At present, the ancient art of pantomime is experiencing a new rise in attention to the ability to express events and feelings - by posture, gesture, facial expressions. At its core, pantomime has become the art of talking about many things without saying a word.

Pantomime actors draw non-existent pictures, jump on an imaginary rope, drink ghostly scalding coffee, try to climb through a window that does not exist.

The basic training of a mime actor is very similar to Stanislavsky's system of preparing a dramatic actor. Any actor needs to know acting skills: develop attention and imagination, learn observation and rhythm, understand the interaction of partners, work on images, be able to transform. At the heart of the basics - work with non-existent objects, memory exercises physical actions.

Physical action memory exercises

1. Training the volume and shape of a non-existent object

It is necessary to start classes with the study of manipulations with real things!

Take a bottle or jar, unscrew the lid and close it tightly again. Repeat, carefully observing, all movements of the left hand, fingers, remembering at what angle the hand is in relation to the body, to the object. Then concentrate all your attention on the right hand, remember the movement of each finger. Don't miss even the smallest detail.

Set the item aside. Play all the movements in order.

Take the bottle again.

Repeat the work so many times until you achieve scrupulous accuracy.

Carefully, accurately, scrupulously, and most importantly, patiently repeating work with non-existent objects, you can achieve naturalness.

beware- laziness and approximation. Looks like - does not mean - naturally. The bottle now becomes narrower, then expands, the fingers of the right hand twist the cap, now higher, then lower.

beware- muscle clamps, stiffness of movements.

Take on arms- sincere belief in what you are doing. Remember your childhood, yourself as a child, or spy on the children on the playground. Faith allows you to make a boat out of chairs, fly on a sofa like an airplane, feed painted animals. Remember that an actor on stage without the ability to see and believe is completely helpless and insincere.

2. Action limit

Plug an imaginary plug into an imaginary socket, or insert an illusory key into an illusory lock.

Pay attention to the path of the subject. Coincidence in the movement towards the goal. Find the final point - the goal of the path, the limit of movement, beyond which it is impossible to continue. It requires increased focus

3. Item weight

The weight of an imaginary matchbox is very different from the weight of a non-existent pot of soup, and even more so from a 24-kilogram weight. Each type of gravity causes a contraction of different muscle groups, and this determines the position human body.

Classes must be conducted with real objects. Start with a teapot. Take it. Pay attention to the position of all parts of the body, the condition of all muscle groups: face, neck, chest, arms, legs. Feel the sensations of the hand holding the kettle, the strength of the tension.

Grab an imaginary teapot. Feel it, try to convey its weight and movement.

Pour out half of the water. Take an empty teapot.

It is especially important to work out the moment of separation of their objects from the surface: table, floor, shelf. The reverse moment is also important - the return to the place. Focus on the moment of application of effort.

Advice from your stage: Record your exercises on video, show to other people. When an unprepared person can understand their meaning from your actions, only then can you say with confidence that you have coped with this exercise.

Watch a useful video from classes in the studio Your scene - sketches for the memory of physical actions

In general, for both adults and children, pantomime classes combine several advantages at once.

Firstly, a person learns to control his own body, becomes more relaxed and self-confident.

A person who controls his body trusts himself more - not only the ability to express thoughts through facial expressions and movements changes, posture and gait become more beautiful, confidence appears in his actions and words, and therefore in himself.

Secondly, pantomime develops and trains attention and imagination.

A person in the process of creativity becomes the author of an idea, finds a way to implement it, and realizes his plan himself.

for if the eyes live faithfully, then everything else will also live faithfully. Experience shows that a proposal addressed to an actor to carry out this or that action through the eyes usually immediately gives a positive result: it mobilizes the actor's inner activity, his attention, his temperament, his stage faith. Thus, this technique also obeys the principle: from the truth of the "life of the human body" to the truth of the "life of the human spirit." In this approach to action, not from its internal (psychological), but from its external (physical) side, it seems to me that it is fundamentally new that the “method of simple physical actions” contains.

"Method of physical actions" by Stanislavsky and "biomechanics" by Meyerhold

Some similarity between Stanislavsky's "method of simple physical actions" and Meyerhold's "biomechanics" gave grounds for some researchers to identify these two teachings, to put an equal sign between them. This is not true. There is some rapprochement of positions, external similarity, but no coincidence and no identity. What is the difference? At first glance, it seems insignificant. But if you think about it, it will grow to a very respectable size. Creating his famous "biomechanics", Meyerhold proceeded from the teachings of the famous American psychologist James. The main idea of ​​this teaching is expressed in the formula: "I ran and got scared." The meaning of this formula was deciphered as follows: I ran not because I was scared, but because I was scared because I ran. This means that the reflex (ran), according to James and contrary to the usual idea, precedes the feeling, and is not at all its consequence. From this it was concluded that the actor must develop his movements, train his neuro-motor apparatus, and not seek "experiences" from himself, as Stanislavsky's system demanded, according to Meyerhold. However, the question arises: why, when Meyerhold himself demonstrated the James formula, it turned out convincingly - it was not only clear that he ran, but it was also believed that he was really scared; when his show was reproduced by one of his not very talented students, the desired effect did not work: the student conscientiously fled, but it was not at all believed that he was frightened. Obviously, while reproducing the show, the student was missing some important link. This link is an assessment of the danger from which you need to escape. Meyerhold unconsciously carried out this assessment - this was required by the great sense of truth inherent in his exceptional talent. The student, trusting the misunderstood formula of James, ignored the need for evaluation and acted mechanically, without internal justification, and therefore his performance turned out to be unconvincing. Stanislavsky approached the question differently: he based his method on not mechanical movement, but physical action. The difference between these two concepts (“movement” and “action”) determines the difference between both methods. From Stanislavsky's point of view, James's formula should have been changed and instead of "I ran and got scared" to say: "I ran away and got scared." Running is a mechanical movement, running away is a physical action. When we pronounce the verb "to run", we do not think of a specific goal, or a specific reason, or any circumstances. Our idea of ​​a certain system of muscular movements is connected with this verb, and nothing more. After all, you can run for a variety of purposes: to hide, and to catch up, and to save someone, and to warn, and to train, and not to be late, etc. When we pronounce the verb "to run away", we mean a purposeful act of human behavior, and in our imagination there is an idea of ​​some kind of danger that causes this action. Tell an actor to run on stage and he can

