Study on acting. Theater sketch

Bubnova Elena Vladimirovna, Professor, Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "Krasnoyarsk" state academy music and theater", Krasnoyarsk [email protected]

Method physical actions Stanislavsky and the first exercises for the memory of physical actions

Abstract. The article proves the direct and close relationship between exercises for the memory of physical actions and the method of physical actions of the greatest discovery made by the brilliant reformer of Russian and world theater K.S. Stanislavsky. Only by mastering the truth of the simplest physical actions through exercises without an object can one come to an organic existence in a role, to the highest artistic technique. Key words: K.S. Stanislavsky, role, the art of an actor, method, elements, physical action.

This article is, of course, primarily addressed to students and people interested in the art of acting from the point of view of the “school” of this art. As is known, K.S. Stanislavsky considered action to be the only and indisputable basis of acting. What is action in an actor’s work? This is not mechanical movement. Action is an act of will that is aimed at achieving a particular goal. For the art of acting, action is the material. Therefore, the task of training actors becomes a comprehensive study of this action.

The first thing students have to do is theater department to pass to the department, that is, the very first test lesson on the skill of an actor is exercises on the memory of physical actions, otherwise exercises with imaginary objects. The point of these exercises is that, without having any objects in your hands, only feeling them with the help of your imagination, you need to perform physical actions as if these objects were in your hands. Students take these exercises after only two months of study. And since any training proceeds from “simple to more complex,” these exercises probably seem to be the simplest of all that students have to master in 4 years of study, since they are the first. But K.S. Stanislavsky, according to whose system the training is carried out, attached exceptional importance to precisely this type of exercise and it was they who persistently recommended making it the basis of professional training. Moreover, he believed that both beginners and experienced actors should train on them. K.S. Stanislavsky argued that exercises with a “dummy” (as he called these exercises) for a dramatic theater actor have the same importance as scales for a pianist. And he insisted that it is exercises for the memory of physical actions that need to be done systematically and throughout professional life actor. So what gave K.S. the reason? Stanislavsky states that “those who perform small physical actions already know half the system.” And also: “Prepare me actors who know how to act without object... and with such a troupe I can do miracles”? So why did he say this, and what reasons did he have for this? It turns out that they are very, very serious! After all, it is these seemingly simplest exercises for the memory of physical actions that are directly related to the method future work over the role.

The art of an actor is considered high art only when the actor puts genuine passion and lively temperament, that is, genuine feelings, into his art. And here is K.S. Stanislavsky, thanks to his teaching, his system (the likes of which nothing has been created in the entire history of world theater) indicated the surest and only path to the revelation of genuine human feelings, freed the actor from the painful concern for these genuine feelings, and eliminated the very possibility of an actor admiring his feelings. Namely: the transfer of the actor’s attention from the search for feelings within oneself to the performance of a stage task is one of greatest discoveries K.S. Stanislavsky, which solves a big problem of our artistic technique. Having himself reached the heights of acting in his work, K.S. Stanislavsky was remarkable (brilliant) in that he thoroughly studied elementary basics the art of the actor and created a method that provides unlimited opportunities for the development of acting technique, as well as the growth and advancement of the art of theater in general. And the formulated theoretical provisions of the system became for the contemporaries of K.S. Stanislavsky (E.B. Vakhtangov and V.E. Meyerhold) with the stimulus of their own creative quests, each of which was in the performing arts in my own way, honoring Stanislavsky as a teacher and patriarch of the theater. So, watching the play of great artists, K.S. Stanislavsky, first of all, tried to understand what special quality makes their playing truly great art, and how they achieve this. What method is used when working on a role, and is it possible, by defining the elements of acting art, to create a technique that an ordinary actor could use, a technique that would be the most correct, the most shortcut leading to creativity. After all, it is difficult to imagine the development of the technique of any art while the elements from which it is composed are unknown. In any art they (elements) are completely obvious: in music it is sound, in painting it is color. In drawing, a line, in pantomime, a gesture, in literature, a word. K.S. Stanislavsky argued that the main element of the actor’s art is organic, purposeful, productive, genuine action. K.S. Stanislavsky said that to solve a particular stage moment, craft has two, three, maximum ten techniques, while nature has an innumerable number. And we must act according to its laws. He believed that this was the only correct path and that only the highest artistic technique could bring an actor into harmony with nature. And you can master this technique only through hard work on yourself through intense daily training. Establishing organic nature as a decisive force in an actor’s work, Stanislavsky created a system for approaching it. The conclusion that the great theater reformer came to is that only the physical reaction of an actor, that is, the chain of his physical actions on stage can cause those emotions and feelings for which theater exists. But K.S. Stanislavsky did not come to this simple conclusion right away. At one time, the teachings of K.S. Stanislavsky made a revolution in theatrical art, since he revolutionized the work on the play, starting this work with “table” rehearsals, namely with a thorough analysis of the play and images of the future performance. K.S. Stanislavsky thereby raised the general culture of the theater and the culture of acting to great heights. So, when his teaching received recognition and he had big number supporters and followers, the restless and endlessly searching K.S. Stanislavsky discovered dangers in this teaching of his. And the main danger was contained in the one-sided and one-sided development of the actor, since during the so-called “table” period, that is, during the analytical work, the actor’s brain worked, but not the physical apparatus, which at that time remained indifferent. As a result, the actor learned to analyze and reason about the image, but not to act. And this amazing man K.S. Stanislavsky, who never rested on the achieved result, surprised everyone. He began to revise his entire system and, by the end of his life, came to the creation of a completely new method, which was later called the method of physical actions. This new method of the actor working on the role of K.S. Stanislavsky was the first to consistently use J.B. in his work on the play Tartuffe. Moliere.

Stanislavsky tested his great discovery at home, meeting with students, conducting classes with them and rehearsing. He continued to be listed as the head of the Moscow Art Theater, but did not visit there. The period from 1928 to 1938 was tragic for K.S. Stanislavsky, he no longer came to the theater he created and lived the life of a recluse. Stanislavsky exhorted: “We must make a new revolution in the performing arts, start from the basics, experiment, try, rely on people who believe in the correctness of these searches.” But they didn’t hear him. Only a small group of actors who believed him and decided to go with their teacher to the end attended his rehearsals. This was precisely the work on the play by J.B. Moliere's "Tartuffe" and work on the dramatization of the poem "Dead Souls" by N.V. Gogol. Based on the inseparable unity of a person’s mental and physical life, this method brought greater specificity to the actor’s work, since it was built on the correct organization of the physical line of life stage image. To create this image the actor must evoke deep feelings and complex experiences within himself. This can only be done through the correct performance of physical actions, through the logic of these actions. This is the essence and meaning of this method.

K.S. Stanislavsky categorically forbade learning the text. This was an indispensable condition of work, and if someone suddenly, during the rehearsal of Tartuffe, began to speak in the poems of J.B. Moliere, then K.S. Stanislavski immediately stopped the rehearsal. This was already considered a kind of helplessness of the actor, since he clung to the text, to the words, and even to the exact author’s text. The highest achievement it was considered if an actor, with a minimum number of the most necessary words, could show a diagram of purely physical actions on which this or that scene was built. And until this scheme is found, until this scheme is drawn, until the actor believes the truth of his physical behavior in this scheme, he should not think about anything else. K.S. Stanislavsky insisted that one must begin preparing a role first of all by establishing a logical sequence of physical actions. He demanded that without text, without staging, knowing only the content of each scene, everything should be played out according to the scheme of physical actions, and claimed that a role prepared in this way would be completed thirty-five percent. Stanislavsky said that it is impossible to master a role right away. There is always a lot in it that is unclear, incomprehensible, and difficult to overcome. Therefore, you need to start with what is most obvious, most accessible, and what is easily recorded. He taught to seek the truth of the simplest physical actions that are obvious. And he argued that the truth of physical actions will lead to faith, faith will turn into “I am,” and then all this will flow into creativity. K.S. Stanislavsky never ignored the elements of an actor’s physical behavior in the process of creating an image; he always drew the actors’ attention to the essential importance of control over the purity and completeness of any, even the most insignificant, physical action. However, in the very last period of his activity, K.S. Stanislavski put forward this element as one of the most paramount importance. And he demanded that the actors not talk about feelings, since feelings cannot be recorded. He said that only a physical action can be remembered and recorded. And that is precisely why a significant link in mastering the method of future work on the role of K.S. Stanislavsky considered the technique of mastering pointless actions, since these exercises help to comprehend the nature of the simplest physical actions, restore their logic and sequence. It can be argued that memory exercises for physical actions are aimed at developing that higher artistic technique that K.S. dreamed of. Stanislavsky. Actions without an object are real classic example the simplest physical actions, because these actions are easily controlled by consciousness. The ability to control these actions brings them to the full truth, and then faith in the authenticity of what is being done, and then organic nature itself with its subconscious enters into the creative process. These exercises are not only included in acting training, they are very deeply connected with creativity. As you know, intuition (that is, knowledge, conditions, the receipt of which is not realized) is the most important mechanism of creativity. During one of the rehearsals of K.S. Stanislavsky told actor V.O. Toporkov, playing the role of Chichikov, that he (Toporkov) was caught up in a wave of intuition and therefore played the scene perfectly. And this is the most valuable thing in art. Without this there is no art. K.S. Stanislavsky assured the actor that he would never be able to play like that again. You can play worse, you can play better, but what was here now is unique and therefore valuable. Even if he tries again to play what he just played, nothing will work. This is not recorded. You can only record those paths that led to this result. K.S. Stanislavsky said that he tormented actors in search of a sense of truth in the simplest physical actions, because this is the path to awakening intuition. He pushed the actors along the path of simple logical sequence. Feeling the logic of their behavior, they believed their actions and began to live a genuine, organic life on stage. K.S. Stanislavsky argued that this logic is in the hands of the actors, it is fixed, it is understandable, and yet this is the path to intuition. Stanislavsky called for studying this path, memorizing only it, and the results will come by themselves. It must be said that the method of physical actions is a method by following which the actor comes to create a stage image in the shortest way. Therefore, pointless actions, that is, exercises with a “dummy” (this brilliant invention K.S. Stanislavsky), or as they are now called, exercises for the memory of physical actions, occupy the most important place in the program of the fundamentals of acting already in the first year and are directly related to the method of future work on the role.

