The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit

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In the old-fashioned way of working, where you learn the lines, you learn the “blocking” (a word I cannot abide), you get up and do the same scene every night. Psychophysical coordination is the natural and intimate dialogue between whatever we’re feeling inside and our outer expression of that feeling. There are certainly some problematic representations of race and class in both Shakespeare and Chekhov. We’re then given a very precise score of physical actions in the film directions (reminiscent of Stanislavsky’s Method of Physical Actions).

It comprises 16 autobiographical monologues and 5 original songs (by Bella Merlin, arranged by David Roesner). This is particularly the challenge with the psychological realism that tends to dominate western theatre and film, whether we’re talking superintendents or superheroes. After all, RADA’s acting program in the 1960s – where Packer graduated with honors – had certain Stanislavsky-based underpinnings. In other words, the final production ‘finds’ itself through the improvisations, rather than being imposed by a director from the outside.

Within a matter of years Packer had convinced her to cofound a theatre company dedicated to breath, word, image, emotion and deep communication, using as its source Shakespeare’s language. So everyone is playing on the impulse – from the very first time these actors with this text meet in this space. Lofty discussions led by Oxbridge-graduated directors had caused creative spasticity in Packer (just as they had with Stanislavsky’s actors). The words and structures used by Shakespeare are far richer and more liberating than anything we could possibly think up ourselves. And to put themselves in ‘ emotionally unsafe’ dialogues through the safety of well-crafted texts, as they explore their capabilities as creative artists.

At the heart of those questions is really: What does it mean be an actor in the twenty-first century?JENNY gets desperate and goes through the stuff again, looks to see if the money is inside the bed, goes through the bunny again, but she finds nothing and drops her head on the bed in despair, she gives herself some time afterwards, she sits down, and thinks of ‘what to do’. Indeed, Stanislavsky himself crossed literary genres, though – as I mentioned – he didn’t cross media: he didn’t work in film. Her heart-felt aversion to head-led text analysis comes from hours of such experiences in her early career at the RSC. This playful and daring first pass through a play has many psychophysical resonances with Stanislavsky’s final practices, not least in terms of discussions.

Then I had the opportunity in 1993 to go to Moscow and study at the State Institute of Cinematography. When the Method of Physical Actions became formalized by state, he evolved his practice into what became known as Active Analysis.The next stage in Packer’s rehearsal processes also bears striking similarities to some of Stanislavsky’s processes, though with a markedly different and original set-up.