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carry out this order without asking anything else. But order him to run away, and he will certainly ask: where, from whom and for what reason? Or he himself, before fulfilling the director’s order, will have to answer all these questions to himself - in other words, to justify the action given to him, because it is absolutely impossible to perform any action convincingly without first justifying it. And in order to justify the action, you need to bring your thought, fantasy, imagination into an active state, evaluate the “proposed circumstances” and believe in the truth of fiction. If all this is done, there is no doubt: the right feeling will come. Obviously, all this inner work was the content of that short but intense inner process that took place in Meyerhold's mind before he showed anything. Therefore, his movement turned into an action, while for his student it remained only a movement: the mechanical act did not become purposeful, volitional, creative, the student “ran”, but did not “run away” and therefore was not at all “scared”. The movement itself is a mechanical act, and it comes down to the contraction of certain muscle groups. And quite another matter - physical action. It certainly has a psychic side as well, because in the process of its fulfillment, the will, and thought, and fantasy, and fictions of the imagination, and in the end, feeling are themselves drawn in, involved. That is why Stanislavsky said: physical action is a trap for feelings. Now, it seems to me, the difference between Meyerhold's position and Stanislavsky's position on the question of acting and his method becomes clearer - Meyerhold's method is mechanistic, it tears away the physical side human life from the mental, from the processes occurring in the human mind; Stanislavsky, in his system, proceeded from the recognition of the unity of the physical and mental in man and built his method based on the principle of the organic integrity of the human personality.

verbal action. Logic and figurative speech.

Now consider what laws verbal action obeys. We know that the word

Thought expresser. However, in reality, a person never expresses his thoughts just to express them. There is no conversation in life for conversation. Even when people talk “so-so”, out of boredom, they have a task, a goal: to pass the time, have fun, have fun. The word in life is always a means by which a person acts, striving to produce this or that change in the mind of his interlocutor. In the theater on the stage, actors often speak only for the sake of speaking. If they want the words they utter to sound meaningful, deep, exciting (for themselves, for their partners and for the audience), let them learn to act with the help of words. The stage word must be strong-willed, effective. The actor must consider it as a means of struggle for the achievement of the goals by which the given actor. An effective word is always meaningful and multifaceted. With its various facets, it affects various aspects of the human psyche: on the intellect, on the imagination, on the feeling. The actor, pronouncing the words of his role, must know well which side of his partner's consciousness he mainly wants to act on in this case: whether he mainly addresses the partner's mind, or his imagination, or his feeling. If the actor (as an image) wants to act primarily on the partner's mind, let him ensure that his speech is irresistible in its logic and persuasiveness. For this, he must ideally parse the text of each piece of his role according to the logic of thought: he must understand what thought is in this piece of text, subordinate to one or another action (for example, to prove, explain,

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reassure, console, refute, etc.), is the main, main, leading thought of the piece; with the help of what judgments this main idea is proved; which of the arguments are the main ones, and which ones are secondary; what thoughts turn out to be distractions from the main theme and therefore should be taken in brackets; what phrases of the text express main idea, and which serve to express secondary judgments; what word in each phrase is the most essential for expressing the thought of this phrase, etc., etc. To do this, the actor must know very well what exactly he is seeking from his partner - only under this condition his thoughts will not hang in the air, but will turn into a purposeful verbal action, which in turn will awaken the actor's temperament, inflame his feelings, ignite passion. Thus, proceeding from the logic of thought, the actor through action will come to a feeling that will turn his speech from rational to emotional, from cold

V passionate. But a person can address not only the partner's mind, but also his imagination. When we pronounce certain words in real life, we somehow imagine what we are talking about, more or less clearly see it in our imagination. With these figurative representations, or, as K. S. Stanislavsky liked to say, visions, we also try to infect our interlocutors. This is always done to achieve the goal for which we carry out this verbal action. Suppose I perform the action expressed by the verb "threat." Why do I need it? For example, in order for a partner, frightened by my threats, to refuse some of his very objectionable intentions to me. Naturally, I want him to imagine very vividly all that I am going to unleash on his head if he persists. It is very important for me that he clearly and vividly see these disastrous consequences for him in his imagination. Therefore, I will take every measure to evoke these visions in him. And in order to call them in my partner, I must first see them myself. The same can be said about any other action. When comforting a person, I will try to conjure up in his imagination such visions that can console him, deceiving - those that can mislead, pleading - those that can pity him, etc., “To speak is to act. It is this activity that gives us the task of instilling our visions in others. “Nature,” writes K.S. Stanislavsky, - arranged so that we, in verbal communication with others, first see with our inner eye what is being discussed, and then we already talk about what we saw. If we listen to others, then first we perceive with the ear what they say to us, and then we see with the eye what we hear. To listen in our language means to see what is being said, and to speak means to draw visual images. The word for the artist is not just a sound, but the stimulus of images. Therefore, in verbal communication on stage, speak not so much to the ear as to the eye. So, verbal actions can be carried out, firstly, by influencing the mind of a person with the help of logical arguments and, secondly, by influencing the partner’s imagination with the help of arousal.

V it visual representations (visions). In practice, neither type of verbal action occurs in pure form. The question of whether a verbal action belongs to one or another type in each individual case is decided depending on the predominance of one or another method of influencing the partner's consciousness. Therefore, the actor must carefully study any text both from the side of its logical meaning, and from the side of its figurative content. Only then will he be able to act freely and confidently with the help of this text.

