step in to help out others when their scenes were getting boring. 

We then started another word game, which we need to create a story starting with "Once upon a time" and end it with "They lived happily ever after". Each person can only say one word each round. We kinda failed it in the first game as everyone was giving out random words and the story was unable to be connected at all. During the second game, some people weren't listening to others carefully, and there were so many long pausing in between and the game just couldn't continue smoothly. In the third game, Toby asked all of us to close our eyes in order to focus on our hearing and be concentrate on what did others said. I think the story was going on well, at least better than the first time. There were still some cracks in between like random words were added in, but we were able to finish the whole story. 

5th March (Monday) 4th session

We began with a person holding an invisible energy ball, in order to pass to someone else, we need to clap our hands towards the person and the person will need to clap his hands to receive it. We were walking in the space as usual, Toby then passes an energy ball to someone to start the whole exercise. During the exercise, few people tried to make it interesting by adding some movements rather than just clapping hands. As the game went along, we started to put in levels from low to high while we were catching the ball or when we wanted to pass it. 

Slowly, Toby took people out to give them objectives, for examples, Ilonka came in being really kind, whenever she gets the ball, she will pass it to someone by walking slowly towards him and clap softly to pass it hand over hand. In the opposite, Georgina came in to start blocking everyone's clap. 

What went differently?...
Everyone started to play in a more energetic way as people tried to catch the ball will many big movements like jumping or sliding over the floor and in between of it some people will slow down the pace by having the ball for a longer time to increase the tension between all of us. 

Toby then asked everyone out one by one and left only Molly in the space. He then added people in again but this time once they get the ball, they will have to do a daily routine in the space and shout "This is where I live" after 10 seconds. There're many different movements like martial arts by Abe and Jeremy did his sprinting, Ilonka was drawing. When it's my turn to join in the space, I thought of a movement which was sleeping on the floor as I love to sleep and my routine will be way more smooth and chill compare to others, I thought this will be a way to stand out in audience eyes because it would be really boring if everyone was going to do all big movements.

After that, we started to work on the story that Toby wanted us to write about, a thing/person that makes us feel comfortable with. There will be two groups working on different things, Molly will be working on hers. It was about her being around with her little brother. And Kamal, Gabriel and I will work with Ilonka's story, it was about the place that she feels comfortable with. 

What I think about Ilonka's story?...Without knowing we're actually going to perform this in the Donmar Theatre, I really think Ilonka's story is very beautiful. It was about trying to escape from a place called "home", but when she really got out from there, the cruel wind and lonely feel make her think of returning back to that home which is also the safest place to be. Words she used in her story and the emotions, and how she described the place and all that feeling around her. It was a really nice piece to work on. But due to the lack of time, we did not really get it well at the first time of working on that. 

Term 2 unit 5&6 THE YORK REALIST

The beginning of The York Realist

"I live here. I live here. You can't see that though. You can't see it. This is where I live. Here."

We start the play by knowing this quote first, we were asked to say what we thought of the quote when we first hear it. What I thought of the quote was 

The person might be having something different with the others and got bullied or isolated from everyone else. So, at last, he screamed out this quote feeling hurt trying to maintain his rightfulness. 

After having a little base of understanding the quote, people get into pairs or small groups. They are going to perform a devising short scene involving that quote.

Examples of some groups...

Abdul's group

Abe will be a kid got bullied by his two elder brothers. He ran away from the house after being bullied again. Unfortunately, their mother called and told Abdul the eldest, she will be home very soon, in order to not get into trouble, they need to find Abe back. 

When they managed to find him in a forest, Abe was playing with his imaginary friends, and not willing to follow his brothers back home. After a short while of arguing, Abe said out the quote. 

my point of view...

They presented it in a childish way, the repetition words in the quote do sound a bit like what a kid will say. They are very simple words but all have strong meanings, especially from a kid, it shows more of desperation.  

Molly's group

The scene started with Molly wandering in a cabin. When she heard someone coming back, she started to get panic. So, that's actually Brad's cabin and Molly was just a homeless lady that wasn't meant to be in there. Molly tried very hard to explain that she doesn't even know someone is living in there. Brad took his part very well too, he was shocked finding out someone has been living in his cabin for quite awhile. When Brad was about to call the police, Molly finds no other way so she said the quote out.

my point of view...
They did a nice work presenting the quote. I can see how Molly was trying really hard to keep her opportunity/chance to continue staying in that cabin. It seemed like she's going to face something worse if she got kicked out by Brad. 

What did we achieve?...

we read through the first two scenes of the play and after few pages of reading, we would stop to discuss how far the story we understand. We tried to act it out for a few times, the awkwardness between George and John bugs us a lot because we were sure that they're a gay couple but we're still very confused on how can we show it.

