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1. REALISM: The quest for truth 1: Context and using senses to unlock imagination 20/05/2016
Syllabus Outcomes:
P1.4 understands,manages and manipulates theatrical elements and elements of production,usingthem perceptively and
creatively
P2.6 appreciates the variety of styles,structures and techniques that can be used in makingand shapinga performance
P3.2 understands the variety of influences that have impacted upon drama and theatre performance styles,structures and
techniques
P3.3 analyses and synthesises research and experiences of dramatic and theatrical styles,traditionsand movements
Lesson Outcomes - By the end of the lesson students will:
Begin to Develop understandingof Stanislavski’s contextand the goals of theatrical Realismas a movement
Begin to understand the role of senses,activeimagination,and memory in the creation of truthful drama
Reflect on the valueof truthful actingand how various Stanislavskian techniques can help them achievethis
Teaching Activities
Method:
Context: (10 min)
a) Explain some background historical context
b) Introduce Stanislavski –the quest for TRUTH
c) Get students to Mind-map brainstorm what Stanislavski and Nemitovich
Danchenko might have talked about for 18 hours! If you were concerned with
truthful acting -makingthings authentic, what would you want to see in
acting? How would this be different from the Melodrama style that has come
before?
Emotion Memory-5 senses: (20 min) (From Merlin,p. 302-304)
Sound
a) Students sitin a circle,blindfolded.Get them to sitin silencefor a minute.
Findingtheir focus, relax and listen to their breath.
b) Play a musical extractfor a minute or so,askingstudents to note their
sensations –whatthoughts, images or memories come floodinginto your head.
Let the students know beforehand that you will ask someof them to share
their responses
c) Ask several students to respond to the sound. (You may want to give a
demo) they can sharea memory, an image or a thought)
Smell – give each student a smell cup. Repeat the activity above, then get
students to pass their cups to their left, and repeat again,with different smells.
Note how rich a memory or an image can be when we really engage our
senses.The experience is real becausewe are usingour senses and
imagination to ground ourselves in the moment. This is exactly how
Stanislavski wanted actors to experience their characters on stage, he referred
to itas “the Theatre of LivingExperience”.
Active vs passive imagination: (10 min)
Read out the two extracts (see below)
Logbook reflection: (5 min)
1. Why is truthful actingimportant?
2. What have you learned in this lesson thatcould help you be a more truthful
actor?
Purpose:
Context Object: To give students contextual
background to realismand Stanislavski while
also engagingtheir imaginationsfromthe
outset:
- Helps students consider the contextual
background of Realismin contrastto
Melodrama
-Prompts them to make predictions aboutthe
strategies Stanislavski made
Emotion Memory Object: To demonstrate the
importance of usingsenses,and imaginative
memory in realistic acting:
-Gives students an opportunity to relax,focus
and practiceusingtheir imagination
-Gives students an opportunity to engage their
senses
-Gives students an opportunity to recall
memories
Active vs Passive Object: To give students
practicewritingextended responses in the
structure of the Drama KLA
-Helps students consolidateand reflect on what
they have learntabout this style
-Gives students practicewritingunder time
pressure
Assessment: I will beinformally assessingstudentin terms of participation.In particular,I wantto see:
 Students contributingideas towards what Stanislavski mighthavewanted
 Students sharingatleast1 responseto the sense stimuli
 Students writinga paragraph in their logbooks
Resources: 1. Stanislavski context reading(copies) 2. Mind map Paper
3. Objects to smell,2 music tracks 4. Beach reading(Active vs Passive)
The reflection in the lesson
was limited to class
discussion because we ran
out of time to write in our
logbooks. In the future I’d
shorten the intro context to
leave more time for written
reflection at the end (5.1)
The music and smell cups
activities were very organized
and engaging and led to good
discussion about using
emotion memory to develop
characters. Managing the
changing cups was also
effective here. Some students
didn’t share memories. Next
time I’ll make sure to support
them specifically (3.3, 4.1,
4.2, 4.5)
My supervisor said the
circular class reading in this
section was challenging,
structured and well-
resourced, and stopping the
reading to explain key points
kept the students engaged
with learning new literacy
terms of theatre. I’ll use this
approach again (2.2, 2.5, 3.2,
3.3, 3.4, 3.5)
This exercise was really
effective. The dimmed
lights and meditational
introduction helped
frame the exercise and
support students in
relaxing and focusing their
senses. (2.1, 2.2)
Supervisor said group
discussion and mind
mapping helped keep
students engaged. He also
noted that modelling the 4th
wall physically was helpful
in supporting student
learning (3.3, 3.4, 3.5).