Text and subtext

Only in bad plays is the text equal in content to itself and nothing,

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in addition to the direct (logical) meaning of words and phrases, it does not contain. But in real life and in every truly artistic dramatic work the hidden content of each phrase, i.e. its subtext is always many times richer than its direct logical meaning. creative challenge of the actor is, firstly, to reveal this subtext and, secondly, to reveal it in his stage behavior with the help of intonations, movements, gestures, facial expressions - in a word, everything that makes up the external (physical) side of the stage actions. The first thing to pay attention to when revealing the subtext is the speaker's attitude to what he is talking about. Imagine that your friend is telling you about a friendly party he attended. Are you wondering who was there? And so he begins to enumerate. He does not give any characteristics, but only names, patronymics, surnames. But by the way he pronounces this or that name, one can easily guess how he relates to this person. So in the intonations of a person, the subtext of relationships is revealed. Further, we know perfectly well to what extent a person's behavior is determined by the goal that he pursues and for the achievement of which he acts in a certain way. But as long as this goal is not directly stated, it lives in the subtext and, again, manifests itself not in the direct (logical) sense of the spoken words, but in the way these words are pronounced. Even "what time is it?" one rarely asks just to find out what time it is. He can ask this question for many different purposes, for example: to reprimand for being late; hint that it's time to leave; complain about boredom ask for sympathy, etc. and so on. According to the different goals of the question, the subtexts hidden behind the words will also differ, which should be reflected in intonation. Let's take another example. The man is going to go for a walk. The other does not sympathize with her intention and, looking out the window, says: "It's raining!" And in another case, a person, about to go for a walk, says this phrase himself: “It's raining!” In the first case, the subtext will be: “Yeah, failed!” And in the second: “Oh, it didn’t work!” Intonations and gestures will be different. If this were not the case, if the actor, behind the direct meaning of the words given to him by the playwright, did not have to reveal their second, sometimes deeply hidden, effective meaning, then there would hardly be a need for acting itself. It is wrong to think that this double meaning text (direct and hidden) takes place only in cases of hypocrisy, deceit or pretense. Any lively, completely sincere speech is full of these originally hidden meanings of its subtexts. Indeed, in most cases, each phrase of the spoken text, in addition to its direct meaning, internally lives also with that thought, which is not directly contained in it itself, but will be expressed in the future. In this case, the direct meaning of the subsequent text still serves as a subtext for those phrases that are being spoken at the moment. What is the difference good speaker from bad? The fact that in the first every word sparkles with a meaning that has not yet been directly expressed. Listening to such a speaker, you always feel that he lives by some basic idea, to the disclosure, proof and approval of which he tends his speech. You feel that every word he says is not without reason, that he is leading you to something important and interesting. The desire to find out exactly what he is getting at, and fuels your interest throughout his speech. In addition, a person never expresses everything that he thinks at the moment. It's just physically impossible. Indeed, if we assume that the person who said this or that phrase has absolutely nothing more to say, i.e. that he no longer has absolutely no thoughts left in store, then are we not entitled to accuse such a person of sheer mental poverty? Fortunately, even the most mentally limited person always has, in addition to what has been expressed, a sufficient number of thoughts that he has not yet expressed. These are not yet

DEVELOPING A SENSE OF TRUTH AND FAITH

These exercises consist in not having any objects in your hands, feeling them only with the help of your imagination, to perform physical actions in the same way as if these objects were in your hands.

For example, without having a faucet, soap to towels, wash your hands and dry them with a towel; to sew without having a needle or fabric in hand; smoking without cigarettes and matches; clean shoes without having shoes, brushes, waxes, etc. in hand.

When you look at well-executed non-objective actions, you completely believe that this is how the people who perform them sew,

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light up, etc., you see how exactly they feel objects that do not exist in their hands. K. S. Stanislavsky considers physical actions with a “dummy” to be the same daily exercises necessary for a dramatic actor as vocalises for a singer, scales for a violinist, etc.

“You can get the right state of health in the simplest, pointless action (K.S. sets the exercise to write a letter without paper, ink and pen) ...

Let's take this study: you have to write something on paper. Here you are looking for a pen, paper. All this must be done logically, without haste. Found paper. It’s not so easy to take paper, you have to feel how they take paper (points with fingers). You have to think about how you put it on your hand. She can slip on you. The first time you do it slowly. You must know what it means to dip a pen. Got the logic? So you shook off the pen, on which there was a drop of ink. You start writing. The simplest action. Finished. They put down the pen, blotted the paper, or shook it in the air. Here the imagination should tell you what to do in such cases, but only to the last degree of truth. You need to be able to own these small truths, because you will never find the big truth without them. For this little moment right-

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do you feel real truth. Your truth is in the logic of your most insignificant actions... It is necessary that you yourself feel that this is logical. This simple little action brings you closer to the truth.

In life, we do not remember the details of various small actions, because we do them habitually, mechanically. If we begin to act pointlessly from memory, and then perform the same action with a real object, then we will see what a large number of they missed the details, as they did not feel the object in their hands, its weight, shape, details. Therefore, at first, students are invited to take some very simple non-objective action. For example: light a match by taking it out of the box; tie a tie; thread a needle; pour water from the decanter into a glass, etc.

You need to work on these exercises at home: first do the exercise with real objects, then without objects, then repeat again with objects. This must be repeated several times, checking the sensations in order to remember with your muscles what it means to take an object, put it down, hang it up, take it off, etc.

1 K. S. Stanislavsky, Articles, speeches, conversations, letters, M., Art, 1953, p. 657.

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Students show results in class homework. We make comments and corrections. For example, while sewing, a student feels the needle and thread well, but she sews in one place and the fabric does not move. In another case, the trainee tried to do a non-objective action as quickly as in life, skipping the details: puts on a glove - good, takes off - bad, his hand is dead; removes the galosh - does not pull his leg out of it; pours water - does not close the tap; smokes - does not feel the taste of cigarettes; eats - does not feel the taste of food, etc. We point out to him the need to do everything more slowly than in life, we instill a taste for the smallest details physical action. The hardest thing is lifting weights. These exercises need to be especially carefully worked out.

The emergence of a sense of truth is greatly helped by chance, which often occurs in the preparation of an exercise. For example, while sewing, a spool of thread has fallen and unwound. The participant of the exercise picked it up, wound the thread again. If this randomness is fixed, it will decorate the exercise.

Exercises with different justifications can be done in different rhythms. For example: I sew when I have a lot of time; I sew when I'm in a hurry.

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(A list of exercises for the memory of physical actions performed at different times is attached, pp. 96, 97.)

In addition to single actions, paired actions are also interesting: sawing firewood; rowing a boat; unwind the fire hose; pump the pump; forge, etc.

Knowing that we encourage creative initiative in every possible way, students in theater school in one course, on their own initiative, they themselves prepared the entire test for the memory of physical actions. Non-objective actions were combined into one general study "Preparing for the New Year's Eve in a student dormitory." It began with sawing firewood. Two students sawed non-existent firewood with a non-existent saw, but the real sounds of a saw and falling logs accompanied the action. The sounding corresponded exactly to all the smallest details of the saw, from the first scratching of the log surface to the crack of a log breaking off. Next, the splitting of a torch, tearing paper, lighting matches, etc. was sounded. Preparing for the New Year, students changed into non-existent dresses, decorated a non-existent Christmas tree, set the table, opened non-existent canned food, wine, put fruits, sweets, etc. Exercises for the memory of physical actions were combined with exercises for the speed of permutations. For a minute

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the curtain closed, then opened - and a stove was heated on the stage, a real decorated Christmas tree shone with lights, there was a set table with those very real objects that were absent in pointless actions. The whole course sat at the table and met the twelfth strike of the clock with raised glasses.

