Characterisation; Objectives

1. Stanislavsky’s ‘magic if’ require actors to question the way their characters might react. It allows actors to overcome the confines of realism/practicality and hence remove the line that divides the character and the self.

In order to build on the character Emma, I have to understand and give reasons to her motives, the emotions she goes through and how she would react in certain situations. I would also have to imagine myself being in a pub by creating my space and the environment entirely in my head. For example, I have to visualize where the other tables are located in the pub, where the pool table might be perhaps and how the layout of the pub looks like on stage. These details not only allows me to focus and be completely ‘in’ character, but it can also aid the audience into appreciating the scene better. Only when I believe in the things that I (as Emma) would do, would the audience then believe in the on-going actions on stage.

2. Vsevolod Meyerhold’s ‘biomechanics’, unlike Stanislavsky’s ‘magic if’, works the other way round. Instead of starting out by figuring the character’s inner motives and intentions, the system of biomechanics allows the actor to do so by first exploring the physical needs and factors that attribute to a character. For example, Emma starts out as a thirty-eight year old woman at the beginning o the play. She might wear middle-age clothes, like a sleeveless dress that does not really emphasize her assets.

Stanislavsky’s other main concepts include ‘emotion memory’ and ‘given circumstances’. Emotional memory requires the actor to call on the memories he or she felt when they were in a situation similar to that of their character. Recalling an emotion and attributing it to a character on stage does not only allow the actor to convince the audience and hence make his character more believable, it also erases the distinction between the self and the role. ‘Given circumstances’, I believe, makes acting not exactly identical to real life. By picking out the unique characteristics of your character from the text/script/extract and in succession, using ‘emotion memory’, a character is built. How one plays a role depends on the given circumstances, but how every individual action/idea is expressed depends on the emotion memory recalled by the actor.

Personally, I find Stanislavsky’s system easier to adopt in most cases because it mimics the actions in real life. It is easier to relate your role to something you have been thoroughly familiar to, rather than adopting a completely different style of acting. However, Meyerhold’s ‘biomechanics’ can come in handy when the actor cannot get rid of their emotional baggage and should therefore, begin with something that does not directly agitate his emotions.

Done by: Siti Suhara