Stanislavski Prac Work

One of Stanislavski's methods to train his actors was called 'emotional recall' it's based on the concept of emotional memory for which an actor focuses internally to portray a character's emotions onstage. It requires actors to call on personal memories of situations similar to those of their characters, to get the sense of what their character's would feel like not only emotionally but how it affects their body physically. For this exercise I decided to be a character who is frustrated, an emotion I do not show as much to the public but comes out when I'm alone. To accomplish being frustrated I took myself back in time to a situation where I was really upset, confused and sad, all mixed emotions. What triggered my mind was when my grandpa passed away when I was young around 11 years old. What frustrated me the most was how I knew my grandpa was sick but not dying. My family did not confess to me that he was on his way to be with God, instead they acted normal around me, I was confused and did not know what was going on. The memory came to me so vividly it was like I relived that moment again, I used to go visit my grandpa in the hospital by just looking at him through the window doors, he knew I was there. He was situated in a special room for very sick people and children were prohibited in the room and could not enter. I remember so clearly I was just standing there thinking how am I suppose to tell him I love him, can't I just hold his hand for a bit? All these thoughts started running through my mind, I just knew I had to see him even if it was  for the last time. I caught myself in a dilemma, I started contemplating whether I should just run in there and hug him or not go inside and feel sorry for myself and live with regret. Staring through the window I checked if anyone was around, it seemed clear, so I made a run for it. I just ran inside, held his hand remembering it was ice cold, he looked down at me and smiled. I had maybe 10 seconds to spare until I saw a nurse shouting at me and running towards me, so I quickly kissed him on the cheek and said I love you. Not long later, two nurses came and struggled to get me out of the room with all my shouting and crying and shrugging. At first this exercise was really hard to do, firstly everyone just straight away started emotionally warming up, I heard from other peers screaming, excitement and anger. I did the same, slowly but surely recalled the memory and started to emotionally feel mad and sad which was the more easier part, but one thing that was a challenge for me was to also act physically with body movement. I had to keep on practicing them both, because I'd find myself doing one but not the other. Eventually after maybe 10-15 minutes I felt the frustration really building up in me, so I started from the bottom. I crouched down on my knees, and put my head down and really thought about it and just let my body speak. Afterwards my hands started to thump on the floor and I slowly rose up stomping my feet and looking down, I found myself jumping up and down with anger, my hands turned into fists and bit by bit, I started to sense my feelings overpowering me. I continued to stomp my feet and make noises with my mouth closed and just my teeth showing almost like a growling sound, I just heard it getting louder and louder. I really felt myself getting goosebumps and turning red, not long after it just poured out everything I held in I just shouted out really loudly, with that came tears which led to crying. After the exercise I felt so relieved and good, I was still tearing though, but I don't mind crying I love it, I think it's really great way to drench your body with all the
emotions sticking inside a person. Screaming is not normally my way of getting my feelings across I usually write poems but physically and emotionally this exercise felt amazing to just empty yourself and dispose of all the negative feelings that's jared up to just let go. I had overcome my difficulties by just really giving deep thought about how I felt that time and place since I remember it so clearly and I just let my mind wonder and my body speak. This exercise was very helpful for me and gave me a lot of tips and tricks on how you can achieve a character you're not usually like. I admire Stanislavski for using this technique to help his actors because it really helped me too. This will certainly be useful for upcoming acting. Another method Stanislavski used was to place his actors on chairs and make them look down at first and to also think about and recall a memory and how it made them feel like at the time then look up and hold your emotion. I did not practice this exercise however my peer Colin showed us his emotional recall. By sitting in a chair face down, he thought of a memory in the past or even recently and not long after held up his head, froze and held his emotion. We were all trying to guess what he felt like, most of us thought he was frustrated or mad because his face was so red but all of a sudden he started to tear and that was a sign of sadness. At the end he was sad because he had a tragic loss of a loved one who passed away. I can relate to his feelings, since a similar situation happend to myself. The exercise looked even harder than the previous one because this time you had to hold in your emotion,inorder for the audience to understand how and what you're feeling in that moment. This method will be really hard for me because I'm all about letting everything out just to feel better already. Both of his methods are really good guiding techniques on how to characterize the character you aren't fimiliar with or are the opposite of.