Elements of the Stanislavski's Method of Acting

1. The Magic If

1.1. This is how the Actor fills in the blanks. Once the Actor has the circumstances he must breathe life into the character with what is not on the page.

2. Motivation

2.1. Actor will often ask a Director what his or her motivation is because if the choice he or she made isn’t working, a different motivation will give him or her clues to adjust the performance.

3. Subtext

3.1. The subtext is the meaning beneath the line – the unspoken communication. A good exercise is to put words to the subtext, but subtext comes to life in the tone of the voice or body language.

4. The body as an instrument

4.1. All of these things lead to the physical performance of an Actor. Actors must make choices about how a character speaks and moves physically. There are the overall physical embodiments of character.

5. Adaptation

5.1. An Actor does not work alone. It is often said that acting is reacting because an Actor must be in communion with his fellow Actors. But the Actor must also adapt to the choices other Actors make.

6. Analyzing the text

6.1. I all begins with a script. The script is where the actor finds the information that he needs about the caracter and how to behave in the different circumstances

7. Units and objectives

7.1. Characters do things in order to reach some sort of goal. Stanislavski liked to break the script down into units and objectives, which lead to what he called the super objective. The super objective is the overall objective of the character.

8. Observation

8.1. Through observation, Actors can understand experiences that they, themselves, may not have gone through.

9. Emotional memory

9.1. Emotional memory is a controversial subject among Method Actors. The idea of the practice is for the Actor to explore his personal experiences to find a similar emotion to the one the character is experiencing and tap into that “emotional memory” — that is, the feelings associated with that memory, and use it during the performance.