It should be added that physical actions not only guide the actor on the right path in the process of his work on the role, but are also the main means of acting expression. After all, nothing conveys a person’s mental state as clearly as his physical behavior. Therefore, the separation of the physical side of a person’s behavior from his mental side is, of course, a conditional thing and is a pedagogical technique invented by Stanislavsky, since physical actions, depending on certain proposed circumstances, necessarily turn into psychophysical actions. And also, maybe off topic, one touch to the portrait. K.S. Stanislavsky said that many people know the system, but only a few can apply the system. “I, Stanislavsky, know the system, but I don’t know how yet, or rather, I’m just beginning to know how to apply it. In order to master the system I have developed, I need to be born a second time and, having reached the age of sixteen, begin my acting all over again.” And he also said that the system is needed only in order to open the full course of the creativity of the organic nature of the artist. It is needed in cases where the role doesn’t work out. That’s what K.S. was like. Stanislavsky is “an ordinary genius and an extraordinary person,” as our great contemporary G.A. writes about him. Tovstonogov.

Links to sources 1. Christie G. Education of an actor from the Stanislavsky school. Moscow: Art, 1978. P. 86.2. Ibid. P. 8788.3. Kiseleva N.V., Frolov V.A. Fundamentals of the Stanislavsky System: Textbook Rostov n./D: Phoenix, 2000. P.122.4. Toporkov V.O. Stanislavsky at a rehearsal. Memories. M.: ASTPRESS SKD, 2002. P. 147148.5. Tovstonogov G.A. Stage mirror. Book 1: About the profession of a director L.: Art, 1980. P.42.

DEVELOPING A SENSE OF TRUTH AND FAITH

These exercises consist of, without having any objects in your hands, feeling them only with the help of your imagination, to perform physical actions in the same way as if these objects were in your hands.

For example, if you do not have a water tap, soap or towels, wash your hands and dry them with a towel; sew without having a needle or fabric in your hands; smoking without a cigarette or matches; clean shoes without having shoes, brush, polish, etc. in your hands.

When you look at well-executed pointless actions, you completely believe that this is exactly how the people performing them sew,

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they light a cigarette, etc., you see how accurately they feel the non-existent objects in their hands. K. S. Stanislavsky considers physical actions with a “dummy” to be the same daily exercises necessary for a dramatic actor as vocalises for a singer, scales for a violinist, etc.

“You can get the right feeling of well-being in the simplest, non-objective action (K.S. asks the exercise to write a letter without paper, ink and pen)...

Let's take this sketch: you have to write something on paper. Here you are looking for a pen and paper. All this needs to be done logically, without rushing. We found the paper. It’s not so easy to pick up paper; you have to feel how the paper is taken (points with fingers). You have to think about how you place it on your hand. It may slip off on you. The first time you do it slowly. You must know what it means to dip a pen. Do you understand the logic? So you shook off the pen, on which a drop of ink remained. You start writing. The simplest action. Finished. They put the pen down, blotted the paper, or shook it in the air. Here your imagination should tell you what to do in such cases, but only to the last degree of truth. You need to be able to master these little truths, because big truth you will never find without them. On this small point, right-

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Yes, you feel the real truth. Your truth is in the logic of your most insignificant actions... You yourself need to feel that this is logical. This simple little action brings you closer to the truth."

In life, we do not remember the details of various small actions, because we do them habitually, mechanically. If we start acting pointlessly from memory, and then perform the same action with a real object, then we will see how many details we missed, how we did not feel the object in our hands, its weight, shape, details. Therefore, at first, students are asked to take some very simple, non-objective action. For example: light a match by taking it out of the box; tie a tie; thread a needle; pour water from the carafe into a glass, etc.

You need to work on these exercises at home: first do the exercise with real objects, then without objects, then repeat again with objects. This needs to be repeated several times, checking the sensations in order to remember with your muscles what it means to take an object, put it down, hang it up, take it off, etc.

1 K. S. Stanislavsky, Articles, speeches, conversations, letters, M., “Iskusstvo”, 1953, p. 657.

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Students show results in lessons homework. We make comments and corrections. For example, while sewing, a student feels the needle and thread well, but sews in one place and the material does not move. In another case, the practitioner tried to perform a pointless action as quickly as in life, skipping details: putting on a glove - good, taking it off - bad, his hand is dead; takes off his galosh - does not pull his foot out of it; pours water - does not close the tap; smokes - does not feel the taste of cigarettes; eats - does not feel the taste of food, etc. We point out to him the need to initially do everything slower than in life, we instill a taste for to the smallest details physical action. The hardest thing is lifting weights. These exercises need to be practiced especially carefully.

The emergence of a sense of truth is greatly helped by accidents that often occur during the preparation of an exercise. For example, while sewing, a spool of thread fell and unwound. The participant in the exercise picked it up and wound the thread again. If this accident is fixed, it will enhance the exercise.

Exercises with different justifications can be done in different rhythms. For example: I sew when I have a lot of time; I sew when I'm in a hurry.

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(A list of exercises for the memory of physical actions performed at different times is attached, pp. 96, 97.)

In addition to single actions, paired actions are also interesting: sawing wood; rowing a boat; unwind the fire hose; pump the pump; forge, etc.

Knowing that we encourage creative initiative in every possible way, students theater school In one course, on their own initiative, they prepared the entire test on the memory of physical actions. Pointless actions were combined into one general sketch, “Preparing for the New Year’s Eve in a student dormitory.” It started with sawing wood. Two students were sawing non-existent firewood with a non-existent saw, but the real sounds of sawing and falling logs accompanied the action. The scoring accurately matched all the smallest details of the saw, from the first scratch of the surface of the log to the crack of the log breaking off. Next, the sound was made of chopping a torch, tearing paper, lighting matches, etc. In preparation for the New Year, students changed into non-existent dresses, decorated a non-existent Christmas tree, set the table, opened non-existent canned food, wine, put out fruits, candies, etc. Exercises for memory of physical actions were combined with exercises for the speed of permutations. For a minute

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the curtain closed, then opened - and a stove was burning on the stage, a real decorated Christmas tree was shining with lights, there was a set table with those very real objects that were absent from the pointless actions. The entire course sat at the table and greeted the twelfth strike of the clock with raised glasses.

In well-practiced non-objective actions, we check how much the person performing the exercise has mastered his attention and keeps it on the object, felt what muscle freedom is (i.e., makes exactly as much effort as is needed for a given action), how his imagination works, how he justifies the proposed circumstances to the extent that he believes in the truth of his action and feels its logic.

On stage, actors have to drink from glasses that do not contain wine, read unwritten texts of letters, smell paper flowers, carry weights that are not heavy, handle hot irons that are not hot - in a word, deal with a number of prop objects. It happens that on stage letters are written too quickly, glasses are waved so that wine should spill out of them, money is paid without being counted, wine is poured into a glass in one fell swoop, etc. Exercises with a “pacifier” help to find the truth in dealing with fake items.

