Konstantin Stanislavsky
In the ‘Konstantin Stanislavsky’
biography, you learn the many ways that Konstantin used and tried to get into
character, and how he became a well known Theatre practitioner.
One of the techniques Konstantin
Stanislavsky tried using to get into character was making the scene into
reality. Once he had to play the role of a ‘decrepit old man’, however only
being twenty-five years old, Stanislavsky wasn’t sure how to take on the
character. Therefore, he adapted an externalised style of character acting that
he knew he was lacking something, which gave him the idea how he could
stimulate his imagination into finding that ‘something’ that he was lacking. In
attempt to find this ‘something’ he spent a night locked in the cellar of a
castle. This was his first intuitive understanding of what he was later to call
affective memory, whereby actors find a situation from their own life
experience which copies the character’s fictional life. Despite the fact, he
was only left with a cold from this experience, and his imagination wasn’t
affected by this experience.
I believe the ‘affective memory’
isn’t a good way of preparing to get into character because if the actors real
life experience is too personal, it may affect their performance or may
distract them from acting as the actual character.