In well-practiced non-objective actions, we check how much the person performing the exercise has mastered his attention and keeps it on the object, felt what freedom of muscles is (that is, he makes exactly as much effort as necessary for this action), how his imagination works, how he justifies the proposed circumstances, as far as he believes in the truth of his action and feels its logic.

On stage, actors have to drink from glasses that do not contain wine, read unwritten texts of letters, smell paper flowers, carry weights that are not heavy, operate with hot irons that are not hot - in a word, deal with a number of fake objects. It happens that on stage letters are written too quickly, glasses are waved so that wine should pour out of them, money is paid without an account, wine is poured into a glass in one fell swoop, etc. fake items.

The alphabet and grammar of the actor: action is the basis of school and skill. “Formula” of stage action by G. A. Tovstonogov.

the main objective training and the entire process of learning an actor at the very first stage - finding by the student of action, effective tasks, valid or conflicting facts.

From the very first lessons, students begin to understand that on stage one must always do something, be busy, be in an effective process. “Action reflex” is embedded in the blood and flesh of the artist forever, becomes hallmark genetic code actor.

The theory and practice of acting art covers multiple problems of stage creativity in the aspect of stage action.

Stage action is the main category of art of a dramatic actor, which consists in the ability to reproduce human behavior. The “subject” of acting science, pedagogy, creative searches of a student-actor is stage action as a theoretical and practical problem. Stage action is the main subject of theoretical study and program content of all Russian theater schools without exception.

“In the teachings of K.S. Stanislavsky's concept of "stage action" is fundamental. However, in pedagogy, in theater science today there are a number of inaccurate definitions of it, mutually exclusive interpretations, different meanings are put into it. Thus, the very subject of learning and mastering by the student becomes blurred, indefinite. At the same time, not only the theory of the issue, but also the real acting, student, pedagogical practice depends on what content it contains” (34.105), writes Professor I.B. Malochevskaya.

“Action is a single psychophysical process of achieving a goal in the fight against the proposed circumstances of a small circle, expressed in some way in time and space.” (G.A. Tovstonogov.)

“We note that in Tovstonogov's formulation, every word is important; to remove any means to destroy the meaning of the concept. Here is how Georgy Alexandrovich comments on the meaning of the words in this extended formula.

First of all, it is necessary to emphasize the inseparability of the psychological and physical principles, their unity (as opposed to the still existing erroneous ideas about external and internal action).

It should be remembered that the concept of “physical action” is conditional: of course, Stanislavsky we are talking about the psychophysical action, the proposed name simply expresses the desire to emphasize the physical side of the effective process. Without understanding this, physical action is often called the usual physical mechanical movement. Let us remember that the physical action in the teachings of Stanislavsky is always a psychophysical action. This is the value of his discovery: a precisely found physical action can awaken the true psychological, emotional nature of the actor. Here is how Stanislavskaya wrote about this: “... a physical action is easier to grasp than a psychological one, it is more accessible than elusive inner sensations; because the physical action is more convenient for fixing, it is material, visible; because the physical action has a connection with all other elements of organic life behavior (emphasis mine - I.M.). In fact, there is no physical action without desire, striving and tasks, without inner justification by their feeling…” (91.3.417-418). Stanislavsky's discovery is based on the law of the organic relationship between mental and physical processes in a person.

Action is a process. Therefore, it has a beginning, development, end. How does the stage action begin, according to what laws does it develop, why and how does it end or stop?.. Answers to these questions explain the essence of the process.

The impetus for our actions in life is the objectively existing world, with which we are constantly in interaction through circumstances that we ourselves create, or circumstances that exist independently of us. On the stage, these are the circumstances proposed by the author, playwright, i.e. proposed circumstances. They impel to action, move and develop an effective process. The law of stage existence is the law of exacerbation of the proposed circumstances. The extreme aggravation of circumstances activates the action, otherwise it will proceed sluggishly.

Action is born with the appearance of a (new) goal, the achievement of which is accompanied by a struggle with various circumstances of a small circle.

The proposed circumstances of a small circle are those that are the immediate cause, the impulse of action, those that really affect a person here, now; those with whom he enters into a concrete struggle.

Conflict - driving force actions. The most acute struggle with the proposed circumstances of a small circle for the achievement of the goal is the main content of an effective process. The development of the latter is associated precisely with this struggle, with overcoming obstacles on the way to the goal; obstacles can be of a different nature, with the sign “-” and with the sign “+”.

The action ends either with the achievement of the goal, or with the appearance of a new proposed circumstance that changes the goal, respectively giving rise to a new action. Without knowing the purpose and proposed circumstances of the small circle, one cannot speak of action.

As we can see, in the definition of stage action there are: 1) purpose (for what?); psychophysical realization (what do I do to achieve this goal?); 3) accommodation (how?)” (34.106).

Reduced great quote from the pedagogical practice of G.A. Tovstonogov and I.B. Malochevskaya makes it possible to see how many complex relationships in the technology of the actor's art can be traced in these few lines, which deep meaning lies in the definition of stage action formulated by Tovstonogov.

The most brilliant craftsmanship, high achievements in the field of theatrical form are valuable only insofar as they are supported by the laws of human life behavior, that is, a motivated and expedient action. The basis of the first stage of training is the study of this law and the ability to apply it in the conditions of the stage.

So, the actor's task is to create a stage image by reproducing human actions. It is clear that the student still does not know how to do this in the first year, but it is important for him to remember and realize this for now.

We know that in life a person acts constantly, but the question is how his actions manifest themselves outwardly and do actions and their manifestations always proceed in the same way? Is it always in life that a person realizes that at a given moment he acts in this way, and not in some other way, can he act in a different way? And if a person is in silence and immobility, does he act or not? Of course it works. Only his actions are not manifested in movements, requiring a greater effort of consciousness and will, greater concentration on the object of action, tension of the intellect.

