Given Circumstances

Be ready to come up to the suitcase as directed, pick something out of it and interact with it. Don’t think how you want to do this – just follow your impulses when you get there.

Stanislavsky developed “given circumstances” and asked actors to think and behave as their characters would logically do in the circumstances of the play.

Given Circumstances Who – relationship between your character and all the other characters important in the scene (whether physically present or not; a general and a specific relationship with each person) Where – two main aspects; physical environment and social environment When – facts plus the implications of manners, values, beliefs, etc. What – start with the antecedent (or “pre”) action: things that happened in the past that affect the present situation and then move into the main event of the scene.

“The basis of all acting is the experience of ACTION in given circumstances.” Adler

Fuente Ovejuna Given Circumstances Get together with your Fuente Ovejuna group. Choose one of you to be a scribe for the group. Get out a piece of paper and put all group member names on it. Write down name for the scene you will be performing. Label it by Act and then a “name” or “title” word or phrase that sums up the scene; then write a 1-2 sentence description of the scene. Then, together as a group, talk through the given circumstances and write them down on the paper. When the analysis if over then talk through how those given circumstances can affect your character and write them down on the paper. Be specific here – does where you are make a difference? Your relationship with another character? How do you interact with what is happening right now? Etc. Only after the analysis is complete can you get to acting out the scene. Read it through once sitting down and take a moment to decide if you want to add anything to your paper. Then get up on your feet and run through it just to see what happens. Don’t force blocking or stop the scene. Just run it. Now work together as a directing team to develop specific blocking, movement, gestures, business, etc.