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EXERCISES ON MEMORY OF PHYSICAL ACTIONS PERFORMED AT DIFFERENT TIMES

Preparing minced meat for dumplings

Combing

Repairing electrical plugs (burnt out)

Wallpapering a room

Sealing a window for the winter

Wall newspaper design

Ironing

Laundry

Inflating a bicycle wheel

Drawing drawing

Refilling a kerosene lamp

Preparing the dough

Undressing and swimming in the river

Drawing a picture with oil paints

Translation of a design for embroidery

Watch repair

Kindling the stove

Preparing for breakfast

Joinery

Radiotelegraph operator

Hanging a curtain

Refilling the sewing machine

Cleaning a double-barreled shotgun

Fishing

Shredding cabbage

Hanging laundry

Samovar (pours water, sets it down)

Bandaging the hand

Making the bed

Typing

Sewing on a machine

Harnessing horses

Washing in the shower

Preparing the parcel

Lacing boots

Violin tuning

Cleaning herring

Unwinding wool

Replanting flowers

Opening Canned Food

Feeding chickens

Stringing beads

Washing dishes

Wig perm

Removing a car wheel

Printing a photo

Room cleaning

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Dismantling the bike, Getting ready for the evening, Cutting a dress, Dismantling a pen,

Wall clock repair, Fabric dyeing, Hair cutting, Stick cutting

Whip weaving

Making soup

Cooking shish kebab on a fire

Plastering the wall Harvest Knitting Crossing the stream

Putting on a dress

Floor cleaning

Setting the table

Clay crafting

Untying the box

with sweets

Cooking jam

Drinking tea

Getting water from a well

Book binding

Vacuuming

Peeling potatoes

Unpacking the parcel

There is another exercise that is close to pointless actions - stage wrestling. Real wrestling on stage is uninteresting and goes beyond art because of its naturalism. Stage wrestling consists of the fact that the actor guesses the strength and direction of the physical action of his partner, who only gives a hint of the action, but does not apply real force, and acts out this strength and direction of the physical action. For example, I’m squatting, and my partner grabs me by the collar and lifts me up. Without exerting any real force, he gives me the direction of movement, and I rise myself, truthfully continuing the line of his movement and guessing

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the force that should have been applied. Suppose I respond by pushing him. He flies off, continuing the line of my movement and as if guessing the expected strength of my push.

What is important here is rhythmicity, attention to the partner and the application of force that is used to lift weights in exercises for pointless actions, when the weights weigh nothing.

But the main thing in this exercise is to truthfully perform the action: fly the way I would fly if I were pushed hard into certain direction, or how I would rise if I were lifted by the collar.

The same applies to other methods of stage wrestling or fighting that do not allow the use of real force.

PHYSICAL WELL-BEING

“We are now in class during a lesson. This is the true reality. Let the room, its furnishings, the lesson, all the students and their teacher remain in the form and condition in which we now find ourselves. With the help of “if” I transfer myself to the plane of a non-existent, imaginary life and for this I only change time and tell myself:; “Now it’s not three o’clock in the afternoon, but three o’clock in the morning.”

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Use your imagination to justify such a long lesson. It is not hard. Let's assume that you have an exam tomorrow, and a lot has not been done yet, so we are delayed in the theater. Hence new circumstances and worries: your family is worried because, due to the lack of a telephone, it was impossible to notify them about the delay in work. One of the students missed a party to which he was invited, another lives very far from the theater and does not know how to get home without a tram, and so on. Many more thoughts, feelings and moods are generated by the introduced fiction. All this affects the overall state, which will set the tone for everything that happens next. This is one of the preparatory steps for experiencing...

Let's try to do one more experiment: let's introduce a new “if” into reality, that is, into this room, into the lesson that is happening now. Let the time of day remain the same - three o'clock in the afternoon, but let the season change, and it will not be winter, not a frost of fifteen degrees, but spring with wonderful air and warmth. You see, your mood has already changed, you are already smiling at the mere thought that you will have a walk outside the city after class” 1.

1. K. S. Stanislavsky, SOBR. Soch., vol. 2, pp. 75-76

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Thus, with the help of creative imagination, the actor’s physical well-being arises in response to the question: how would you feel and what would you do if, for example, it was very hot now? Cold? Are you tired? Are you sick? Just went for a swim? Have you had lunch? Do you want to sleep? Got some fresh air from a smoky room? Has it snowed for the first time? etc.

In addition, your physical well-being is greatly influenced by the mood that prevails in the place where you come.

If you enter a hospital where your dangerously ill friend is lying, you involuntarily submit to the atmosphere that surrounds the patient, and try to behave in such a way as not to disturb this atmosphere.

Entering reading room libraries, you will try not to disturb those who study there. This will determine your well-being.

If you are late and come to a youth ball in the midst of fun, your well-being will be determined by your desire or unwillingness to join the atmosphere of fun that reigns at this ball.

You will walk down the street differently in spring or autumn, summer or winter, in clear weather or in rain and storm; to and from work, to and from college.

The simplest physical well-being, -

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determined by muscular effort, often found in plays.

Let's take, for example, “Our people - we will be numbered!” Ostrovsky.

Agrafena Kondratyevna runs after her daughter Lipochka, who is spinning in a waltz.

Agrafena Kondratievna. How long can I run after you in my old age! Wow, tortured me, barbarian!

As you can see, Agrafena Kondratievna is tired and exhausted so much that she can hardly speak. In the same action, a matchmaker enters the room. The fact that the matchmaker is out of breath is given right in the text.

Ustinya Naumovna (entering). Phew, phew! What is it with you, silver ones, what a steep staircase: you climb, you climb, you have to crawl.

Balzaminov’s physical well-being is somewhat more complex in A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “A Festive Sleep Before Lunch.”

Balzaminov (runs in, holding his head). Ear, ear! Fathers, ear!

Matryona (at the door, with tongs). I’m not a poly-machter, what can you take from me!

Balzaminov. But I asked you to curl your hair, not your ears.

Matryona. Why did you grow big ones! In would go to the policeman, but what would they take from me! (Leaves.)

Balzaminov. Fathers, what should I do (approaches the mirror). Ai, ai, ai! Everything turned black!.. It’s really painful,

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There is no need to cover it with hair so that it is not visible.

Balzaminov A. Get to work!

Balzaminov. What a hurt! So, with hot tongs, she grabbed the whole ear... Oh, oh, oh! Mama! Even before the fever... Oh, fathers!

We took several examples depicting simple physical well-being, but we must keep in mind that any actor any play, like every person at every minute of his life, is certainly in some kind of physical state of health.

We begin classes in this section with the simplest exercises in which students look for physical well-being that corresponds to the given proposed circumstances.

For example, I’m walking along the road:

a) in the heat. (One of the students played this exercise like this. A hot day in the south in May; he had just arrived, went out to the seashore, and the feeling of space, the sea wind, the bright sun captured him; he wanted to swim. Using exercises for the memory of physical actions, he began to “undress”, took off his T-shirt, trousers, slippers; sat “naked” for a while, basking in the rays of the hot sun, and then began to enter the water; it turned out to be very cold; a feeling of cold first covered the feet.

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nor, then, as he sank into the water, his calves and knees became cold, he began to pour over himself cold water, thought whether he should swim, resolutely went deeper and, when the water covered his shoulders, “swimmed.” In this exercise he managed to convey the seashore, the feeling of spaciousness, heat and cold.)

b) in the rain; c) through dirt; d) in a snowstorm; e) when it’s slippery; f) in the fog; g) at dawn; h) on the hot sand of the beach, etc.

Those who exercise must know where, where and why they are going, and these reasons become a source of physical well-being.

For example. If I’m walking down the road in the rain to the pharmacy to buy medicine for a seriously ill patient, that’s one thing; if I walk along the road in the rain on a date, it’s different, although the road and the rain are the same. If it rains a little, that's one thing, if it's heavy, that's another. An asphalt highway is one thing, a country road is another, a path in the forest is another.

The exercise can be short if I walk quickly along the road, and it can be long if I stand under a tree while waiting out the rain. I can justify it in such a way that a tree does not allow raindrops to pass through, or I can justify it in such a way that at first it protects me from the rain, but then the rain still breaks through the foliage, and I have to move from place to place in search of dry ones.

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islets. If I'm wearing a raincoat or under an umbrella, that's one thing; if the rain takes me by surprise, that's another.

Or, let's say I'm waiting on the platform for the train to arrive. Circumstances here may vary. For example: a) I ran, afraid of being late, and now I’m waiting, trying to catch my breath; b) the schedule has changed, the morning train has been cancelled, but I didn’t know this and now I’m waiting all day for the evening train; c) I lost my ticket and am about to board the train without a ticket; d) the business for which I came was successful, and I am leaving with success; d) going on vacation; f) meeting the authorities; g) meeting the bride; h) I am the station duty officer, etc.

All these reasons determine different physical well-being and the corresponding line of behavior.

When performing the exercises, it is important to believe in the plausibility of the fictional conditions and remember how you felt and what you did in similar circumstances.

In search of physical well-being from the heat, students sometimes immediately start fanning themselves with handkerchiefs and wiping off sweat. It is wrong if these actions are only external, without a feeling of heat, when the breathing rhythm changes, the mouth gets dry, you want to wash yourself, change your underwear, etc.

Looking for physical well-being in the cold,

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students often immediately begin to twitch their shoulders, cower, rub their hands and ears, and kick one foot against the other. They forget that first of all they need to remember the true feeling of frost, which at first can be pleasant, invigorating, and then gradually freezes the legs, arms, ears, and nose.

