In our first practical workshop, to help get the performers in the right mind set, I chose to lead a workshop around Stanislavski’s techniques in a hope that this would make our Forefront performers think about age and how different we act as a result of it.
Stanislavski’s style of theatre is what I want the actors to engage with in their performance, “It was crucial for Stanislavski to find a technique which the actors could use to transfer to the role their own ‘honest’ feelings and experiences…”(Actor’s Way, p.75). Whilst Naturalism might not be the main style of the work we create for our final production, it is something I would like to see worked into our piece. To create a naturalistic character on stage is a skill that I want the performers to show off on stage which is why I felt he would be a good starting point for this process.
I decided to use Stanislavski techniques to help me run activities that would help my performers with characterisation and to be able to differentiate between adult and non-adult behaviour.
For my first activity, I chose to use the Stanislavski technique ‘What if’. I gave the scenario that the performers were at a party and then proceeded to have them enter the scene giving each individual their own, ‘What if’. Then using these the performers improvised the scene. I then spoke to the actors about the scene in relation to adult behaviour.
For my last activity I chose to do ‘Given the Circumstances’. I gave the group of performers lots of circumstances and then let them improvise the scene. The performers used levels, without thinking about it, which also reflected the age they were representing. Some of the tasks are shown in the photo below.
Adults will be Kids from Webley (2015)
Interaction Changes with Age from Webley (2015)
For some scenes, I would ask them to do the same scene but as a different age group. In these cases I asked how the performers felt their performance changed and it stirred up some interesting thoughts which we will explore when creating our piece as the weeks go on.
Tamsyn.
Work Cited:
Actor’s Way (1993) Actor’s Way. n.p.: Taylor & Francis Ltd. (p. 75)
Webley, T. (2015) Adults will be Kids
Webley, T. (2015) Interaction Changes with Age