Page 97 - Theatre_Arts_Form_5

Theatre Arts for Advanced Secondary Schools

and responds to sensory stimuli, including sights, sounds and emotions. The
exercise helped actors to concentrate on the stage and ignore the fact that there
is the audience watching. Stanislavsky wanted his actors to separate themselves
from the audience, and use their imagination to overcome the sensation of the
audience acknowledging their existence. Actors could learn to concentrate and
FOR ONLINE READING ONLY
so remember their lines, respond on cue, ignore distractions offstage and onstage,
remain in character and focus on what everyone onstage is doing.

Emotional memory
This is one of the aspects of internal approach. It focusses on specific details.
Performers/actors are trained to never attempt to acting in general or portray
emotion in any unclear or ambiguous way. They are supposed to convey their
feelings in terms of details in real life. Thus, actors are trained to explore their
own living experience in order to find equivalents for the feelings experienced by
characters in the play. The importance of emotional memory is to help actors to
evoke real emotions during a performance. Actors are encouraged to remember
their own feelings and experiences connected to the situation of the role they are
performing.

The magic if
This is one of Stanislavski’s components of internal approaches. It deals with
attainment of an inner truth. The “Magic if” invites performers to ask themselves
the question “What if?” in order to develop a stronger connection with their
characters. The “magic if” speculates the character’s circumstances and then
genuinely reacts to those imagined conditions. During the course of training
exercises, actors are encouraged to ask “what if” and react correspondingly.
Actors assumed themselves “If” they were in character’s position, what would
they do? or “What if” this object in their hand is a bomb, what would they do? “If
they were in Serengeti National Park, how would they walk?”. The “If” questions
help actors to achieve the best level of believability relevant to the situation in
a play, film or television. It is considered that “If” is a word that has the power
to change actors’ minds and allow them to picture themselves in almost any
circumstance. Through “What if” an actor can make informed choices in acting
which would appear to the audience as real, true and believable.

87 Form Five

28/06/2024 15:04
THEATRE ART F5 fnl.indd 87 28/06/2024 15:04
THEATRE ART F5 fnl.indd 87