• Born in Moscow, Russia in 1863 (died:1938)
• Began an actor and moved on to become a director and teacher
• parents did not indulge in his passion for theatre, so he changed his name
• developed a new system of actor training and development-  a new way to approach theatre
• it took years of experimenting to get to what is now known as the Stanislavsky system.

5 elements of actor preparation

• relaxation: learning to relax the muscles and eliminate physical tension while performing.
• concentration: learning to think like an actor and to respond to one’s own imagination.
• observation: discovering the sensory base of the work, “sense memory” or “affective memory”
• communication: developing the ability to interact with other performers spontaneously, and with an audience, without violating the world of the play.
• imagination: The more fertile the actor’s imagination, the more interesting would be the choices made in terms of objective, physical action, and creating the given circumferences around the character.

1. I used to think that improvisation was only for people who were skilled actors, not for someone who just started theatre work. Now I think that improvisation is something ANYONE can do if they have the courage to make mistakes.
2. never say no, and it is okay to make mistakes. This will stick with me because I feel like improvisation takes lots of encouragement since you could be afraid to make mistakes and messing them up. If you know that it is okay to make mistakes it is an encouragement for anyone attempting improvisation
3. I think I did well on adapting to a character. When I was improvising with a partner, we were randomly given a starting line. Then we had to improvise our character and the scene had to make sense. Something that was a struggle for me was creating lines after lines after lines. Because you need to make the lines make sense and open-ended for your partner to add on to.  I think practicing more would help me improve in improvisation.

1. Risk Takers (willing to be open-minded to new things/ideas)
4. Focused (concentrate on what you’re doing)

I need to work on Risk Taking and being Focused. I can take risks when I’m in a very usual environment however, I don’t usually take risks at school because I like to keep it safe. I occasionally can’t focus especially when something is bothering me, or if I’m concerned.

I will try to prove these skills by reminding myself every time before class that this is “drama class” it is where you focus on drama and only drama.  Also reminding myself that it is ok if you fail, no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Also having unjudgemental teammates would encourage me to take risks.

My earliest Theatre memory was from when I was in 3rd grade back in New Zealand. My mom had signed me up for this musical camp. You go there for a week, every day and you work with everyone else in the camp to create a musical! I attended the program with my friend Amy! Amy and I love to dance, sing during our free time. Amy was a confident and extroverted friend, while I was shy and extremely introverted. Amy and I decided to audition for a solo part in the musical. I was so nervous during the audition I was looking down the whole time, I felt so embarrassed. We both, however, I was so shy throughout all the acts. My voice was barely heard, I hid behind everyone else, and I just couldn’t take it seriously. I honestly thought it was straight-up embarrassing when I was on stage but when I saw other people, older kids, on stage they were so admirable. I didn’t enjoy it during the moment and whenever I look back at the videos I wish. could go back in time and do the whole musical again. That’s my earliest Theatre memory.

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