TS3238 Journals: Communication and Adaptations according to Stanislavski

The following journal is adapted from my submitted coursework for TS3238, where my final grade was A+.

Having read this part of the text for the first time, I was surprised to discover that Stanislavski goes into so much detail in defining how we communicate with our environment, including other actors and the objects around us. Adaptations appear to be an elaboration of the communicative phenomenon, which Stanislavski teaches how we can, in turn, “adapt our behavior, voice, mannerisms, et cetera in response to the situation, who we're talking to and what we want.” Before I got to this chapter, I thought it was a common-sense process - if we are going to be given specific given circumstances and to create our character’s inner life with so vivid an imagination, doesn’t it follow that we have to adjust our body language and tone accordingly?

Stanislavski evidently felt otherwise, for he dedicated two entire chapters to the idea of acknowledging and communicating with objects of interest, both internally and externally, such that there is always an ongoing dialogue happening within the actor, be it directed towards an object, another actor, or themselves. I have, at a rather shallow level, experienced this myself when I break down my scenes before a shoot and am specifically aware of the train of thought that I should have as the character. This leads me to shift my focus from object to object given the shifts in my objectives within the scene. Hypothetically, this would have allowed me to follow an uninterrupted train of thought and transition seamlessly between beats. However, at my current standard and process, I realized that I have yet to fully integrate the idea of communication into my acting, and therefore, the natural consequence is that I am not always able to adapt to the specific circumstances of the scene in the moment. As a result, I understood from my own shortcomings why Stanislavski would think that communication and adaptations must be taught, for that level of attention to detail and responsiveness is not usually present in an untrained individual. Rather, it is a level of awareness that takes time and experience to embody.

To effectively communicate, the actor must give the target object their fullest attention, and they must then spontaneously adapt their behavior to the precise level of engagement that is appropriate for the situation. During the seminar, Grace began the facilitation session with an exercise in which we were supposed to get our partner to say a word, but they would not know what the word is. I was paired with my professor, and I needed to get him to say “fun”, while he was also given a word unknown to myself. As we asked each other questions, I realized that we were switching from tactic to tactic, and Edward was outright hinting to me that the word was “sleep”, which my classmate eventually got first. On the other hand, I was still trying to figure out how to make my professor say “fun” and neither nightlife nor conventional entertainment was giving me an answer. Deciding that I should get creative with this, I asked for a list of zi char food and successfully got my professor to mention hor fun (A Singaporean dish of flat rice noodles in thick gravy).

From this exercise, I realized that communication was a dynamic process and a two-way street, especially where the object I was communicating with is a fellow actor whom I can read for verbal and nonverbal cues. I also noticed that we were all switching between tactics in order to lead the other person into mentioning the unknown word. For instance, my action verb switched from “hint” to “encourage”, before I finally realized that Prof Edward has not guessed my word yet because of his confused facial expressions, which caused my final change in tactic where I tricked him into saying fun by asking for something that had little relation to the actual subject. Adaptation also came into play during this game as I found myself being naturally tongue-tied and nervous as I initially grappled with how I should be playing this game with someone who is definitely more senior than I am, and therefore I did not go through my usual thought process as quickly or as spontaneously as I might have had I been playing against someone of the same age group and social status. I realized that those were the microbehaviors that naturally change as I approach different people and interact with them, which is something that I can bring over to my acting - by analyzing and understanding my character’s status and past relative to other characters and the environment, I can then determine the appropriate reactions and behaviors that my character would be likely to exhibit, and performing the character in that way would add to the realism and completeness of the character.

The fight choreography class that we attended at Sandbox Training Ground was another prime example of communication and adaptations. In fact, I could argue that fight choreography is to communicate and adapt in the purest of forms - with guttural shouts and feeling the pressure of the tension from the bo staff as they clash against each other. As I settled into the moves that we were taught, I realized that my attention shifted where my counterpart was, and where her stick would move to meet mine, I would instinctively know to block it and move on to the next step. Communication in the context of screen acting was also about knowing when not to anticipate the next move, when I was told one too many times not to spin on my feet before my partner kicked my staff away. Hence, not only do I need to know what I should place my focus on, I also had to learn that I was not supposed to focus on some things so that I can give my counterpart an opportunity to “catch” me off guard.

In conclusion, the chapters on communication and adaptation rounded off my understanding of what acting is for the first half of this semester, and from the beginning of our course till this point in time, it has been an illuminating process as I began to understand that every part of the System is intertwined, and to fully master the art of acting, I must be willing to dissect my process and to constantly and actively find ways to fill in the gaps, many of which I may only discover during the practice of acting itself. While some might see that as trial and error, I personally see this journey as a testament of my commitment to the craft, and I hope to do my journey the justice it deserves.