Volitional tension, energy are necessary to reproduce a given stage action. And in order to internally force oneself to show an attitude towards a conditional stage object, one has to look for excuses, i.e. impetus to action. He is necessarily present here and must be motivated and strong-willed.

To get right to necessary action you need to set the right goals and the right stage tasks. What is a scene task? What are the means of accomplishing it? - A practical action answer to three questions: “what, why, how do I do on stage” - and this will be a completed stage task.

Let's see how the nature (and form) of any, even the simplest physical action will change, depending on the goal to which this same action will be directed: I close the door: 1) to get rid of the noise; 2) check if it creaks?; 3) to hide from persecution. One and the same physical action - “I close the door” - will be carried out differently each time, depending on what purpose it is based on. Those. in direct dependence on “what I do” (goals), “how I do it” changes - adaptation.

Adaptation is one of the main means of the actor in achieving the goal of the action. Thus, the actor is simply doomed to search for actions and adaptations of a physical nature. Performing a stage task through actions and adaptations is a conscious, logical, emotional, improvisational, productive process.

The result of a well-executed stage task is a stage feeling, an experience. The growth of action activity in the fight against a small circle of proposed circumstances, if they are aggravated to the limit, creates a special tension of stage experiences.

The stage action will be developing, interesting and exciting if, acting, the student as a result begins to worry, feel and truly live the effective indicators of stage life: the surrounding circumstances, the goal, the conflicting (or effective, eventful) fact that worries the student.

Action and feeling (physics - psyche) are mutually connected in the psychophysical apparatus of the actor. Organic psychophysical action, as it were, unites in itself, encompasses all stage manifestations: emotion and thought, psyche and physics. It contains all the elements and trains them all at once in a complex: attention, imagination, fantasy, muscle freedom, perception, inner speech, proposed circumstances, stage attitude and assessments, memory of physical actions, faith and truth, logic and consistency ...

But back to the stage feel. You can’t “play” a feeling, but you can’t act without feelings either. A lot has been written and said about the fact that one cannot look for a feeling by itself, “squeeze” it out of oneself, “experience” a mood, a state. "Hatched" feeling will lead to deception, image, strumming. Or, even worse, a nervous, hysterical state, a harmful and unpleasant phenomenon - the play of the feeling of “itself”.

It is important to properly prepare the appearance of the stage feeling. In the fight against small circle obstacles, there should appear own feeling student from achieving the goal or from its unattainability.

Each student should have an original, lively, direct, logical and sensual perception of everything that happens to him. The student must demonstrate in his action only his own way of thinking, behavior, inherent to him and not to “rent” other people's reactions, other people's behavior. Only a consciously set goal and active action to achieve it help to achieve organic experience.“The process of experiencing is the main one, without experiencing there is no art,” wrote K.S. Stanislavsky, - it is this that makes the action organic.

Already at the first stage of training, it is necessary to acquaint students with the method of physical actions of K.S. Stanislavsky.

The method of physical actions is universal, it is in nature both in human life and stage behavior. Physical action is the “atom” of the stage process.

The language of the actor is the language of action. There is a big truth in every little act of an actor. Stanislavsky liked to say that an artist is “a master of simple physical actions”. Out of accurately found small actions, the big human truth of the actor is formed, and after it the scenic, artistic truth.

What is the nature and technology of a simple psychophysical action in the stage process?

First of all, it is necessary to remind once again that “the life of the human spirit of the actor and his actions are two sides of the same process, or, to be more precise, they are two ways of considering this process. K.S. Stanislavsky recalled: “... translate experiences into actions. Get the same. When you talk about action, you talk about experience, and vice versa… When I talk about physical action, I always talk about psychology” (92. 665).

The same was stated by M.A. Chekhov, recommending his exercises and the system of "psychological gesture"; great actor I thought that each physical exercise governs the senses and the soul. Thus, the method of physical action is also called upon to develop and improve the art of experiencing.

Remaining devoted to the art of experiencing, K.S. Stanislavsky formulated the principles of the method of physical actions briefly and categorically:

“- Artists should be banned from thinking and caring about feelings!”

“The actor is a master of simple physical actions.”

... Stanislavsky amazingly guessed what thirty years later the physiology of the highest nervous activity. Namely: any feelings (emotions) always arise as a completely involuntary consequence of three factors: 1) a functioning human need; 2) his pre-information about the prospect of its satisfaction and 3) newly received information about the same.

Human needs, like emotions, are not amenable to arbitrary control, but they are always transformed in one way or another, depending on his equipment. The second principle of the method just requires this “equipment” - skill, the ability to build actions from simple physical actions that are more and more complex, more and more mentally and spiritually meaningful, approaching the fulfillment of large tasks ”(29.49-50).

So, the study of physical actions, their mastery forms the culture of the acting profession. The sphere of professional interests of the actor was, is and will remain action, as long as a living person, his life and thinking is at the center of theatrical searches.

Researcher of human brain processes V.M. Bekhterev always defined thinking as special kind actions. K. S. Stanislavsky also wrote: “Every thought is an internally active action” (4.1.71). Both scientists argued that there is not a single incorporeal thought process that is devoid of external physical expression, albeit imperceptible to the eye, but felt.

The Rig Veda says: "Any thought or impulse is already an action itself." Actor's reflexes work similarly to this principle: the thought is immediately followed by the action and the action is immediately followed by the thought. “Even if you just frown your eyebrows, then a plan immediately ripens in your head,” says an ancient Chinese wisdom. The only question is how much, where and what the actor expends energy during the performance of the action, and how it manifests itself externally. With complete physical immobility, active thinking sometimes makes the actor more expressive than speed and dynamics, which often contribute to deconcentration, loss of energy, purpose, degeneration of action into movement. Goal-setting, thought, the need of the actor concentrate the rhythm, the atmosphere of the stage action and then it turns into a kind of spiritual force.

It should be added that “to speak” in theatrical practice also means “to act physically”. Any of the terms, expressions, concepts of theatrical practice is associated with the action. A role, an image, a hero is, first of all, a “mode of action”, a “character of actions”. The elements of the actor’s creative well-being are also “elements of action” (attention, imagination, etc.), for which the “rhythm of action”, “atmosphere of action” are important ... The skill of an actor begins with the cultivation of the skill of effective behavior, and the science of the theater begins with the doctrine of action.

