Stanislavski, observing great actors, found that they were experiencing the lives of the roles, not just imitating the roles, and in these moments they were in the state of the "creative unconscious". And he named the conscious process conducted to at...
Stanislavski, observing great actors, found that they were experiencing the lives of the roles, not just imitating the roles, and in these moments they were in the state of the "creative unconscious". And he named the conscious process conducted to attain this creative unconscious "system".
Many actors are overlooking the fact that role creation is a conscious process to attain the "creative unconscious". Demanding to "be the role" or "live as the role" by virtue of concentration or absorption, they try to suppress or deny their own selves which are the subject of the conscious process, only to meet with a difficulty due to the excessive self-consciousness. For the conscious process of actor, first of all, the self of actor should be recognized rightly. While he/she is acting, the actor's self is divided into the self who performs acting and the other self who watches it.
I divided actor's self into two and examined one by one: self as doer and self as observer. By applying this conception in a performance Juno and the Paycock, I was assured that this conception could be of a great help in creating a role.
The self as observer supervises the whole process of role creation, communicating with the self as doer through the process. It maps out and suggests physical actions of a role, and motivates the self as doer to carry out the physical actions. It is also an important part of the self as observer to look closely into himself/herself from an objective distance and search for solutions whenever faced with obstacles in the course of role creation.
Self as doer carries out a role's physical actions in a given circumstance and event. The relationship between the self as doer and the self as observer should be equal, and smooth communication between the two has to be guaranteed. The self as observer suggests, then the self as doer carries out the suggestion, and the two again communicate over the results. Through this process, the self as doer becomes able to manage many things previously controlled by the self as observer. The speech and action becomes familiar, and the role's emotion soaks into the actor naturally through the physical actions in a given situation.
The self as doer now acquires power to drive its own being as a role, experiencing the life of the role, in the state of the unconscious full of creative inspiration. In this process, the consciousness of the self as observer gradually expands to reach the audience across the stage, gazing together with the audience the truth of life that the piece of work attempts to deliver in the moment the self as doer experiences the life of a role in a given situation.
To fully make use of the self as observer, it is not enough just to recognize it. Along with proper understanding of self, persistent training and experiences are needed. Also, intelligence to grasp the core of a character and of a piece of work, imagination and sensitivity are needed. Last but not least, the actor's will to perform all this process of work on role is needed.