Director’s note: We have used a practical approach in rehearsal based on Stanislavski’s system.
First, you choose the objective of the play. The objective is the action summary, the thesis or the super-task such as to explore immorality within a capitalist society or, for example, ‘To show the competitiveness of men in a working environment’. Then you choose the main objective of each character. This is the thing the character really wants and can be expressed by using the infinitive of a transitive verb – i.e. ‘I want to convince my boss that I am his best employee’ or ‘I wish to trick him into giving me all his money.’
Once decided, the play is broken down into units and bits to find the characters’ secondary and minor objectives in each section of the play. Then, if necessary, you choose dramatic actions for every line of the text, for example – to manipulate, to torment, to ridicule.
This process may seem overly detailed, time-consuming and overlooking the actor’s instinct but this is the basic way we have worked in our attempt to stage the play. It has been difficult to pinpoint exactly what these characters want when most of what they say is false and misleading. At times it has felt like a game of trial and error, but the search for appropriate objectives has given the play and characters a real direction.
Chris Parham
Director
Black Stripe Theater