We are able to be clear with all the setting in our acting space (not a stage). We've gotten more and more smoothly to go in and out of the space and space like kitchen or the stairs that actually still belong in the scene.

As this play is more like a family-friendly play, the relationships in between must be on point in order to convince the audience with it. We've been working hard on the characters' personalities and the relationship between each one of them. 

The full story of The York Realist

We finished reading the rest of the scenes and the quote we learned from at the beginning was actually from George's monologue. We then pair up with a person to work on the monologue and see how well we could understand it.

We were asked to be A and B, one will be the desire that wanted to go to London with John and another one will be the one that wanted to stay in York. Each pair read out the whole monologue in their own way.

Those with underlines will be the negative thoughts from George. 

I was the negative one in my pair, whilst Shamsul was the positive one. He started with the monologue first and when the negative thoughts from George came out, I stood in front of Shamsul and said my worries out then went to his back again.

What do I understand from that monologue?...
We were doing this because that's what George's mind was going on with. He does not know which to decide. Anyways, I believe deep in his heart he would really want to go to London, but he couldn't imagine if there is something happen after he decided to live a new life there. He still not able to face it because of that many years of living under his mother. He is still not very strong to handle any big problem.

6th February (Tuesday) 1st WORKSHOP AT DONMAR 

We were having a workshop in Donmar for the first time!! We met with Toby, he's going to be our instructor leading us on The York Realist for weeks after this workshop. We started off with a game called 'WA', it was to warm up our response capability.

How did the game(WA) work

• everyone needs to put both hands together like a pointer. 
• step your right feet forward and shout 'WA' directly to the person you are pointing with both of your hands, it can be anyone in the circle, even the person next to you. 
• if I've been shouted by someone, I need to point to the air with my hands and shout 'WA'
• after I shouted 'WA', both people next to me need to chop me with their hands and shout 'WA'
• then, I will put my right feet out and point to the next person, and so on. 

Why do we need warm-ups ?...

In order to work well in rehearsal or during the performance, actors need to do three types of warm-ups, Physical, vocal and mental. It is a simple strategy that will improve all of your work. Warming up before every performance or rehearsal is also being a responsible actor.

Actors should also gently prepare the body for exercises by gradually increasing the heart rate and circulation, this will loosen the joints and increase blood flow to the muscles. Stretching the muscles prepares them for physical activity and prevents injuries.

For a play to work, it requires a collective effort. Actors need to come together to tell a story. Doing a thorough group warm-up helps get the most out of each actor and is definitely worth 5 or 10 minutes investment.


Toby then asked two of our classmates to stand at each end to represent a straight line with agree and disagree. Then he continued to ask us few questions for example, "Do we have to be far away from our home to be successful?" I stood on the disagree side, I think it's not the area or environment that matters, it's about our attitude that matters. If I'm not a hardworking person, no matter which place I chose to stay, I won't be successful without putting in any effort.

After that, we went on to another exercise. It was about places. and in the center of the room represented London.

First Question: Where do we come from?
Most people stood around the center, but I tend to stand way more distance from the circle. Because I'm from Malaysia.

Second Question: Where do our parents come from? 
I went a little bit further than the first round, I was standing at another spot representing Indonesia, where my mom from.

Third Question : Where do our grandparents come from?
I stood back to Malaysia, that's where my grandparents from my Dad's side from.

Fourth Question: Where do we most likely wanted to live in the future?
I was actually struggling between the UK and Malaysia, unlike others, they chose a country/city they love, I do love many other places like NewYork and LA in the USA or some other romantic Europe countries.
But I'm a very homesick person, for London, it's a place where I study and maybe a place where I will find my job in the future; for Malaysia, a country where I was born, my hometown is there, my friends are there and most of the memories were made there.
After a few minutes of thinking, I chose Malaysia, it doesn't mean that I do not love to try something new or be adventurous. It's just that I would prefer to stay in the place where I get to connect with my family.

Fifth Question: Where do we feel more comfortable to stay?
I stayed at the same spot as before, Malaysia without any thinking. Specifically, I was actually standing in the area where I live, Kuala Lumpur but not in my house. Although I love my family that much, but I don't really show them all my sides, usually i will be more myself when I'm with friends, because I can just do whatever I want and they will enjoy it with me, but family, they will try to control me from doing something crazy. But I still love them.
I've also got a reason for not choosing London, even though I've been living here for awhile. Somehow I just don't feel secure being with the people here and all that unfamiliar places. I couldn't get rid of that lonely feeling, or maybe is just me that's not trying an effort to fit in, I don't know. 

Overall from above...
As I can see myself, I stayed in the corner all the time, I'm not an anywhere(feel comfortable anywhere) person, I tend to find it difficult when I wanted things to change while I'm already used to what I always do.