A remarkable researcher of the theory of stage action P.M. Ershov writes about the development of primary, secondary and higher skills of mastering action on stage: “Professional mastery of action begins with the ability to see actions in real life, with the ability to distinguish them and understand their course. But this is only the beginning. This is followed by the ability to consciously perform the given actions, any actions. And even higher - the ability to create from them an image that expresses a certain content. This, in turn, is connected with the ability to select actions” (29.46).

P.M. Ershov studied in detail the evolution of the school of experiencing by K.S. Stanislavsky, how the psychological theater method evolved: “He was looking for more and more reliable ways to create and artistic expression the life of the human spirit in the role. At the same time, he came to generalizing conclusions of great importance: the art of acting is the art of action; every action is already an experience; experiences of any person are inseparable from his actions.

The path of Stanislavsky from the preference of feelings to representation to the approval of action as the basis of acting art was long and difficult. What is an "experience"? What is most essential for an actor in a role? It began with a statement: the main thing is feeling. Then attention and imagination became the main thing. Then - the will and the task (c. 1914). “Experiencing is an active action, that is, the fulfillment of a task; and vice versa, the fulfillment of the task is the experience.” Later - tasks and desire (1919), then - desires and actions (1926). IN " notebooks” 14 “nails” are listed. First, there must be genuine, internally justified action. Fourteenth: the task causes desire, desire causes action.

But at first the action was understood as "internal", as a purely mental phenomenon. There, on p. 258, Stanislavsky writes: "How to draw a line of demarcation between the physical and mental task? It is as difficult and impossible as to indicate the boundary between the soul and the body." He comes to the assertion of an indissoluble unity in the action of mental and physical, and in last years life - to the physical side of the action is more accessible to the control of consciousness, and then the subconscious, than the mental side.

From the assertion of the decisive role and action in acting, Stanislavsky came to the assertion of the physical existence of action. It is his muscular, bodily being that makes it possible to turn him into an obedient material - into something from which to build. artistic image in acting. Build not only intuitively ("within"), but consciously" (29.48).

However, doesn't "a conscious simple physical action" abolish the "art of experiencing"? On the contrary, the subjective truth of the actor's soul receives a completely objective content. The method of physical actions does not catch the experience like a bird in a cage and does not "preserve" it in a mise-en-scene. Genuine physical action is always a little different and the feeling too. The improvisational nature of their combinations shows that the method of physical actions makes the actor's performance very variable through unexpected links and combinations of the physical and mental. Actors - masters widely use the ambiguity of any physical action, as well as the possibility of its even more ambiguous psychological interpretation. Stanislavsky himself said more than once that an actor needs to use creative purposes this unique "gap" between physics and the psyche.

Everyone knows that Stanislavsky himself suggested achieving the goal of an action by refusing to make "direct" decisions, often in reverse ways. For example, the performer of the role of a character pursuing evil goals must have a psychophysical score of a good person. This deepens the psychology, relieves the actor of the bored clichés of specificity. This also means that in fact, as in this case with "good evil", there is no "gap" between physics and the psyche. Evil will remain evil, and kindness in the role will only shade evil thoughts more clearly. True art is the ideal unity of form and content, internal and external, ethics and aesthetics, physics and psyche in the work of an actor.

Therefore, when talking about the "gap" between the physical and the psychological, Stanislavsky is actually talking about it as a space for talent and for talent. And to make this gap or space even more perfect in expressiveness with the unity of physics and psyche - daily care director and actor both in rehearsal and in performance. To do this, the actor needs to change devices, look for new internal moves of the role. This is precisely what Stanislavsky never tired of calling for. He needed an actor - an artist, improvising with unpredictable and brilliant combinations of different levels of his stage existence (physics and psyche, consciousness and subconsciousness).

Any most illogical physical action of an actor-artist turns into an argument for his effective behavior. And he convinces us that such was the logic of his hero's behavior in achieving the goal at this very second, in this situation. But first of all, this is how the creative subconscious of the actor unexpectedly worked when looking for ways to perform the action. The consciousness of the actor, knowing what needs to be achieved, gives an order to the subconscious, so that it itself decides the question of how to come to the realization of the goal. Only with such a close harmonic relationship, the "link" of the mental and physical, one can say that the creative subconscious has begun to work, that all clamps from the soul and body have been removed, and the necessary creative well-being has appeared.

The subconscious in the actor begins its work only in conditions of organic interaction between the mental and physical, in the absence of clamps on the soul, body, thoughts of the actor.

Psychophysical theory of stage action K.S. Stanislavsky serves one and the most important thing: to free the subconscious for creative activity and connect the creative unconscious for the work of the actor in the role. "Physical actions are needed not for the sake of naturalism, but for the sake of the subconscious," Stanislavsky emphasized.

The method of physical actions, discovered and developed in the last two decades of the life and work of K.S. Stanislavsky, was the final link in the evolution of his theoretical and practical views. Overcoming the dualism characteristic of early period development of his theory, the division into internal and external technology, Stanislavsky came to the assertion of their unity.

The method of physical actions, according to Stanislavsky, calling through the “life of the human body” “the life of the human spirit”, makes it organically and simply enter into any stage, creative process role, study, exercise. This is an improvisational method. It is presented in verb form when performing any stage task. It excites the spiritual life of the actor on the stage and is suitable not only for rehearsal (as a study method of analyzing the action of the play and role), but also for the improvisational work of the actor in the play.

Yu.P. Lyubimov in his speech at the World Congress "Stanislavsky in a Changing World" in February-March 1989. In his speech Yu.P. Lyubimov, answering the question, what is the difference between the method of physical action and the method of effective analysis of the play and role, pointed out that directors prefer to work with the method of effective analysis during the preparation of the performance, outlining the paths of action in the performance by etude samples. And in the method of physical actions more creative possibilities for the actor, both in rehearsal and in a performance that is played in front of the audience. The universality of the method of physical actions is that it allows the actor to improvise and act within the limits of the director's task always anew. Directors sometimes call this method "instrument" method of effective analysis. Etude analysis of the play and the role is by far the most perfect technique rehearsal work director. She promoted and developed the method of effective analysis formulated by K.S. Stanislavsky, actress, director and teacher M.O. Knebel.