In addition, the feeling of frost is individual. One is cold and suffers, while another enjoys the cold.

Here are some more initial exercises.

I enter the room: a) with wet hands after washing or washing; b) with dirty hands after firing the stove; c) with a soapy face, because in the midst of washing, the water in the washbasin ran out; d) after smearing a cut on a finger with iodine, etc.

Look for physical well-being under the following circumstances: a) a nail in a shoe; b) shoes are tight; c) tired, want to sleep, but can’t sleep (on duty); d) came to someone else’s house in wet clothes and left behind; e) in anticipation of a delicious lunch, when you really want to eat; after a delicious dinner he fell asleep in his chair; I was awakened by the phone ringing; I just can’t get out of my sleepy state; e) I want to smoke, but there are no cigarettes; g) I’m getting ready to catch the train, I’m late.

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Check the patient’s well-being if: a) headache; b) toothache; c) a tooth was pulled out; d) has a cold, coughs, sneezes; e) high temperature; f) has sprained a tendon in his leg and is limping; g) a speck got into the eye; h) bitten by a wasp.

In these exercises, students usually begin to simulate how they feel. By removing the tune, we explain that there is no need to try to immediately show the result, i.e., the final form of a given feeling of well-being, but one should look for the way in which this feeling of well-being accumulates.

For example. The boots are tight. At first, when you put them on, they may seem to fit. Then it turns out that they are tight, but can be tolerated, but in the end they cause such pain that you can’t walk in them.

However, in each case a justification must be found and each student must do this exercise in his own way.

The exercises are performed so that the action is the main thing, and physical well-being accompanies it.

For example. I'm going to a very important evening for me. I put on new shoes, and it turns out that they are too tight. Events (proposed circumstances) that occurred before the student went on stage will influence the physical well-being with which he enters the stage.

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Creative imagination plays a major role in creating a true sense of well-being. The biggest mistake would be if everyone starts to behave the same way in conditions of heat, cold, rain, illness, etc. This will happen if they try to feel the heat, cold or rain “in general.” The different circumstances offered will give everyone the opportunity to do the exercise in their own way, and it will become individual, multifaceted and unique.

For example, the exercise “In a new dress.” A new dress can be: a) liked and disliked; b) reap; c) to be worn for the one who gave it; d) tear; d) be too free; f) appear too elegant among the dresses of others, etc.

The exercise “Tired, I want to sleep” can be performed under a wide variety of proposed circumstances and is completely different from the same exercise performed by another student. Fatigue can be both pleasant and severe. I can’t sleep because it’s dangerous or unpleasant for myself if someone sees me falling asleep on duty. Finally, it happens that a person sleeps with one eye and is awake with the other. It happens that a person takes measures to avoid falling asleep: drinks strong tea, smokes, reads a newspaper, etc.

In life, fatigue certainly has

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individual expression. If we imagine a group of tourists tired after a long trek, we will see that one is sleeping, sitting in the place where he sat down; another gathered an armful of straw and settled down on the straw; the third collects brushwood for the fire; the fourth eats something without waiting for the general dinner; the fifth writes down the impressions of the day in a book; the sixth is trying to wash himself, etc. - and all these various actions will be permeated with an atmosphere of fatigue.

Thus, physical well-being is made up of many circumstances and resembles a musical chord, the character of which is determined by the main note (say, fatigue), and the rest, shading the main one, give the chord an individual coloring.

In addition, physical well-being changes continuously, sometimes even over a short period of time. For example, a chilled person comes into a warm room. At first he is still cold, he rubs his ears and hands, tries to get closer to the hot stove, then, after drinking hot tea, he begins to suffer from the heat and seek coolness.

In Chekhov's scene “The Guest,” an annoying guest stayed with the owner of the house until late at night. The owner wants to sleep, but he can’t make the guest understand that it’s time for him to leave. Finally

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after a long search, he found a way: he asked the guest for a loan. The guest left immediately.

In this scene, Chekhov wonderfully showed the changes in the owner’s physical well-being. He wants to sleep, and in his irritation he reaches the point of rage. But what a triumph he feels when he finally forces the guest to leave. This is how difficult a person who wants to sleep can feel.

The physical well-being of a person is described with even greater brilliance and humor in Chekhov’s story “Carelessness.”

After some hesitation, overcoming his fear, Strizhin headed towards the closet. Carefully opening the door, he felt for a bottle and a glass in the right corner, poured it, put the bottle in its place, then crossed himself and drank. And immediately something like a miracle happened. With terrible force, like a bomb, Strizhin was suddenly thrown from the closet to the chest. His eyes sparkled, his breath stole, a feeling ran through his whole body as if he had fallen into a swamp full of leeches. It seemed to him that instead of vodka, he swallowed a piece of dynamite, which blew up his body, the house, the entire alley... His head, arms, legs - everything came off and flew somewhere to hell, into space...

For about three minutes he lay motionless on the chest, not breathing, then he stood up and asked himself:

The first thing he clearly felt when he came to his senses was the pungent smell of kerosene.

My fathers, it was I who drank kerosene instead of vodka!” he was horrified. “Saints, saints!”

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The thought that he had been poisoned made him feel both cold and hot. That the poison had actually been taken was evidenced, in addition to the smell in the room, by a burning sensation in the mouth, sparkles in the eyes, the ringing of bells in the head and a stabbing sensation in the stomach.

“The physical well-being of joy can have many shades and feelings, and temperament, and even psychological springs... There are no limits to the imagination that works in human psychophysics to choose physical well-being”1.

These words of V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko emphasize that the sphere of physical well-being is limitless and sometimes manifests itself in an unexpected form.

Let us remember the ending of L. N. Tolstoy’s “The Living Corpse”.

Fedya (after shooting himself in the heart). How good... how good... (ends).

It would seem that in his well-being the pain from the wound should be the main thing, but he does not feel it - on the contrary, liberation from moral suffering overshadows physical torment.

Thus, physical well-being, from the simplest exercises to the most complex creative tasks, accompanies the actor during the action and sets the tone for everything that happens on stage.

1 V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, Articles, speeches, conversations, letters, M., “Iskusstvo”, 1952, pp. 167-168.

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“Stage art arises when an actor accepts as truth what he himself created with his imagination,” writes E. B. Vakhtangov.

When life created on sienna arises creative imagination, then the actor must

CHANGE OF ATTITUDE

change the attitude towards the subject, place of action, events, partners.

By a change in attitude we understand that internal “rearrangement” that allows the actor to treat conventional objects, conventional locations and fictitious events as genuine, and to partners as actors. For example, treat a fake pistol as if it were a real one, treat the scenery and fake furniture as the walls and furniture of your room, treat an imaginary offense as if it were a real one, treat a fellow student as your father or enemy.

The main way for a change in attitude to occur is the magical “if only”, the creation of the proposed circumstances and correct physical well-being.

“But in order for that imaginary world, which is built by the actor on the basis created by the work of the playwright, to capture him

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emotionally and captivated by the stage action, it is necessary for the actor to believe in this world as something as real as the world of reality surrounding him. This does not mean that an actor should surrender to some kind of hallucination on stage, that while playing, he should lose consciousness of the reality around him, mistake the scenery for real trees, etc. On the contrary, some part of his consciousness should remain free from being captured by the play, to being in control of everything he experiences and does as a performer of his role. He does not forget that the scenery and props surrounding him on stage are nothing more than scenery, props, etc., but this does not matter to him. He seems to be saying to himself: “I know that everything around me on stage is a crude counterfeit of reality, a lie. But if all this were true, this is how I would react to such and such a phenomenon, this is how I would act”... And from the moment this creative “if” arises in his soul, the real life around him ceases interest him, and he is transferred to the plane of a different, imaginary life created by him”1.

1. K. S. Stanislavsky, Articles, speeches, conversations, letters, M., “Iskusstvo”, 1953, pp. 451-452.

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Due to a change in attitude towards the subject, place of action, event, partner, the well-being of the student, the logic of his actions and actions, the flow of thoughts and feelings changes in accordance with the conditions that are given.

This process happens at every performance. On stage there are a number of real things and a number of fake things. ^However, very often real things are incomplete. The costumes are not made of wool, but of paper, satin is used instead of silk, the dishes are made of papier-mâché and you really can’t drink from it, etc. The stoves are made of plywood and painted, but the actor, with his attitude and actions, makes the viewer believe that that in front of him is a real, warmly heated stove, and, although both he and the viewer know that the stove is not real, in this moment it doesn't matter to them.

The actor, with his attitude, makes the viewer believe that the character is not receiving painted pieces of paper, but real money, and that a fake pistol can shoot and kill a person.

For example, Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” holds in her hand, it’s true, a real key, but it’s not for the gate in the Kabanovs’ garden, and the gate itself doesn’t really exist, and the viewer knows this very well, but the actress draws him into her created her imagination is the world, and he is together

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she begins to believe that this key will give her the opportunity to see Boris.