Pros: I do not get affected by other people outside my area, and will keep my own culture for long. I wouldn't change my habits even when I was in another place or treating people differently because they're different from me. 

Cons: It'll be very difficult for me to get along with a group of people from different places. Not just that, if any reason when I need to move to another place like now, I moved from my country to another country just to continue with my education, this is going to be really hard if I'm still how I used to be in Malaysia. Things will get harder because the difference between two places is very different.


We then all went into a room with another instructor. We were asked to create a short story depends on a picture we chose. I was in a group with Brad and Molly. We picked a picture showing two girls lying on the ground full of grass with half of their body in the lake, they were holding hands. We then had to pick a scenario and a scene for the characters in the picture. We've gotten 'B tells A that she wanted a child' & 'on a hill'.

It was quite easy for us as the picture was already showing a background like a hill, so we do not need to add in that on purpose. After deciding who's A and B we discussed roughly the whole story.

Here's the outline of the story before we go into adding dialogues. 

A and B were lesbian, A cheated on B with a guy earlier, trying to find excuses to get rid of B, but B was so in love with A and accepting all the things optimism, even when A told her that she's pregnant(obviously showing that she's hooking up with another guy) but actually she's not. She then continues to use many other excuses to change B's mind. 

After writing the whole story out, the instructor wanted us to only pick four most important lines of the play and act it out. It was fun watching other people playing a gay or lesbian character, some are comedic and some of them are serious. 

How I feel about this workshop?...

For the exercises we did with Toby earlier, it's related to how George feel when John wanted him to move to London with him. This exercise is to let us find out how will we feel about different places and our comfort zone. 

And the second session, we did something related to relationships between people with the same gender. This also leads us to understand more about George and John.

21st February (Wednesday) 2nd WORKSHOP AT DONMAR

We listened to different kinds of music and were asked to move our body by letting them lead our body, and need to write the feeling down on a piece of paper after each music. There is music that makes me feel lonely, strange, joyful, freedom, creepy. We then got into small groups of three and to pick only 6 most interesting words from each group. 

Kenya, Georgina and I were in a group. We decided to take Anxious, Mischievous, Isolated, Distraught, Freedom and Joyful. Then, we need to build up our dance movements that are related to these 6 words and fit them into a music beat. 

What did I learn from this exercise?...
Music can lead us to a different motion. It can also be the main thing to lead every actor on stage to feel the same in a certain situation. For example, a birthday party, there will always be some people that are living out of their mind and doesn't know what to do. If there's a happy background music, it would be different, everyone will definitely be in their character immediately as soon as they heard the music. 

In the afternoon, we were divided into two groups and took our turns to play grandma's footstep. Another group will need to give feedback after each game by saying who they think is the most interesting player and how they make the entire game interesting. 

I found Brad interesting in the first game because he kept trying to be at the front but always being sent to the beginning due to his big movements, he tried really hard each time when the "grandma" turned her head to the front. As an audience, I got panic for the game because of him as I wanted to see more from him but was so scared that he will be sent back to the beginning again. 

Before the third game, Toby put a block, a wooden rack and his scarf to the space. In order to touch "grandma's" shoulder, everyone needs to step on to the block with both legs, pick up the scarf and put it back on the floor and also need to climb through the rack. We could do that in a different order. 

During the game I was observing, I found Abdul funny as he failed every time in the same section which was to pick up the scarf. And for Kenya, she's been working really careful all the time but when she was finally going to the third section, she got caught by not freezing her body properly, so unfortunate. 

After that, Toby asked us to play without the "grandma", we need to imagine it ourselves and stop at the same time as a group. For this round, I can see everyone is losing their tension towards the game, as some people were still moving even though most of them stopped, and with those that were still moving they did not get themselves back to the beginning. 

What did I learn from above?...
If we relate the game to our performance, the audience would find some cheating is interesting but when all characters are doing the same thing, there are no more different objectives from each character, all of them just wanting to win the game, it would be really boring to watch. I think if all characters have their own objectives or achievements, the audience will get to see more and find it more fun to watch. 

We then went to another room, it was to let us understand more on the history of gay people. We also learned Polari, which is a language that only gay man speaks because being gay is a serious crime back in those days. They need to speak in a different way to evade from the police. 

How I feel about this workshop?..
After knowing the history of gay people, I can somehow relate them to George and John. For examples like why are they being so awkward and why did they hide their true identity from other people.   

During the game of grandma's footstep, I learned a lot by knowing what kind of performance does the audience want to see. What do we need to do in order to make our show interesting. We need to avoid doing boring things by doing the same thing or overly trying to make our performance fun, it looks like we did everything on purpose. 

7th March (Wednesday) Rehearsal day

Click and watch our rehearsal videos

Important information!!

Evaluation for the York Realist performance in Donmar Theatre will be in another blog.

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