16.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

WARM UP
Today was our first rehearsal from 6-9pm.  This was quite challenging as I'm not used to rehearsing this late but I had quite a fun time.  For our warm up, we were introduced to a workout to a song:
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When the song said "bring Sally up" we had to stand and when it said "bring Sally down" we had to squat.  Mr Lemon made sure we were in the proper form.  This was so difficult for me as I'm not very physically fit.  Ms Trono told me that a part of being an actor is having that physical ability and strength so I will be doing more exercise in order to increase my fitness and stamina.

REHEARSAL
We found out today that Georgia has been in quite a serious accident which means she is unable to do the show so Silvana had to step up to her role.  As Silvana had to take on Georgia's role in a previous rehearsal where Georgia didn't show up, she was already very familiar with the choreography which was helpful.  Silvana really embraced the duck role and accepted the stress, hard work and dedication that came with it.  For this rehearsal, we spent a bit of time helping Silvana with her new role and did our first full run through with costume.  This run through wasn't as smooth as the one yesterday which we were quite upset about as we wanted to prove how hard we worked on Sunday.  After the first run through, our morale was pretty low because we were annoyed with ourselves but we didn't let it stop us.

Constantin Stanislavski - Mrs Williams

Constantin Stanislavski

Born: 1863, Moscow, Russia (Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev)

Died: 1938, Moscow, Russia

Occupation: Actor, Theatre director, Theatre theorist

Literary Movement: Naturalism, Symbolism, Psychological realism, Socialist realism






EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

Born 1863 into a wealthy clan who loved theatre.  His father constructed a stage on the family's estate and his grandmother was a French actress.  He started acting at 14 and developed his theatrical skills over time considerably.  He worked in his family's manufacturing business but performed with other acting groups at the same time.  He gave himself the name Stanislavski in 1885, which was the name of a fellow actor he had met.  In 1888, he married Maria Perevoshchikova, who was a teacher, but then joined Stanislavski in the study and pursuit of acting.

OPENING THE MOSCOW ART THEATRE

Stanislavski founded the Society of Art and Literature in 1888, where he performed and directed productions for almost 10 years.  In 1897, Stanislavski co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre with playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.  This would be an alternative to standard theatrical aesthetics of the day.

'STANISLAVSKI METHOD'

Stanislavski worked on providing a structure for actors, during the Moscow Art Theatre's early years, to consistently achieve deep, meaningful and disciplined performances.  He believed that actors needed to inhabit authentic emotions while on stage.  To do so, they could draw up feelings they'd experienced in their own lives.  He also made exercises to help actors find their character's motives to give a performance depth and an unassuming realism.  This is named the 'Stanislavski method' or 'the Method'