Stan Glossary...

 Stanislavski Method

Objective An actor must always be active, externally or internally. One can be immobile externally, yet active psychologically, having inner action. All action must be justified; it must have a purpose and be logical.

“Magic If" : This "magic" word unleashes the imagination and starts the actor towards believing in what he is doing, and stimulates creativeness.

"Given Circumstances": All the conditions in which the actor works: the plot, the environment, the lighting, the people. An actor must become familiar with and a part of his environment.

Imagination: This must be "alert, rich and active" so that the actor can interpret the lines and fill them with the meaning that lies behind, the "subtext".

Circle of Attention : This keeps the actor focused on what he occurring, helps him relax, and helps direct the audience to where his attention is wanted

Relaxation of the Muscles: "Unless tense muscles are relaxed, an actor’s normal mental activity, and therefore the spiritual life of the character he portrays, is impossible."

Units and Objectives: An actor has various sequential objectives in his role. To help him accomplish these he should have break his presentation into units, each of which helps him accomplish an objective.

Actions or activities: What you are ‘doing’ to the other characters on stage to get what you want. Usually described as ‘I ………You   e.g I Tempt you, I order you, I hoodwink you. The actions are about getting to the subtext of the line, not about the line itself

Feeling of Truth and Belief: "If an actor while carrying out an action uses logical consecutiveness, justifies everything with the help of if, and thinks of the given circumstances, he will not overact and his action will be truthful. Without forcing himself, he will believe in what he is doing because he will be doing it as in real life."

"To find … truth, an actor must see, watch, absorb all possible impressions around him. An actor must learn to be aware of what surrounds him."

Emotional Memory: Stimulation of actor’s emotions through the recall of experienced ones.

Communion: An actor should hear, see and understand what is being said to him on stage, and should be sure others on stage hear, see and understand what he is saying. If an actor communicates consciously "he will be carried away and merge with the character he is playing. The actors must communicate with one another on the basis of living relationships between people, not by means of memorized behaviour nor formally and artificially.

Adaptation: Actors must adjust to one another on the stage and must creatively adapt himself to inspiration or to unexpected changes

Tempo-Rhythm: "There are tempo (speed) and rhythm (beats) within us as well as outside us… When an actor seeks a justified tempo-rhythm for what he is doing, he is directly approaching his emotions which will respond

Motive Forces of Psychological Life: The mind, the will and the emotions are the forces with which an actor performs and creates.

The Unbroken Line of a Role: The actor should create a complete image of a character he is playing using such help as the surroundings, the author, the play and his imagination so that he can see the world through the eyes of the character.

The Actor’s Inner life: Because of fear or other reasons, "faculties which functions naturally in life are often paralyzed on the stage… To be able to create a truthful character, an actor must revive all his faculties, which means that he must be in a normal functioning state

The Super-Objective and the Through-Line of Action: To carry across the main idea is the overriding objective of actors. All action, all aspects of the performance must be continuously oriented to accomplish this.