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Basic of Stanislavski Acting Techniques

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  Acting Techniques, blog
  

Stanislavski acting techniques are the most popular acting techniques. In fact, almost all types of acting approaches that actors use in the present era have been derived from Stanislavski’s techniques. It is more popularly known as “the method”.
You take any acting guru, be it Uta Hagen, Sandford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, or Stella Adler, each takes one or two or more pages out of Stanislavski’s book of acting.
I won’t be explaining how or what is the history of Stanislavski’s approach to method acting is. You can read the history on Wikipedia.
By the way, when I was first introduced to method acting, I was asked to read about the history of method acting. Yes, history is boring but it was interesting to know how Stanislavski’s own struggle to approach acting helped him shape “the method” we know.
You Can Learn About His Method in Detail from His three books (I consider them as the tri- bible for actors):

1. 
   An Actor Prepares (Get it from Amazon)
   
2. 
   Building A Character (Get it from Amazon)
   
3. 
   Creating A Role (Get it from Amazon)
   

In order to understand this Stanislavski’s approach to acting, you must know what it consists of. The way I see it, it has 7 basic techniques or pillar that makes the base of the whole Stanislavski approach. Those are like the alphabets that you must master in order to form a meaningful word.
Before we go to the content, I would like you to please take a look at my personal preparation tool which is 100 Questions To Build An Living, And Breathing Character In An Hour. Using this printable worksheet you will be able to create a well-detailed character in a very short time. This has helped in infinite gigs and auditions, it will help you too.

So, what are the 7 pillars of Stanislavski acting techniques?

Action

The action simply means doing something. It is easier said than done when it comes to acting. Just try to sit for one second doing nothing in front of an audience, you will realize there is so much tension in every part of your body: both physically and psychologically. You won’t be able to move your hand from your hips to your head without feeling the tension. Mentally, you might be thinking, what am I doing here? Should I go?, should I stay? So many questions will pop into your mind. Same confusion is visible in your body language. 
You might think, this is because there is nothing to do here as an actor. The audience will think you are a fool sitting on a chair. Well, you are wrong, if you were really sitting on a chair as you do at home or class or restaurant, the audience won’t think you are a fool, they will be curious why you are sitting on a chair alone.
Even in the simplest act of sitting, there is so much to do for an actor. Everything you do must have a purpose. Having a purpose is a good way to stay in the moment while playing a character. The purpose of your action will bring out the right emotions in you.

The best exercise is to make your action believable is to do simple tasks and creating some story attached to it. Let me give the example from Stanislavski’s book An Actor Prepares. Imagine you are trying to burn wood in a fireplace. Do everything you do to build a fire. Make sure you have arranged enough dry woods, you have something that would help you burn the woods like paper, or fuel and check if you have a matchbox or lighter on you. And Create a simple story, like it’s a cold night, your heater is dead and you need to get a good night’s sleep in order to wake up early for an audition. This story offers a simple motive to your action and makes it truthful.
Action is always a part of a scene. Mastering this Stanislavski acting technique would give you the ability to make any scene truthful.