Stanislavski's Dramatic Performance Analysis

Since joining university I have developed as an artist and student. Mentally as well as physically. In this essay, I will discuss how I have developed throughout the year.

Over the year, many aspects of practice have been presented to me. In Contempory Music Theatre abstraction and improvisation were explored. In Dramatic Performance, the practitioner Stanislavski and the physical body within the Physical Theatre project. Throughout these projects and their principles, we have dealt with team work and collaboration constantly as this is a key aspect of the entire course and will continue to be throughout the three years of study. Out of the aspects mentioned above there are three that have been most resourceful to me. These are the physical

Before I had completed any research, my teamwork skills such as communication and listening were fairly established however I would never fight for my ideas and often go along with other people’s as I did not want to be an inconvenience to my peers. I used a questionnaire designed to identify your type of conflict style, how you personally tend to deal with conflict e.g. sharing ideas or discussing ideas (Faculty of, 2011) to see how I work within a group. From this I learnt that I prioritise my relationships with people and my conflict type ignores “their own goals and resolve conflict by giving into others” (Faculty of, 2011). I then made sure that I shared my ideas more often within a group setting. As a direct result of this, ideas that I devised have been used in ensemble and group work which were effective and if I had not developed my confidence they would not have been used. Furthermore, by individuals understanding their conflict types and what role they play within a team, it allows the people in a group to work more effectively together. Another resource which enabled me to develop my understanding of this aspect was through a university run website which gathers interviews from many different practitioners within my discipline. In these interviews they talk about how they deal with

Neither my partner or I had any knowledge of how to use improvisation therefore we researched a company named Improbable who use improvisation as a main devising tool. They list two major books on their website (Improbable, 2016) which are ‘Impro: Improvisation and theatre’ and ‘Impro for storytellers’ by Keith Johnstone. Our strategy to develop this aspect was to research improvisation using the first book mentioned by Johnstone and use the rules set out within the book to use improvisation effectively. Through practice we discovered that it is mandatory that you “don’t choose anything. Trust your mind. Take the first idea it gives you” (Johnstone, 2015). Once we applied this to our devising process we quickly were able to create improvised work quicker and our minds were free to be imaginative unconsciously. Another key part of improvisation that helped my partner and I develop this aspect was learning to develop rather than block. Johnstone says “Bad improvisors block action… Good improvisors develop action” (2015) because of this we decided that no matter what the other person devised we would always create a positive reply and develop what had been devised. Accepting an idea and building on it became a crucial part of my devising process as it allowed simple ideas to be expanded quickly and