No matter how much you put your teeth on the shelf, creative people need self-expression. And in order to reveal acting talent and improve stagecraft, you need perseverance and patience. Acting exercises will help you acquire and hone all the skills needed by a professional actor. After all, an actor on stage is not just a mechanical doll that mindlessly carries out the director’s instructions, but a doll that can think logically and calculate actions several steps ahead. A professional actor is flexible, has good coordination, expressive facial expressions and intelligible speech.

Before you start studying and working on etudes and scenes to the fullest, you need to understand yourself a little. A real actor needs certain character traits that must be actively developed in himself. Other qualities should be hidden in a far corner and remembered extremely rarely.

Let's consider such a quality as self-love. It would seem that this is a normal state for every person. But this quality has 2 sides:

• Self-love makes you develop and learn every day, and not give up. Without this quality, even very young people will not be able to become a famous actor. talented person.
• Self-love and narcissism are a dead end for acting career. Such a person will never be able to work for the viewer; all attention will be focused on himself.

A good actor cannot be absent-minded. He should not be distracted by extraneous noise while playing on stage. Because acting inherently implies constant control of oneself and one’s partner. Otherwise the role will simply become a mechanical performance. And attention allows you not to miss important details while studying, watching theatrical productions, master classes and trainings. In order to learn to concentrate, use exercises to develop attention from stagecraft.

Attention is the basis for a good start to a theatrical career

The development of attention begins not with special exercises, but with everyday life. An aspiring actor should spend a lot of time in crowded places, observing people, their behavior, facial expressions, and characteristics. All this can later be used to create images.

Keep a creative diary - this is an ordinary diary creative person. In it, express your thoughts, feelings, write down all the changes that have occurred with surrounding objects.

After filling out the creative diary, you can move on to practicing sketches and sketches. A novice actor is obliged to convey as accurately as possible the image and facial expressions of the person he was observing. It is necessary to place prototypes in non-standard situations - it is precisely such productions that show how much the actor was able to understand and get used to the image of an unknown person.

"Listening to Silence"

The next exercise is the ability to listen to silence; you need to learn to direct attention to a certain part of the external space, gradually expanding the boundaries:

• listen to yourself;
• listen to what is happening in the room;
• listen to sounds throughout the building;
• recognize sounds on the street.

Exercise "Shadow"

It not only develops attention, but also teaches you to move consciously. One person slowly does some pointless actions. The second’s task is to repeat all movements as accurately as possible, try to predict them, and determine the purpose of the actions.

Pantomimes and dramatizations

A good actor knows how to convey emotions expressively through words and body. These skills will help to involve the viewer in the game and convey to him the full depth of the theatrical production.

Pantomime is a special type of stage art based on the creation of an artistic image through plasticity, without the use of words.

• The best exercise to learn pantomime is crocodile game. The goal of the game is to show an object, phrase, feeling, event without words. Simple, but fun game It perfectly trains expressiveness, develops thinking, and teaches you to make quick decisions.
• Dramatization of proverbs. The purpose of the exercise is to use a small scene to show famous proverb or aphorism. The viewer must understand the meaning of what is happening on stage.
• Gesture game– with the help of non-verbal symbols, an actor can say a lot on stage. To play you need at least 7 people. Everyone comes up with a gesture for themselves, shows it to others, then shows some other person’s gesture. The one whose gesture was shown must quickly repeat it himself and show the next someone else's gesture. Whoever gets lost is out of the game. This game is complex, develops attention, teaches teamwork, improves plasticity and hand coordination.

Exercises for the development of plasticity

If things are not going well with plastic surgery, this deficiency can be easily corrected. By regularly performing the following movements at home, you can learn to feel better own body, manage it skillfully.

"Painting the fence"

The exercise “painting the fence” develops the plasticity of the hands and arms well. It is necessary to paint the fence using your hands instead of a brush.

What exercises make your hands obedient:

• smooth waves from one shoulder to the other;
• invisible wall - you need to touch the invisible surface with your hands, feel it;
• rowing with invisible oars;
• twisting clothes;
• tug of war with an invisible rope.

"Pick it up piece by piece"

A more difficult task is “assemble the parts.” You need to assemble some complex mechanism piece by piece - a bicycle, a helicopter, an airplane, or create a boat from boards. Take an invisible part, feel it with your hands, show the size, weight and shape. The viewer must imagine what spare part is in the actor’s hands. Install the part - the better the plastic, the faster the viewer will understand what the actor is assembling.

"Stroke the animal"

Exercise “petting the animal.” The actor’s task is to pet the animal, pick it up, feed it, open and close the cage. The viewer must understand whether this is a fluffy hare or a slippery, wriggling snake, a small mouse or a large elephant.

Development of coordination

The actor must have good coordination. This skill allows you to perform complex exercises on stage, performing several movements at the same time.

Exercises to develop coordination:

• Swimming. Extend your arms straight parallel to the floor. Make circular movements backwards with one hand, and forwards with the other. Move your hands simultaneously, periodically changing the direction of movement of each hand.
• Knock - stroke. Place one hand on your head and start stroking. Place your other hand on your stomach, tapping lightly. Do the movements at the same time, not forgetting to change hands.
• Conductor. Stretch your arms. One hand moves up and down for 2 beats. The other one makes voluntary movements for 3 beats. Or draws geometric figure. Use both hands at the same time, changing hands periodically.
• Confusion. Extend one arm, make circular movements clockwise with your straight hand, while simultaneously rotating your hand in the other direction.

These exercises are not easy to do at first. But constant practice gives results. Each exercise should be repeated at least 10 times every day.

Scenes and sketches for beginning actors

A novice actor does not have to come up with everything from scratch. The ability to copy and imitate well is an integral part of stagecraft. You just need to find a film with your favorite character, try to copy his facial expressions, movements, gestures and speech as accurately as possible, convey emotions and mood.

The task seems simple, but at first it may be difficult. Only regular practice will help hone the skill of imitation. In this exercise you cannot do without attention and the ability to concentrate on little things. Jim Carrey has a good gift for imitation - there is a lot to learn from him.

Exercise “Think it through”

Acting profession presupposes well-developed fantasy and imagination. You can develop these skills using the “think it through” exercise. Must go places large cluster people, choose a person, observe, pay attention to appearance and behavior. Then come up with a biography, a name, and determine his occupation.

Scenic speech

Good stage speech involves not only clear pronunciation and good articulation. A good actor must be able to scream quietly and whisper loudly, and convey the emotions, age and mental state of the hero with just his voice.

To learn how to convey emotions in words, you need to pronounce a simple phrase from the point of view of different characters - a little girl, a mature woman, an older man, a famous actor or politician. You need to find special intonations for each character, use typical speech patterns.

Exercises for development stage speech:

• Blowing out the candles. Take in more air and blow out 3 candles one by one. The number of candles must be constantly increased, and the diaphragm muscles must be used when inhaling.
• Practicing exhalation technique. The poem "The House That Jack Built" is appropriate for this exercise. Each part of the piece must be pronounced in one breath.
• Improving diction. Slurred speech is not acceptable for good actor. You need to honestly identify problematic sounds in your speech and pronounce tongue twisters every day that are aimed at eliminating the problem. You need to exercise for at least half an hour 3-5 times a day. Tongue twisters teach you to speak clearly in fast pace, which is extremely important in acting.
• Intonation plays a prominent role in creating the right image. To practice, you need to read literary dramatic texts aloud every day.

You can study acting exercises on your own; various trainings will come to your aid. But it’s better to study in the company of like-minded people - you can take courses or organize theater evenings at home. The main thing is to never give up, always believe in your own talent, and move towards your goal.

Just like an ear for music, a sense of truth can be developed and strengthened with the help of special exercises. These exercises consist in the fact that without actually having any object in his hands, the student acts as if he were handling a genuine object, and he must do this so convincingly that those around him seem to “see” the outlines of this object and “feel” in the hands of the performer.

These exercises are called exercises for memory of physical actions. They are the best way strengthening and self-control on stage.

These exercises summarize everything that has been covered earlier.

Attention must be extremely focused.

Muscular freedom should be evident.

All actions and relationships must be motivated.

The ability to treat untruth as truth is trained especially strongly here (for where is there even more “untruth” than having nothing at all in your hands).

In addition, memory exercises for physical actions develop:

Observation;

Memory of sensations;

The ability to find a characteristic detail that is typical for handling a given object. Finding the right detail is the most important thing in art.

Develops the ability to communicate with non-existent objects, to freely and easily handle three-dimensional objects on stage.

Stage task and feeling

Movement– this is only movement in space or modification in space.

Emotional memory

In addition to verbal-logical and visual-figurative, there is another type of memory - emotional, which especially vividly and vividly reproduces certain experienced feelings and everything that is associated with them. That is emotional memory - it is a memory for feelings.

The ABC and grammar of an actor: action is the basis of school and skill. "Formula" stage action G. A. Tovstonogova.

