Realism's Effect on Chekhov and Stanislavsky, and their Influence on Theatre Today

In his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman (1959) focuses on the self as a staged production in which people actively present themselves to different audiences one encounters. To bolster his conceptualization, Goffman used an interesting metaphor of “all the world’s a stage” (1959, 254). This, he terms as a “dramaturgical approach” (Goffman 1959, 240) in which an actor puts on a show for others; drawing analogies between human behaviors and the theater. Goffman (1959) likens the individual to an actor on stage performing for and with other individuals involved in the situation. Three types of space exist for the actor to perform on, to enact the self, and to interact with others: the front stage, the backstage, the outer region. Goffman (1959) utilizes specific dramaturgical terms such as performance, teams, front and back regions, sign-vehicles, and highlights the process of dramatic realization. These terms will be discussed in the following sections.

Michael Hoffman’s 1999 film version of Shakespeare's midsummer night’s dream was able to modify the audience experience of the play. Michael Hoffman had successfully turned the play into a film and was able to show a visible expression of the characters to the audience. He had also made some changes, like the settings and made his version modernized. Though the film was based on the Shakespeare’s play, the audience’s experience is still different.

I’ll start with Constantin Stanislavski. Stankislavski draws on a point that he liked to see what was going on within the actor, rather than what he was seeing on the outside. He believed that this is what gave the play its life. “To me as a spectator, what was going on inside of you was of much greater interest. Those feelings, drawn from our actual experience, and transferred to our part, are what give life to the play” (Stanislavski 155). Stanislavski also said “…The inner experience came first and was then embodied in an external form” (Stanislavski 155). I believe that internal life does play a big part in acting, as I do also find myself enjoying what is happening to an actor internally. For example, I think it’s extraordinary to see what words do to an

Realism is the period in American literature from 1860 to 1890. This movement in writing focused on writing about how things really appeared and how they really were instead of writing in a dark manner. The stories, Life On The Mississippi and The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County written by Mark Twain best represent the realism movement in American literature at this time.

Realism was a direct result of the social and economic changes of the 19th century in Europe. It originated in France in the after the Revolutions of 1848, which were a series of political outbreaks throughout Europe. It was around 1906, when Jonas Lie discovered the beauty of impressionism in Claude Monet’s paintings when he went on a trip to Paris while visiting Norway to reconnect with the Norwegian side of his family. He was fascinated by Monet’s use of color and light and incorporated that style in his later works. Lie’s artistic talent in mixing the two art styles is evident, as seen in his painting Dusk on Lower Broadway. (See fig 1.) The brushstrokes look like they were made quickly but with precision, creating a piece of art that looks realistic from far

Which is quite a clear illustration of the purpose or 'role' of stanislavskian actors. Stanislavski set out a way of preparing for a role so that the actor could fulfil his role of pure imitation. He started off by asking the actor to explore the character. He wanted to know what their objective was in each unit of action and what their super objective was. The super objective was the sum of all the units and their objectives.

Within this essay I will look at how I as a director will approach directing Chekhov, commenting on how I went about choosing the sections of the script I wish to use, why I chose these sections and how. I will then reference Katie Mitchell’s twelve golden rules on working with actors to demonstrate how I will approach my rehearsals and working with the actors. I will then go on to mention how and where the piece will be performed, continuing on to how I will use there lighting, sound and setting finishing with costume.

Therefor he believed it was important that all of the actors involved in the production to know and agree on the superobjective. The method of physical actions, This idea grew from Stanislavski's feeling that his actors were being overwhelmed by too much character and plot detail at an early stage of the rehearsal process. He believed this led them to try to hard, which resulted in physical and mental tension. In the last five years of his life Stanislavski explored a different approach to working on a production, in which the company began by telling the story of a play's plot through its main physical actions.

Realism is the artistic attempt to recreate life as it is in the context of an artistic medium. It began as a revolt against the conventions of the classic view of art in the late 1800s in America and Europe in the form of an artistic movement (McConnel, R. 1997). There are many themes involved with realism that shall be discussed. These include accuracy and independence.

Stanislavski's framework is a movement of methods used to prepare on-screen characters and on-screen characters to attract credible feelings to their exhibitions. The strategy that was initially made and utilized by Constantin Stanislavski from 1911 to 1916 was in view of the idea of enthusiastic memory for which a performer concentrates inside to depict a character's feelings in front of an audience. Later, somewhere around 1934 and 1938, this strategy developed to a strategy for physical activities in which feelings are delivered through the utilization of these actions.The recent procedure is alluded to as Stanislavski's framework. This methodology was created by Constantin Stanislavski, a Russian performer, executive, and theater director at the Moscow Workmanship Theater . The framework is the consequence of Stanislavski's numerous years of endeavors to decide how somebody can

Realism, in contrast to Romanticism, represents the reality of life in America. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, America experienced enormous industrial, economic, social, and cultural change. Realism focuses on showing everyday activities and events among the middle and lower class society without romantic ideas. In the early 20th century people started to pull away from fantasy and started focusing on the reality around them. Realism emphasises on truth, class, and social commentary.

During the 1800s in Russia, actors were in a lower social class, so for almost half of Stanislavski’s life, he was limited to amateur arts to avoid casting social embarrassment on his family. ‘Stanislavski’ was the name he used to act without his family’s awareness and he eventually became professional when the Moscow Arts Theatre was founded in 1897.

Everyone could relate to realism because it was more realistic. Realism lasted through the mid 19th century and included writers such as Flaubert, Zola, and Dickens.

Constantin Stanislavski believed that it was essential for actors to inhabit authentic emotion on stage so the actors could draw upon feelings one may have experienced in their own lives, thus making the performance more real and truthful. Stanislavski then created the technique, method acting, to do exactly that. Not only can method acting be rewarding, there are psychological consequences as well. It is important to study method acting so actors can know the dangers and psychological effects it can create. It can also help scientists understand theory of mind; the ability to gain the mindset of another person. Another subject method acting can help with is emotional recall and the emotion regulation it takes to use

Method acting is often misinterpreted as an acting exercise where the actor “becomes” the character, and keeps the persona of that character until they have completed their work. This misguided thinking has been promoted by pop culture and even sometimes by actors themselves. The Lee Strasberg Film & Theatre Institute defines the Method as when “actors use their imagination, sense and emotion to conceive characters with unique and original behavior, creating performances grounded in the human truth of the moment.” This definition focuses more on the relationship between the actor and their character, rather than both being one and the same. Method acting is not a new idea. It is thought to have been considered an acting exercise for