The method of physical action and the etude approach to the role reflects the acon of unity of form and content in art, for only a living form can escape the external image and stamp in the content it represents. Such is the live theater, which expresses the content in different ways, which can be reversed, as it happens only in life. This means that at that moment it was correct and organic, it was necessary to express the content in this way. For example, it is customary to show anger with a cry, a sharp gesture, and sometimes anger can manifest itself in the fact that a person turns pale, petrifies and ... without a single gesture. However, his state of health in this inaction will be more terrible, emotionally filled. The method of physical actions helps the actor to find more and more right ways goals, new adaptations, and other internal justifications for the action, more interesting and expressive than those used by the actor in the previous repetition stage tasks, at a previous rehearsal. The method sets the actor on a creative search.

The method of physical actions lies at the very basis of stage creativity, in its living improvisational nature. It repeats the mechanism of unpredictability of life behavior person and once again confirms the idea that the theater is a model of the world and its model is no less complex than the world itself. The more subjective in its manifestations the world of art, the more objectively it is present in our lives. We repeat that the theater not only reflects the world, but also creates a new one - the world of art. He not only cognizes life and its spiritual side, but also cognizes his own self, organizing his own spiritual space.

Action is the natural mechanism of life, the law of the life of society, human life, and at the same time the mechanism and law of the theater. Therefore, I would like to end the paragraph on action with another parallel, to compare the model of the theater with the model of the world and vice versa.

A wonderful legend that the theater was part of the Divine action was composed by P. Brook. We bring it to the attention of the reader: “God, seeing how everyone became bored on the seventh day after the creation of the world, began to strain his imagination and think what else could be added to what he created. His inspiration broke through beyond His own creation and He saw another aspect of reality: the possibility of repeating Himself. So He invented the theater.

He summoned his angels and announced this in the following terms, which are still found in an ancient Sanskrit document: “The theater will be the one a place where people can learn to understand the mysteries of the universe. And at the same time,” He added with deceptive casualness, “He (the Theater) will be a consolation for the drunkards and the lonely.” The angels were very excited and could hardly wait for the moment when there would be enough people on earth to carry it out” (8.262).

2.3. “The training of the psychophysics of an actor must be conscious and complex, and therefore purposeful and with fiction” (49.87). Z. Ya. Korogodsky.

Outstanding theater teacher Z.Ya. Korogodsky and many leading and ordinary masters of stage pedagogy argue that the training of an actor should be comprehensive. Z.Ya Korogodsky, following K.S. Stanislavsky, added - "conscious".

Advanced stage pedagogy today strives not to tear into separate training exercises one, indivisible educational process mastering the elements of stage action. After all, the stage action cannot be divided into elements, like any other organic life.

Training "by elements": today - "attention", tomorrow - "imagination" is outdated long ago, it does not meet the needs of the training system, does not correspond to the integrity of a single and indivisible stage action, whether it is an exercise or a performance.

Training only one element leads to a flat one-sided perception, limited to one side of the task. It gives almost nothing for professional skills. All the richness of other elements, shading and enriching, exciting physics and psyche at the same time, not united by one effective task, goal, effective episode- goes to waste.

All elements in the complex unite the figurative content of the psychophysical stage action into an artistic whole picture. visions, far, near, detailed and associative, flicker in the mind of the actor, like frames of a video clip. As the performance of the action grows, more stable connections are created in the imagination of the performer.

Specifically, the idea of ​​complex training is that any exercise, even from a series of tuning, disciplining, organizing, can be through the installation of imagination, fiction in certain proposed circumstances, it is aimed at training all the elements of the stage action together and simultaneously. Why and why exactly?

Human perception is always figurative in nature. Thought has an image, words, sensations, movements, actions - everything has it. In this regard, the actor develops a psychomotor reflex of experiencing the image, which translates experiences into the logic of action and allows concretizing these experiences through physical action..

K.S. Stanislavsky thought a lot about the nature of the actor's experience and found out that the "chain": image ® thought ® experience in the actor's work is an indivisible process of his perception during the action on stage. However, as in life. Only in an ordinary person, sensual and figurative perception is not very developed, unlike an actor. In addition, the actor reacts to everything with his body, developed and plastic, his perception is psychophysical and psychomotor. “ Every movement and active behavior of an actor is always and must be the result of a faithful life of the imagination.”(4.2.76). Thus, the actor's attitude to imagination and fiction in the proposed circumstances of complex training directly reflects creative laws theater and acting.

“Any thought or impulse is already an action itself”, - let us repeat once again what is written in the most ancient Indian Vedas five thousand years ago. This is the idea of ​​the integrity of the creative act of a person ... and the complex training of an actor. The “goal-thought” that prompts action has a projection image into the future, which should happen during the stage time of the exercise, sketch or performance. K.S. Stanislavsky devoted much of his research to the scientific study of the figurative nature of the actor's psychophysical action. Stanislavsky was the first among scientists to speak about thought-forms and thought-images in creativity.

About “living thought-forms” is described in detail in the next paragraph of this study guide. “Living thought-forms” are necessarily accompanied by experience, because “without experience there is no art”, there is no organic psychophysical action. “Psychological” every cell of the body of the actor performing the action.

In comprehensive training in the conditions of stage fiction “if…” the whole sum of the elements of the organic process is trained. It is important for the teacher not to violate and comply with all the conditions “if only…” in relation to the guidance of the student in the training. And do not simplify, but consistently create detailed loads and stresses in the simplest imaginary circumstances, however strictly corresponding to the reality familiar to the student. Everything that arises in the small circle of circumstances offered to the first-year student should be close and understandable to the young actor, taken from the life around him.

It is necessary to monitor the observance of the truth of life in the exercise. Otherwise, there is a clamp, then a tune and, instead of relieving excessive tension, this tension will manifest itself with renewed vigor.

From the very first lesson, the student needs to find motives, causes, conditions and circumstances in unity. That is, to understand, to see with inner vision, to feel at the same time immediate goals, tasks, motives of one’s behavior in action in the proposed “if I…, if with me…, if I…”. Such is the stage “set” of a first-year actor. According to its content, taken from the life surrounding the student, it should be extremely simple, even mundane. This is necessary in order to immediately enter the process of living human behavior in an impromptu study exercise, where the student does not have to play anyone and nothing, where for him everything is the proposed circumstances “if…”.

