What are the five basic premises of Konstantin Stanislavsky’s system of acting? Why might this approach to
performance be particularly effective for performers in plays by Anton Chekhov?
What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER:The
actor's body and voice must be trained and flexible so they can respond to all
demands.
Truthful acting requires that the actor be a skilled observer of human behavior and
understand the relationship between a character's inner life and its external manifestation.
Actors must project themselves into the world of the play and may learn to do so through
the magic if (in other words, through imagining how one would feel or act if one were this
specific character in this specific situation).
If actors are not merely to play themselves, they must understand a character's
motivations and goals in each scene and in the play as a whole, as well as each
character's relationship to all the other roles and the dramatic action.
Onstage, the actor should concentrate moment by moment, as if the events were
happening spontaneously and for the first time.
All the characters in Chekhov's plays aspire to a better life but do not know how (or do
not have the initiative) to achieve their goals.
These characters often do not understand their own feelings, and they seek to conceal as
much as to reveal their responses.
In Chekhov's plays, subtext is often as important as text.
Chekhov does not pass judgment on his characters; rather, he treats all with tolerance and
compassion.
Chekhov's plays intermingle the comic, serious, pathetic.
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A. the jarring nature of the social and political events of his day B. his academic training in realistic representation C. a leisurely day in a landscape with music and dancing D. the darkness of the attic room of his childhood home
The composer of this work is?
a) Cage b) Reily c) Reich d) Penderecki