Stanislavski
  • Overview
  • Timeline
  • Influences: People and Events
    • Anton Chekhov
    • Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko
    • Nikolai Gogol
    • Henrik Ibsen
    • Vsevolod Meyerhold
    • Alexander Pushkin
    • Mikhail Shchepkin
    • Russian Revolutions
    • Moscow Art Theatre (MAT)
  • Productions Directed and Target Audiences
    • Hamlet (Shakespeare)
    • Othello (Shakespeare)
    • The Seagull (Chekhov)
    • Tartuffe (Molière)
    • The Three Sisters (Chekhov)
  • Theories, Conventions and Practices
    • Action
    • Active Analysis
    • Adaption
    • Attention (Circles of Attention)
    • Bit/Unit
    • Control and Finish
    • Controller/Muscle Controller/Monitor
    • Communication
    • Creative State
    • Embodiment
    • Emotion
    • Experiencing
    • Forth Wall
    • Fusion
    • Given Circumstances
    • Here, Today, Now
    • I Am Being
    • If/Magic If
    • Imagination
    • Justification
    • Logic and Consistency
    • Lure
    • Method of Physical Actions
    • Muscular Release
    • Public Solitude
    • Rays
    • Sense and Emotion Memory
    • The Six Questions
    • Subconscious
    • Subtext
    • Supertask (or Super Objective)
    • Supertask of the Character
    • Task/Objective
    • Tempo-rhythm
    • Three Bases of the System
    • Through-line of Action
    • Truth and Belief
  • Staging and Playhouse Architecture
  • Legacy
    • Richard Boleslavsky
    • Michael Chekhov
    • Mikhail Kedrov
    • Vsevolod Meyerhold
    • Lee Strasburg: Method Acting
    • Evgeny Vakhtangov
  • Useful Links
  • Exam Prep
  • Blog - Test
  • Waffles
    • Subtext
    • Superobjective
    • Realistic sounds and set
    • Justification
    • Bits/units
    • Longer Rehearsal Times
    • Tempo-rhythm
    • Emotion Memory
    • Given Circumstances

Method of Physical Actions

Stanislavski developed the "method of physical actions," to solve the dilemma of spontaneous emotion in a created environment. In this technique, the actor performs a physical motion or a series of physical activities to create the desired emotional response for the character. Emotions from the subconscious, so this technique lets the actor consciously target and control subconscious emotions through movement. For instance, if an actor needed to weep, he could sigh and hold his head in his hands, a physical action that many who are crying instinctively do. [wiki]
Created by Holyrood Advanced Higher Drama 2013-14
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