In complex training, it is important to observe two most important laws of etude-exercises:

1. The law of motivated action (through a conscious attitude to exist in imaginary circumstances);

2. The law of unity and dependence of mental and physical.

The teacher, performing a comprehensive training of etudes-exercises, adheres to the following creative principles:

– carries out constant and strict, consistent control over the truth and faith of performance;

- monitors the obligatory organic justification of the process of logical and sequential actions;

- follows a game technique in presenting an effective task to the student;

- prompts the student the possibility of improvisation when performing an action;

- directs the conscious paths of the student's work to the liberation and active activity of his creative subconscious (when already “not only I act, but it acts in me”);

– reminds and requires the student to continuously internal monologue- slander, inner speech;

- monitors muscle freedom, the absence of any kind of clamps;

- makes a strict requirement not to do anything “for show” (“this is how I try, look!” - how some overly diligent students tend to behave in training and ... get into a clamp), to act for themselves, organically, simply, as far as it necessary in faith and truth.

In seconds, minutes, in which the student receives the task of the teacher, his preliminary internal motivation for the etude-exercise is activated, the organic human nature. Let us remember: "Any thought or impulse is already an action itself." The action, movement, has not yet begun, and already through the conscious perception of a specific task, an effective installation on it occurs in the imagination and perception of the student. This “ideal image” (the school of D. N. Uznadze) is in essence an effective perception. It is brighter and more intense on the stage than in life and makes the student unleash a conscious initiative, look for actions, goals, tasks, facts. Conscious initiative trains the reflex side of the actor's physical action, that is, the responses of the creative subconscious to the tasks set by the actor's body, arms, legs and the entire actor's apparatus.

According to the science of the psychology of perception, its energy potential is much brighter in the perception of the imaginary. Once again, we recall that the theater increases the possibilities of human perception. In the theater, we often suddenly see something that we do not notice in life. The perception of the ordinary, the real, is a simpler act in terms of its organization. The scenic perception of what is in the imagination and exists only as a thought image, a thought form in our minds, is very active. “Seeing” the imaginary, “working” with an imaginary object, finding an attitude towards it in such a way as to provoke visions of those who look at this process from the outside, making the invisible visible - one of the elementary skills and abilities of the first stage of training.

In complex training, the real object should appear as late as possible, since the imaginary object trains not only attention, as M.O. wrote. Knebel, but also all elements of action through the perception of the imaginary.

The imaginary is the law of theatrical art, which is transferred to all spheres of its activity. Working with an imaginary object for the memory of physical actions and sensations is directly related to creativity. The whole complex of elements is being trained, which are actualized when, as if for the first time (and indeed for the first time!) The student comes into contact with an invisible object that exists only in the imagination.

The principle of “like the first time” activates. This also happens because knowledge itself is carried out at the forefront of creativity(unconditional and present) tense. This is the most relevant time for a person and an actor - "here and now" - the time of action and events. The actor's stage time and its content are described in §2.5.

→ For KINDERGARTEN educators → From the bins of socio-game TECHNIQUES for teaching preschoolers

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From the book: POCKET ENCYCLOPEDIA of socio-game teaching methods for preschoolers: Reference and methodological manual for educators of senior and preparatory groups kindergarten_ (under the editorship of V.M. Bukatov, St. Petersburg, 2008)

For the memory of physical actions (PFD)

The child who came out stage area(for example, in the middle of the carpet in the room where the classes are held) begins to perform manipulations with imaginary objects, that is, he acts exactly as if he were acting with real objects. Accuracy should be in the direction of gaze and attention, in the nature of the muscular work of the arms, fingers, legs, back, neck, etc.

Exercises on memory of physical actions(or FPD; both formulations are adopted in theater pedagogy) can take enough work with children great place. The meaning of all exercises is to implement the correct (as in reality) distribution of attention and muscle tension when acting with items(that is, not with people). "Where are the eyes?" (where is the gaze directed, that is, attention?), “what part of the body works?” (fingers, palm, shoulder, back, legs, etc.). Moreover, for each person, when he acts with different objects, all this happens somehow in a special way.

The appeal of children to the work of muscles and their attention opens up to the child in a new perspective the diversity of individual and situational ways of behaving people in the life around them.
Start the exercise at FPD it is better that children themselves remember objects and choose actions that they can perform from memory (open a bag, dress a doll, start a toy car mechanism, hammer a nail, etc.). It is also convenient to start the exercise with the real actions of children with the same real object: a mop brush, a scarf, a chair, a decanter, a briefcase.
Let us especially emphasize that it is important that children always have the opportunity to test their memory by action with a real object. Only by acting with a real object, the educator and spectators can determine the correctness of the exercise and give advice (see commentary on the game task-exercise " In truth and make-believe). Working off becomes more interesting for children if they are allowed (prompted) to unite in working pairs and triplets.

At the first stage complexities You can give quite simple tasks for individual performance.
At the second stage, it is good to introduce paired tasks (carry a bucket or a log; hold a dustpan and a broom; shake out a tablecloth; play a ball; pull a rope, etc.). Then for the rehearsal it is desirable to combine two pairs - when one will train, the other pair will monitor the accuracy and vice versa).

At the third stage, it is good to introduce assistants who "voiced" pointless displays of their comrades.
Traditional children's game “Where we were, we won’t say, but what we did– show" in essence, it is the initial basis of the exercise for the memory of physical actions. So that this game does not become boring, it is desirable from time to time (but - slowly!) To introduce an agreement to be recognizable by credibility, persuasiveness, scrupulous accuracy actions and everyday emotions. Such accents in play will help children discover the role of concreteness in their perception of the creative efforts of their peers (which is very important for pedagogy).

The most valuable for the development of children are those tasks on PPD, during which you have to pay attention to the small movements of your fingers. At the same time, it is important for the educator to guess the acceptable degree difficulties and not force a transition from rough manipulation of large objects (such as a mop or basket) to precise and complex manipulation of smaller objects (peeling a potato or a hard-boiled egg).

It happens that educators understand the FPD exercise only as an imaginary work with missing objects. Then the child immediately, without a preliminary “rehearsal” with a real object, goes out and “washes the floor with a mop”, “strings beads”, etc., without training at the same time distribution of attention(the term of theatrical pedagogy), nor muscle memory. But only - blind courage and the habit of acting approximately ...

The criteria for evaluating such impressions are usually vague, and therefore based on the most general ideas about the actions taken. It is difficult for both children-viewers and adults to discuss what they saw. And it becomes unclear to the performers themselves what is required of them, and if something does not satisfy the educator, then what needs to be done to improve their show. All this quickly leads the students to an unfortunate indifference in the performance of the game exercise.