The main goal of the training and the entire process of training an actor at the very first stage is for the student to find action, effective tasks, effective or conflicting facts.

From the very first lessons, students begin to understand that on stage they must always do something, be busy, be in an active process. The “action reflex” is embedded in the artist’s blood and flesh forever and becomes a distinctive feature genetic code actor.

The theory and practice of acting covers multiple problems of stage creativity in the aspect of stage action.

Stage acting is the main category of the art of a dramatic actor, consisting in the ability to reproduce human behavior. The “subject” of acting science, pedagogy, and the creative search of a student actor is stage action as a theoretical and practical problem. Stage action is the main subject of theoretical study and program content of all Russian theater schools without exception.

“In the teachings of K.S. Stanislavsky's concept of “stage action” is fundamental. However, in pedagogy and theater science today there are a number of inaccurate definitions, mutually exclusive interpretations, and different meanings are attached to it. Thus, the very subject of learning and mastering by the student becomes blurred and uncertain. At the same time, not only the theory of the issue, but also the actual acting, student, and teaching practice depends on what content is contained in it” (34.105), writes Professor I.B. Malochevskaya.

“Action is a single psychophysical process of achieving a goal in the fight against the proposed circumstances of a small circle, expressed in some way in time and space.” (G.A. Tovstonogov.)

“Note that in Tovstonogov’s formulation every word is important; to remove any means to destroy the meaning of the concept. This is how Georgy Alexandrovich comments on the meaning of the words in this extended formula.

First of all, it is necessary to emphasize the inseparability of the psychological and physical principles, their unity (as opposed to the still prevailing erroneous ideas about external and internal action).

It should be remembered that the concept of “physical action” is conditional: of course, Stanislavsky is talking about psychophysical action, it’s just that the proposed name expresses the desire to emphasize the physical side of the effective process. Without understanding this, physical action is often called ordinary physical mechanical movement. Let us remember that physical action in Stanislavsky’s teaching is always a psychophysical action. This is the value of his discovery: a precisely found physical action can awaken the true psychological, emotional nature of the actor. Here’s how Stanislavskaya wrote about it: “... a physical action is easier to grasp than a psychological one, it is more accessible than elusive internal sensations; because physical action is more convenient for recording, it is material, visible; because physical action has a connection with all other elements of organic life behavior (emphasis added - I.M.). In fact, there is no physical action without desire, aspiration and tasks, without internal justification by feeling…” (91.3.417-418). Stanislavsky's discovery is based on the law of the organic relationship between mental and physical processes in humans.

Action is a process. Therefore, it has a beginning, development, and end. How does the stage action begin, according to what laws does it develop, why and how does it end or is interrupted?.. The answers to these questions explain the essence of the process.

The motivator of our actions in life is the objectively existing world, with which we are constantly in interaction through circumstances that we ourselves create, or circumstances that exist independently of us. On stage, these are the circumstances proposed by the author, playwright, i.e. proposed circumstances. They encourage action, move and develop an effective process. The law of stage existence is the law of aggravation of the proposed circumstances. An extreme aggravation of circumstances activates action, otherwise it will proceed sluggishly.

Action is born with the emergence of a (new) goal, the achievement of which is accompanied by a struggle with various circumstances of a small circle.

The proposed circumstances of the small circle are those that are the immediate cause, the impulse of action, those that really affect a person here, now; those with whom he enters into a concrete struggle.

Conflict – driving force actions. The most intense struggle with the proposed circumstances of a small circle to achieve the goal is the main content of an effective process. The development of the latter is associated with precisely this struggle, with overcoming obstacles on the way to the goal; obstacles can be of different nature, with a “-” sign and with a “+” sign.

The action ends either with the achievement of the goal, or with the appearance of a new proposed circumstance that changes the goal, accordingly giving birth to a new action. Without knowing the purpose and proposed circumstances of the small circle, one cannot talk about action.

As we can see, the definition of stage action includes: 1) purpose (for what?); psychophysical implementation (what am I doing to achieve this goal?); 3) adaptation (how?)” (34.106).

The above large quotation from the teaching practice of G.A. Tovstonogov and I.B. Malochevskaya makes it possible to see how many complex relationships in the technology of the actor’s art can be traced in these few lines, which deep meaning is contained in the definition of stage action formulated by Tovstonogov.

The most brilliant skill, high achievements in the field theatrical form are valuable only insofar as they support laws of human life behavior, that is, motivated and purposeful action. The basis of the first stage of training is the study of this law and the ability to apply it on stage.

So, the actor’s task is to create a stage image by reproducing human actions. It is clear that a student cannot yet do this in his first year, but it is important for him to remember and realize this for now.

We know that in life a person constantly acts, but the question is how his actions manifest themselves externally and do actions and their manifestations always proceed the same way? In life, does a person always realize that at the moment he is acting exactly this way and not some other way, can he act differently? And if a person is silent and motionless, does he act or not? Of course it works. Only his actions are not manifested in movements, requiring greater effort of consciousness and will, greater concentration on the object of action, and tension of the intellect.

Volitional tension and energy are necessary to reproduce a given stage action. And in order to internally force oneself to show an attitude towards a conventional stage object, one has to look for excuses, i.e. push to action. He is definitely present here and must be motivated and strong-willed.

In order to correctly approach the required action, you need to set the right goals and the right stage tasks. What is a stage task? What are the means to accomplish it? – A practical answer with action to three questions: “what, why, how do I do it on stage” - will be the completed stage task.

Let's see how the nature (and form) of any, even the simplest physical action, will change, depending on the goal to which this same action will be directed: I close the door: 1) to get rid of the noise; 2) check if it squeaks?; 3) to hide from persecution. The same physical action - “closing the door” - will be carried out differently each time, depending on what goal is at its basis. Those. in direct dependence on “why I do it” (goal), “how I do it” changes - adaptation.

Adaptation is one of the main means of an actor in achieving the goal of action. Thus, the actor is simply doomed to search for actions and devices of a physical nature. Performing a stage task through actions and devices is a conscious, logical, emotional, improvisational, and productive process.

The result of a well-performed stage task is a stage feeling, an experience. An increase in the activity of action in the fight against a small range of proposed circumstances, if they become aggravated to the limit, creates a special intensity of stage experiences.

The stage action will be developing, interesting and exciting if, while acting, the student as a result begins to worry, feel and truly live the effective indicators of stage life: the surrounding circumstances, the goal, the conflicting (or effective, event) fact itself that worries the student.

Action and feeling (physics - psyche) are mutually connected in the psychophysical apparatus of the actor. Organic psychophysical action, as it were, unites and embraces all stage manifestations: emotion and thought, psyche and physics. It contains all the elements and trains them all at once in a complex: attention, imagination, fantasy, muscle freedom, perception, inner speech, proposed circumstances, stage attitude and assessments, memory of physical actions, faith and truth, logic and consistency...

But let's return to the stage feeling. You can’t “play” a feeling, but you also can’t act without feelings. A lot has been written and said about the fact that you cannot look for a feeling by itself, “squeeze” it out of yourself, “experience” a mood, a state. A “hatched” feeling will lead to deception, portrayal, and playing. Or, even worse, a nervous, hysterical state, a harmful and unpleasant phenomenon - the play of feeling “in itself.”

It is important to properly prepare the appearance of stage feeling. In the fight against obstacles of a small circle, the student’s own feeling of achieving the goal or of its unattainability should appear.

Each student should have an original, living, immediate, logical and sensory perception of everything that happens to him. The student must demonstrate in his action only his own inherent manner of thinking and behavior and not “rent” other people’s reactions and behavior. Only a consciously set goal and active action for its implementation help to achieve an organic experience.“The process of experiencing is the main thing, without experiencing there is no art,” wrote K.S. Stanislavsky, - it is this that makes the action organic.

Already at the first stage of training, it is necessary to introduce students to the method of physical actions of K.S. Stanislavsky.

The method of physical actions is universal, it is in the nature of both human life and stage behavior. Physical action is the “atom” of the stage process.

The language of the actor is the language of action. There is great truth in every small action of an actor. Stanislavsky liked to say that an artist is “a master of simple physical actions.” From accurately found small actions, the actor’s great human truth is formed, and after it the stage, artistic truth.

What is the nature and technology of simple psychophysical action in the stage process?

First of all, it is necessary to recall once again that “the life of the human spirit of the actor and his actions are two sides of the same process, or, to be more precise, these are two ways of viewing this process. K.S. Stanislavsky recalled: “...translate your experiences into actions. The same thing will happen. When you talk about action, you talk about experience, and vice versa... When I talk about physical action, I always talk about psychology.” (92. 665).

M.A. also stated the same thing. Chekhov, recommending his exercises and the system of “psychological gesture”; the great actor believed that each physical exercise governs feelings and soul. Thus, the method of physical action is also intended to develop and improve the art of experiencing.

Remaining devoted to the art of experience, K.S. Stanislavsky formulated the principles of the method of physical actions briefly and categorically:

“-artists should be prohibited from thinking and caring about feelings!”