Supervisor said the
students really
understood the
importance of this
exercise, particularly the
difference in difficulty
between active and passive
imagination. It would have
been great to unpack this a
little more in class
discussion. I’ll try to be
more aware of timing.
These were good leading
questions that I ended up
using in a future lesson.
These could almost be used at
the end of each lesson in the
realism block of lessons
I’ll need to remind students
in the future that the purpose
here is not to identify the
smell, but to focus on the
memories or images the
smell evokes (5.1, 5.2)
There were a lot of props and teaching tools required in this
lesson. It couldn’t be done without lots of prep the night
before. I could even split it into two lessons, and that way
I’d have time to use all the 5 senses instead of just 2.
Overall, I think this was an organized,
productive and engaging lesson (see
supervisor’s comments below). It served as a
good introduction to Stanislavski’s theatrical
Realism, and a good contrast to the melodrama
Year 11 have been studying previously.
Students found the activities engaging and had
some substantive discussion about Stanislavski’s
context and how his techniques could facilitate
truthful acting onstage. (2.2, 2.3,)
I think I can improve this lesson in terms of time
allocated to each task and incorporating logbook writing
time. Because this lesson is so content heavy, it is
potentially too ambitious considering the time restraints.
This would certainly be the case with a less well-behaved
class! In this instance, it could be split into two lessons
The practical, immersive teaching strategies that I
planned in this lesson gave my supervisor and I lots talk
about and reflect on! His feedback and comments
affirmed pedagogical choices I made, and contributed to
my ongoing professional development

2. THE BEACH – active vs passive imagination – (From Stanislavski in Practice, 2011, p. 86-90)
I am now going to guide you through using your imagination in two different ways. So relax and gently start to imagine
You see yourself standing in a room; you see yourself bending to pick up a bag; you see yourself walking towards the door; you see yourself opening the door;
you see yourself walking outside; you see yourself walking down the road; you see yourself looking out to sea; you see yourself walking on the sand; you see
yourself putting down your bag; you see yourself taking out a towel; you see yourself lie down on the towel; you see yourself open your book; and you see
yourself starting to read.
Now, keep an impression of what that experience felt like. Here’s the second scene:
You are standing in your room. You bend down and slowly pick up your yellow beach bag; you slide the bag on to your shoulder as you turn towards the glass
door. Opening the door, you’re hit by a wave of heat as you start to walk down the path. At the road, you turn left and you can feel the sun on your shoulders, you
hear the hum of traffic and smell the salt in the air. After a while, you stop and wait for a gap in the traffic before crossing the road; you look out at the gorgeous
blue expanse of sea; you see a tanker in the distance and hear birds circling above. When you get to the sand, you stop and flick off your thongs, feeling the warm
sand in between your toes as you search for a spot to put your towel down. You hear a radio in the distance and the sound of children playing happily. You stop,
put down your bag and take out your red beach towel. Lying down, you take out your book and start to read where you last left off.
Now take off your blindfolds and get out your logbooks.
• Let’s compare the two experiences, was there any difference in the way you were using your imagination?
• Did it feel different when you were ‘seeing yourself’ do something from when you were imagining what you could see, hear, touch, taste and smell?
• Which was the easier for you to imagine, the first or second?
• Stanislavski said, ‘We need an active not a passive imagination.’ Did the first experience or the second one make you use your imagination more actively?
Active imagination is where we see things through our character’s eyes, using the senses, walking in their shoes, in the moment. Passive imagination is where
we imagine what the audience thinks about what we are doing on stage. This is a more distanced, objective view, detached from the reality.
For example, Lady Macbeth, when looking at the blood on her hands in active imagination may think, ‘what have I done? What kind of monster have I become?
OR, with passive imagination, ‘If I frown deeply then the audience will know I’m upset. –Which do you think Stanislavski would have wanted?
Active imagination: Seeing things through our character’s eyes, using the five senses.
Passive imagination: Seeing ourselves from the audience’s point of view while on stage. This exercise was to help you recognize when you are using your
imagination actively as a character and when you are not. So, if your character is in the middle of a battle, you need to imagine the battle raging around, rather
than a picture of you in your head watching the battle. If there is one thing you can guarantee before you go on stage, it’s that you have every chance of slipping
into using your imagination passively and worrying about what the audience will think of you. As actors, we need to be able gently to start to use our imaginations
actively, so that we imagine our character within the circumstances of the play, with an objective and an action.