Vygotsky and Stanislavski

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Vygotsky and Stanislavski

• Emotion, Motivation and Action

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Stanislavski in Moscow

• WEALTH

DISSATISFACTION
ESTABLISHMENT 1887 - Society of Art Literature
1898 - Moscow Art Theatre
PASSION
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Stanislavski Co.

• Chekhov

Rachmaninov
Craig
Meyerhold ? Vygotsky ? ?
Zaporozhets
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Hamlet Stage Design
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Pushkins Aphorism

• The truth concerning the passions,
  verisimilitude in the feelings experienced in the
  given circumstances, that is what our
  intelligence demands of a dramatist (1830)

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Inner Truth Outer Belief

• Actors Training
• Focus, relaxation
• Muscular/sensory awareness command
• Recall of experiences and emotions
• ?

Development of Role According to Given
Circumstances Who, Where, When, What, Why? Inner
logic of characters actions ? External
realisation
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The Actors Work on a Role

• Shift in emphasis and process

• psychological, eventually realised in external
  action

1900s

• exploring physical action can also stimulate
  appropriate inner state.

1920s
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Focal Points

• Given Circumstances
• Super-objective
• Units and Objectives
• Subtext
• Tempo-rhythm
• Emotion Memory
• zadacha problem

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Vygotsky Thought and Language (1934)

• SUBTEXT
• Inner speech is not the interior aspect of
  external speech it is a function in itself
• One sentence, many thoughts
• vv

MOTIVATION Thought itself is engendered by
motivation OR affective-volitional tendency
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(No Transcript)
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Vygotsky On the Problem of the Psychology of
the the Actors Creative Work (1932)

• An old research problem with new possibilities
  linking different acting styles
• Attempts to resolve
• actors ability to externally portray emotions
  and audience to feel
• actors inner feelings being coaxed from
  experience and generated artistically
• actor within a socio-cultural historical context.

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On the collective social consciousness

• The actor creates on the stage infinite
  sensations, feelings, or emotions that become the
  emotions of the whole theatrical audience. Before
  they became the subject of the actors
  embodiment, they were given a literary
  formulation, they were borne in the air, in
  social consciousness.

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On the actors emotions, experiences objectives

• In the process of social life, feelings develop
  and former connections disintegrate emotions
  appear in new relations with other elements of
  mental life, new systems develop, new alloys of
  mental functions and unities of a higher order
  appear within which special patterns,
  interdependencies, special forms of connection
  and movement are dominantThe experience of the
  actor, his emotions, appear not as functions of
  his personal mental life, but as a phenomenon
  that has an objective, social sense and
  significance that serves as a transitional stage
  from psychology to ideology.

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Thank you
hannah.graingerclemson_at_education.ox.ac.uk
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Lost in Translation?

• deistvorat to behave
• delat to do (something)
• igrat to act (perform)
• aktivnost the state of being in action /
  activity
• deistvie action containing a motivation based
  on solution to a specific problem (zadaca)
• dejatelnost activity (as in Activity Theory)
• Words for emotion, feeling sensation also dif.

All 3 can take to act in English