“An actor is a master of simple physical actions.”

... Stanislavsky amazingly guessed what the physiology of higher nervous activity proved thirty years later. Namely: any feelings (emotions) always arise as a completely involuntary consequence of three factors: 1) a functioning human need; 2) his prior knowledge of the prospect of its satisfaction and 3) newly received information about the same.

Human needs, like emotions, are not amenable to arbitrary control, but they are always transformed in one way or another depending on his equipment. The second principle of the method precisely requires this “weaponization” - mastery, the ability to build from simple physical actions actions that are increasingly complex, increasingly mentally and spiritually meaningful, approaching the accomplishment of large tasks” (29.49-50).

So, The study of physical actions and mastery of them forms the culture of the acting profession. The actor’s sphere of professional interests was, is and will remain action as long as a living person, his life and thinking is at the center of theatrical searches.

Researcher of human brain processes V.M. Bekhterev always defined thinking as a special type of action. K. S. Stanislavsky also wrote: “Every thought is an internally active action” (4.1.71). Both scientists argued that there is not a single incorporeal thought process that is devoid of external physical expression, albeit imperceptible to the eye, but felt.

The Rig Veda says: “any thought or impulse is already an action itself.” Acting reflexes work similarly to this principle: a thought is immediately followed by an action, and an action is immediately followed by a thought. “Even if you just frown, a plan immediately matures in your head,” says ancient Chinese wisdom. The only question is how much, where and on what the actor spends energy while performing an action, and how it manifests itself externally. With complete physical immobility, active thinking sometimes makes the actor more expressive than speed and dynamics, which often contribute to lack of concentration, loss of energy, purpose, and degeneration of action into movement. The actor’s goal-setting, thought, and need concentrate the rhythm and atmosphere of the stage action, and then it turns into a kind of spiritual force.

It must be added that “speaking” in theatrical practice also means “physically acting.” Any of the list of terms, expressions, concepts of theatrical practice turns out to be associated with action. A role, an image, a hero is, first of all, a “course of action”, “the nature of actions”. The elements of an actor’s creative well-being are also “elements of action” (attention, imagination, etc.), for which the “rhythm of action”, “atmosphere of action” are important... The list of performances in acting can be continued endlessly, and therefore the school The mastery of an actor begins with the development of the skill of effective behavior, and the science of theater begins with the teaching of action.

A remarkable researcher of the theory of stage action P.M. Ershov writes about the development of primary, secondary and higher skills in mastering action on stage: “professional mastery of action begins with the ability to see actions in real surrounding life, with the ability to distinguish between them and understand their flow. But this is just the beginning. Next comes the ability to consciously perform specified actions, any actions. And even higher is the ability to create an image from them that expresses a certain content. This, in turn, is associated with the ability to select actions” (29.46).

P.M. Ershov studied in detail the evolution of the school of experience by K.S. Stanislavsky, how the psychological theater method evolved: “He was looking for new and more reliable ways to create and artistic embodiment life of the human spirit in the role. At the same time, he came to general conclusions of great importance: the art of acting is the art of action; every action is already an experience; the experiences of any person are inseparable from his actions.

Stanislavsky's path from preferring experiences to performance to the affirmation of action as the basis of acting was long and difficult. What is “experience”? What is most important about it for an actor in a role? It started with the statement: the main thing is feeling. Then attention and imagination became the main thing. Then - will and task (c. 1914). “Experience is an active action, that is, the fulfillment of a task; and vice versa, the accomplishment of a task is the experience.” Later - tasks and desires (1919), then desires and actions (1926). IN " Notebooks” 14 “nails” are listed. First: genuine action, justified from within, is necessary. Fourteenth: the task causes desire, the desire causes action.

But at first action was understood as “internal,” as a purely mental phenomenon. There, on p. 258, Stanislavsky writes: “How to draw a demarcation line between a physical and mental task? It is as difficult and impossible as to indicate the boundary between soul and body.” He comes to the affirmation of indissoluble unity in the action of mental and physical, and in last years life - to the fact that the physical side of the action is more accessible to control by consciousness, and then by the subconscious, than the mental side.

From asserting a decisive role and action in acting, Stanislavsky came to the affirmation of the physical existence of action. It is precisely his muscular, bodily existence that makes it possible to transform him into obedient material - into something from which one can build. artistic image in acting. Build not only intuitively ("gut"), but consciously" (29.48).

However, does not “conscious simple physical action” cancel out the “art of experiencing”? On the contrary, the subjective truth of the actor’s soul receives completely objective content. The method of physical actions does not catch the experience like a bird in a cage and does not “preserve” it in the mise-en-scène. A genuine physical action is always a little different and the feeling too. The improvisational nature of their connections shows that the method of physical actions makes the actor’s performance very variable through unexpected connections and connections of the physical and mental. Master actors widely take advantage of the ambiguity of any physical action, as well as the possibility of its even more ambiguous psychological interpretation. Stanislavsky himself has repeatedly said that an actor needs to use this unique “gap” between physics and psyche for creative purposes.

Everyone knows that Stanislavsky himself proposed to achieve the goal of action, abandoning “direct” decisions, often in reverse ways. For example, the performer of the role of a character pursuing evil goals must have the psychophysical score of a good person. This deepens psychology and frees the actor from boring cliches of characterization. This also means that in reality, as in this case with “good evil,” there is no “gap” between physics and psyche. Evil will remain evil, and kindness in the role will only highlight evil thoughts more brightly. Real art is the ideal unity of form and content, internal and external, ethics and aesthetics, physics and psyche in the work of an actor.

Therefore, when speaking about the “gap” between the physical and the psychological, Stanislavsky actually speaks of it as a space of talent and for talent. And to make this gap or space even more perfect in expressiveness as a unity of physics and psyche is the daily concern of the director and actor both at rehearsal and at the performance. To do this, the actor needs to change devices, look for new internal moves of the role. This is exactly what Stanislavsky never tired of calling for. He needed an actor - an artist, improvising unpredictable and brilliant combinations of different levels of his stage existence (physics and psyche, consciousness and subconsciousness).

Any most illogical physical action of an actor-artist turns into an argument for his effective behavior. And he convinces us that this was the logic of his hero’s behavior in achieving his goal at this very second, in this situation. But first of all, this is how the actor’s creative subconscious unexpectedly worked when searching for ways to perform the action. The actor’s consciousness, knowing what needs to be achieved, gives an order to the subconscious so that it itself decides the question of how to achieve the goal. Only with such a close harmonious relationship, the “bow” of the mental and physical, can we say that the creative subconscious has started working, that all the clamps from the soul and body have been removed, and the necessary creative well-being has appeared.

The subconscious in an actor begins its work only in conditions of organic interaction between the mental and physical, in the absence of pressure on the actor’s soul, body, and thoughts.

Psychophysical theory of stage action K.S. Stanislavsky serves one and the most important thing: to free the subconscious for creative activity and connect the creative unconscious to the actor’s work in the role. “Physical actions are needed not for the sake of naturalism, but for the sake of the subconscious,” Stanislavsky emphasized.

The method of physical actions, discovered and developed in the last two decades of the life and work of K.S. Stanislavsky, was the final link in the evolution of his theoretical and practical views. Having overcome the dualism characteristic of the early period of the development of his theory, the division into internal and external technology, Stanislavsky came to affirm their unity.

The method of physical actions, according to Stanislavsky, causing through “life human body” “the life of the human spirit”, makes you organically and simply enter into any stage, creative process– role, sketch, exercise. This is an improvisational method. It is presented in verbal form when performing any stage task. It stimulates the spiritual life of an actor on stage and is suitable not only for rehearsal (as a sketch method for analyzing the action of a play and a role), but also for the improvisational work of an actor in a play.

Yu.P. mentioned the universality of the method, its natural purpose for the human actor and for the playful, live art of the stage. Lyubimov in his speech at the world congress “Stanislavsky in a Changing World” in February-March 1989. In his speech, Yu.P. Lyubimov, answering the question, what is the difference between the method of physical actions and the method of effectively analyzing the play and role, pointed out that directors prefer to work using the method of effective analysis during the preparation of a performance, outlining the paths of action in the performance with sketch tests. And in the method of physical actions there are more creative possibilities for the actor, both at rehearsal and at the performance, which is played in front of the audience. The universality of the method of physical actions is that it allows the actor to improvise and act within the limits of the director's task always anew. Directors sometimes call this method "tool" method of effective analysis. Sketch analysis of the play and role is by far the most advanced method of rehearsal work for a director. She promoted and developed the method of effective analysis formulated by K.S. Stanislavsky, actress, director and teacher M.O. Knebel.

