Theatre Log 04/09/17

Within this lesson I felt it useful to start to understand the development of what we now see as the normal approach towards acting on stage. The first of this I felt that was useful for me personally was learning about the kinds of archetypes and other motives within the context of theatre. The change from Melodrama leading all the way into the motives of naturalism and realism was particularly helpful to see how these designated archetypes eventually translated into a varied form of performance depending on the choices of the actor. Another key element I found is learning about the context of the star system that in itself is still applicable today. Employing a famous individual to draw interest to a set performance is a form of automatic publicity in itself not necessarily focusing around the elements of actual performance skill. What I will also be doing soon will be purchasing and then reading some of the texts of Emil Zoala to work upon the aspects of important naturalism and to see the developments from the point of view of a trained author of the time. The next section that I had to think of would be regarding the change of how Stanislavsky moved forward the way of relaxation techniques. Within the lesson using sun salutations helped draw breath and focus towards the upcoming tasks. This in my opinion is one of the most useful relaxation exercises that applies both muscles and the pace of breath. Also another element that had to be thought through was the magic ‘if’ exercise which also helped in the thoughts of wondering what we would do hypothetically in a situation which in my opinion was a good set up to the aspects of the given circumstances element of the Stanislavsky method. Having the levels of observer and practitioner in itself within the magic if exercise really did help me in figuring out on some kind of halfway point between naturalism and realism