Stanislavski and Naturalism

5 facts from research and how they link together

Stanislavski was a committed follower of realism throughout his working life. Naturalism is often used to refer to the same things but it can also mean the belief that a human character is formed by what they've inherited from their family and environment. Naturlism gives the illusion of real life presented on stage. The action evolves through the situations and personalities of the characters. It was a movement in late 19th-century drama that aimed to replace the artificial romantic style with accurate representations of ordinary people in believable situations.Naturalism refers to theatre that tries to create a perfect illusion of reality by use of a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies. For that, Stanislavski decided that Naturlism Theatre brought from actors' experinces and life would elevate acting all together. Stanislavski believed that in order to make a character true, the character must received from the inside. That means revealing on the real inside life of the actor such as memories. The actor also has to create the inside profile for the character: inner thought, back story and beliefs, just as a real person does.Stanislavsky regarded the theatre as an art of social significance. Theatre was a powerful influence on people, he believed, and the actor must serve as the people’s educator. Stanislavsky concluded that only a permanent theatrical company could ensure a high level of acting skill.Naturalism presumes that nature is in principle completely knowable. There is in nature a regularity, unity, and wholeness that implies objective laws, without which the pursuit of scientific knowledge would be absurd. Man’s endless search for concrete proofs of his beliefs is seen as a confirmation of naturalistic methodology. Stanislavsky sought knowledge about human behavior, so he turned to science. He began experimenting in developing the first elements of what became known as the Stanislavsky method. He turned sharply from the purely external approach to the purely psychological.He tried various experiments, focusing much of the time on what he considered the most important attribute of an actor’s work—bringing an actor’s own past emotions into play in a role. But he was frequently disappointed and dissatisfied with the results of his experiments. He continued nonetheless his search for “conscious means to the subconscious”—i.e., the search for the actor’s emotions. In 1935 he was taken by the modern scientific conception of the interaction of brain and body and started developing a final technique that he called the “method of physical actions.” It taught emotional creativity; it encouraged actors to feel physically and psychologically the emotions of the characters that they portrayed at any given moment. The method also aimed at influencing the playwright’s construction of plays. Naturalism would naturally take place.

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