The method of physical action and the etude approach to the role reflect the law of the unity of form and content in art, for only a living form can escape the external image and stamp in the content it represents. This is living theater, which expresses the content in different, perhaps reverse, ways, as this only happens in life. This means that at that second it was necessary to express the content correctly and organically in exactly this way. For example, it is customary to usually show anger by shouting or making a sharp gesture, and sometimes anger can manifest itself in the fact that a person turns pale, turns petrified and... without a single gesture. However, his well-being in this inaction will be more terrible, filled with emotion. The method of physical actions helps the actor to find more and more correct ways to achieve the goal, new devices and other internal justifications for action, more interesting and expressive than those that the actor used in the previous repetition stage tasks, at the previous rehearsal. The method sets the actor up for creative exploration.

The method of physical actions lies at the very basis of stage creativity, in its living improvisational nature. It repeats the mechanism of unpredictability of life behavior person and once again confirms the idea that theater is a model of the world and no less complex a model of it than the world itself. The more subjective the world of art is in its manifestations, the more objectively it is present in our lives. Let us repeat that theater not only reflects the world, but also creates a new one - the world of art. He not only gets to know life and its spiritual side, but also gets to know himself, organizing his own spiritual space.

Action is the natural mechanism of life, the law of social life, human life, and at the same time – the mechanism and law of the theater. Therefore, I would like to end the paragraph on action with another parallel, to compare the model of the theater with the model of the world and vice versa.

A wonderful legend that the theater was part of the Divine action was written by P. Brook. We bring it to the attention of the reader: “God, seeing how bored everyone became on the seventh day after the creation of the world, began to strain his imagination and think what else could be added to what he had created. His inspiration broke beyond His own creation and He saw another aspect of reality: the possibility of repeating Himself. Thus He invented the Theatre.

He called his angels and announced it in the following terms, which are still contained in an ancient Sanskrit document: “The theater will be a place where people can learn to understand the mysteries of the universe. And at the same time,” He added with deceptive nonchalance, “It (the Theater) will be a consolation for drunkards and lonely people.” The angels were very excited and could hardly wait until there were enough people on earth to carry it out” (8.262).

2.3. “Training the psychophysics of an actor must be conscious and comprehensive, and therefore purposeful and creative” (49.87). Z. Ya. Korogodsky.

Outstanding theater teacher Z.Ya. Korogodsky and many leading and ordinary masters of stage pedagogy argue that actor training should be comprehensive. Z.Ya Korogodsky, following K.S. Stanislavsky, added - “conscious”.

Advanced stage pedagogy today strives not to break apart a single, indivisible educational process mastering the elements of stage action. After all, stage action cannot be divided into elements, like any other organic life.

Training “by elements”: today – “attention”, tomorrow – “imagination” is long outdated, it does not meet the needs of the training system, does not correspond to the integrity of a single and indivisible stage action, be it an exercise or a performance.

Training only one element results in a flat, one-sided perception limited to one side of the task. It adds almost nothing to professional skills. All the wealth of other elements, shading and enriching, exciting physics and psyche at the same time, not united by one effective task, goal, effective episode- goes to waste.

All elements together combine the figurative content of the psychophysical stage action into an artistic whole picture. Visions, distant, close, detailed and associative, flash in the actor’s mind, like frames of a video clip. As the productivity of the action increases, more stable connections are created in the performer’s imagination.

Specifically, the idea of ​​complex training is that any exercise, even from a series of tuning, disciplining, organizing, can be through a focus on imagination, fiction in certain proposed circumstances, is aimed at training all elements of stage action together and at the same time. Why and why exactly?

Human perception is always figurative in nature. Thoughts, words, sensations, movements, actions—everything has an image. In this regard, the actor develops a psychomotor reflex of experiencing the image, which translates the experiences into the logic of action and allows these experiences to be concretized through physical action.

K.S. Stanislavsky thought a lot about the nature of the actor’s experience and found out that the “chain”: image ® thought ® experience in an actor’s work is an indivisible process of his perception during action on stage. However, as in life. Only in an ordinary person, sensory and figurative perception are not very developed, unlike an actor. In addition, the actor reacts to everything with his body, developed and flexible, his perception is psychophysical and psychomotor. “ Every movement and effective behavior of an actor is always and must be the result true life imagination"(4.2.76). Thus, the actor’s focus on imagination and fiction in the proposed circumstances of complex training directly reflects the creative laws of theater and acting.

“Any thought or impulse is already an action itself,” let us repeat once again what was written in the ancient Indian Vedas five thousand years ago. This is the idea of ​​the integrity of a person’s creative act... and the complex training of an actor. The “goal-thought” that encourages action has a projected image into the future, which should happen during the stage time of the exercise, sketch or performance. K.S. Stanislavsky devoted a lot of his research to scientific study figurative nature of the actor’s psychophysical action. Stanislavsky was the first among scientists to talk about thought-forms and thought-images in creativity.

“Living thought-forms” are discussed in detail in the next paragraph of this manual. “Living thought-forms” are necessarily accompanied by experience, because “without experience there is no art,” there is no organic psychophysical action. Every cell of the body of the actor performing the action is “psychotic.”

In comprehensive training in the conditions of stage fiction “if…” the whole sum of the elements of the organic process is trained. It is important for the teacher not to violate and comply with all the “if…” conditions in relation to guiding a student in training. And not to simplify, but to consistently create detailed loads and tensions in the simplest fictional circumstances, however strictly correspond to the reality familiar to the student. Everything that arises in the small circle of circumstances offered to a first-year student should be close and understandable to the young actor, taken from the life around him.

It is necessary to ensure compliance with the truth of life in the exercise. Otherwise, tension occurs, then strumming occurs and, instead of removing excess tension, this tension will manifest itself with renewed vigor.

From the very first lesson, the student needs to find motives, reasons, conditions and circumstances in unity. That is, to understand, to see with inner vision, to simultaneously feel the immediate goals, objectives, motives of one’s behavior in action in the proposed “if I…, if with me…, if I…”. This is the stage “set” of a first-year actor. In terms of its content, taken from the life around the student, it should be extremely simple, even ordinary. This is necessary in order to immediately go to the process of living human behavior in an improvised sketch-exercise, where the student does not have to play with anyone or anything, where for him everything is the proposed circumstances “if only...”.

In complex training, it is important to observe the two most important laws of the etude-exercise:

1. The law of motivated action (through a conscious attitude to existence in imaginary circumstances);

2. The law of unity and dependence of the mental and physical.

The teacher, performing a comprehensive training of etudes-exercises, adheres to the following creative principles:

– exercises constant and strict, consistent control over the truth and faith of implementation;

– monitors the obligatory organic justification of the process of logical and consistent actions;

– follows the game technique in presenting the student with an effective task;

– suggests to the student the possibilities of improvisation when performing an action;

– directs the conscious paths of the student’s work towards the liberation and active activity of his creative subconscious (when “not only I act, but it acts in me”);

– reminds and requires a continuous internal monologue from the student - slander, inner speech;

– monitors muscle freedom, the absence of any kind of clamps;

– sets a strict requirement not to do anything “for show” (“that’s how I try, look!” - how some overly diligent students tend to behave during training and... get caught), to act for oneself, organically, simply, as far as possible necessary by faith and truth.

In the seconds and minutes during which the student receives the teacher’s task, his preliminary internal motivation for the sketch-exercise is activated, and organic human nature is activated. Let us remember: “Any thought or impulse is already an action itself.” The action or movement has not yet begun, but through the conscious perception of a specific task, an effective orientation towards it occurs in the imagination and perception of the student. This " perfect image” (school of D. N. Uznadze) is already, in essence, an effective perception. It is brighter and more intense on stage than in life and forces the student to unleash conscious initiative, to look for actions, goals, tasks, facts. Conscious initiative trains the reflexive side of the actor’s physical action, that is, the responses of the creative subconscious to the assigned tasks with the actor’s body, arms, legs and the entire acting apparatus.

According to the science of the psychology of perception, its energy potential is much more clearly manifested when perceiving the imaginary. Let us remember once again that theater increases the possibilities of human perception. In the theater we often suddenly see something that we don’t notice in life. The perception of the everyday, the real is a simpler act in its organization. The stage perception of what is in the imagination and exists only as a mental image, a thought form in our consciousness, can be very active. “Seeing” the imaginary, “working” with an imaginary object, finding a relationship to it in such a way as to provoke visions from those who look at this process from the outside, making the invisible visible is one of the elementary skills and abilities of the first stage of learning.

In complex training, the real object should appear as late as possible, since an imaginary object trains not only attention, as M.O. wrote. Knebel, but also all elements of action through the perception of the imaginary.

The Imaginary is the Law theatrical arts, which is transferred to all areas of his activity. Working with an imaginary object to remember physical actions and sensations directly relates to creativity. The whole complex of elements is trained, which are actualized when, as if for the first time (and indeed for the first time!) a student comes into contact with an invisible object that exists only in the imagination.

The principle “like the first time” activates. This also happens because cognition itself is carried out at the cutting edge of creativity(unconditional and present) tense. This is the most relevant time for a person and an actor - “here and now” - the time of action and events. The actor's stage time and its content are discussed in §2.5.