In chapters 12 and 15 of An Actor Prepares by Constantin Stanislavski, Stanislavski indicates the importance of honing one's inner connection with a play to portray a realistic and sympathetic representation of a character. Chapter 12 speaks of “three driving forces in our psychic life, three masters who play the instrument of our souls” (Stanislavski 266). These three “inner driving forces” are feelings, mind and will. Together, these forces enable you to think and act creatively. Feelings allow actors to connect to the script and the character they play, and powerful feelings allow the audience to connect to the actor, providing the foundation for a great play. The mind chooses what an actor focuses on and imagines, as well as deciding how to portray the feelings essential to the performance. Willpower depends entirely on the actor and how he is able to approach the material in order to keep himself interested. Without the desire to act out a scene, actors are unable to act realistically. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Chapter 15 discusses the "super-goal," which is the broad topic that the playwright examines through the events of the play. The theme that accompanies this “super-goal” helps actors ground themselves in the ideas they want to convey in their performance and can help improve interactions between characters. The theme also offers actors a sort of lifeline they can return to if they feel they are becoming confused in their acting choices. The director explains the meaning of this lifeline, saying: “That internal line of effort which guides the actors from the beginning to the end of the work we call continuity or continuous action. This line galvanizes all the small units and objectives in the game and directs them towards the super objective. From then on they all serve the common purpose” (Stanislavski 296). In the scenes we are assigned in class, the best actors are able to use their minds to focus on specific aspects of their characters' lives and feel what their characters experience. . For me, of the three internal motives, the will is the most difficult to master, since we have read this short scene many times now and it is difficult to think about it in a new way. The exercises we did in class where we had to imagine a circumstance foreign to ourselves helped to see the script in a new light. I will remember this trick for future tests.
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