Rehearsal 1

Melodrama 
Before Stanislavsky introduced his system, actors in Russia used melodrama to entertain their audience. The personality of the actor was more important than the character being portrayed. 
Melodrama exercise-
We walked around the room and became either a villain, hero or damsel in distress. We then came up with a gesture for each melodramatic character, Each action carried a lot of tension. After this, we got into pairs and were given lines for each character. We had to perform these lines to our partner, highlighting the important words and being as melodramatic as we could, through our gestures and voice. After doing this exercise I could see that performing in a stylized and melodramatic way, automatically becomes very comic and unnatural. There is nothing in the performance that has depth, it is fake and exaggerated. The task highlighted how important character preparation is. 

Before Stanislavsky -

• People would go to the theatre to see their favorite celebrity
• The actors were egotistical and refused to learn their lines 
• Actors demonstrated the character, instead of becoming the character
• Actors portrayed stereotypes and used big gestures 
• The plays were easy to watch
• They showed good and bad, nothing  in between
• People wanted to see the most famous actors
• Scripts were only written for what the audience wanted to hear
• The audience were never challenged
• The plays were conservative
• The government controlled what shows theatres put on
• The actors didn't portray real life or real people 

Naturalism-

Naturalism began as a literary movement and was concerned with real people doing real things. It was looking at its own society, which wasn't being looked at in performance at the time. It was about holing up a mirror to society. It showed reality in all aspects of life. People soon got bored of naturalism, It was becoming too realistic, People wanted to see drama, so realism was introduced.

Relaxation-

• Stanislavsky realized that actors had to be relaxed on stage 
• Relaxation allows you to listen and relax 
• Relaxation encourages imagination 
• Stanislavsky used yoga to practice relaxation with his actors 
• Yoga combines mind, breath and body
• Stanislavsky believed that actors should train themselves physically (dance, yoga etc)
• Actors have to be physically fit, vocally trained and relaxed