The Bear, Chekhov, Logbook

First, we watched Chekhov’s comedy shorts which were made in 2010. “The Bear” was presented by Julian Barratt and Julia Davis. The plot is about young lady, who is in a “deep mourning” about her last husband and landowner, who is in “desperate need of money”.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x71cnnz

First of all, we decided to read the play through.

This is a play reading with Keiran, who is playing Luka

As a result of reading we became more familiar with text and the characters.

After first reading we start to open our characters a little bit more. Also, I had a discussion with Matt about the play.

After the discussion we started to think about psychological side of the characters. What do they want? Why do they say what they say? Why do they act like they act?

To answer this questions first we should look at the script and analyse it.

On this meeting we separated the play on 11 units (original suggestion by K. Chekhov) and spoke about each character. What personality each character has, what the script tells us about them, what clothes are they wearing, which year play was written, what class levels were at Russia at those time and etc.

Part1

Part 2

In the end of the lesson we had a list with information we have been looking for:

The research helps to understand characters, their motives, age, clothes, dynamics. This technique is called Given Circumctanses by Konstantin Stanislavski.

Through objective/super objective tool I could understand a real motive of my character for each action. It gives me more information and keeps the character alive.

Play Super Objective

I want to prove to my husband that true love exist

Obstacle – he is dead

Unit 1

I want to imprison myself

Obstacle – Luka does not want me to stay in 4 walls

Unit 2

I want to prove my husband that I am a true wife to him

Obstacle – someone rings to my door

Unit 3

I want to be alone

Obstacle – some devil wants to see me

Unit 4

I want Smirnoff to leave

Obstacle – he insists to stay

Unit 5-7 Smirnoff

Unit 8

First part of the scene

I want Smirnoff to realise my status and class

Obstacle – Smirnoff does not take it seriously

Second part

I want to prove to Smirnoff that only women can love truly

Obstacle – Smirnoff laughs at my point of view

Unit 9

I want to humiliate Smirnoff

Obstacle – he accepts my challenge

Unit 10

I want to keep arguing with Smirnoff

Obstacle – he wants to stop, because he falls in love with me

Unit 11

I want to keep kissing with Smirnoff

Obstacle – Luka enters

The work on script:

On one of the following lessons Sonia introduced to us another technique which is called Emotinal Memory. We were told lay on the maps, relax and concentrate on the feelings. Then remember an object which is very close to us which we have or had in the past. My object was a camera. Then Sonia asked us to remember how does it feel, what is a material, which memory this object brings in.

Personally for me it was difficult to concentrate on something for a long time. After 5 minutes I think I lost my pation and opened my eyes few times and also moved. So for me concentration is defenitely a zone to impove. Because, for an actor it is important to control body and mind.

For the next exercise we imagined a hot (a very hot) ball. And we started to pass it to each other. Sometimes ball fell, sometimes it did not feel as hot as it should be, but overall I think we completed the exercise, which might be called Method of physical actions. Because doing this activity we were trying to recreate a situation of holding a hot ball just from our memory.

The last exercise what we have done was about becoming a character. How would I walk IF I was Madam Popov? What would I say IF I was Madam Popov? How would I greet people If I was her? So this activity with magic "IF" showed me how my personal experience and imagination could transform me into the character.

In the end of the lesson we also spoke about Physicality. This technique is practitioned by Michael Chechov. The main thought is that every character has an unique gesture. Which might go from their head, heart or groin. For example, a character which can be described, as a strong, smart, logical person might show a gesture a hand beating his head at the moments of passion. Or a passionate and emotinal person while talking about something can start their gesture from the chest.

So this unique gesture gives understanding to the audience, that you see now a particular character. And in my opinion it also helps an actor to feel the character more while they perform on the stage.

On the other session we did exercise which is called Blocking. The main idea of this activity is to rehearse the play with understanding where each character shall go and what exactly each character should do while some actions or speaches are happening. This part was the most difficult and the longest one to work on. It took us about 4-5 hours to complete the play.

In the end of the day we felt more confident with the play and with our acting. Furthermore, our cast had some reasonable feedback about the characters and the way of playing them.

On one of the lessons we tried another very important activity which is called Improvisation. During the exercise we were given a range of objects and then we should imagine them as different objects, play with them and show it to each other.

This action showed me the importance of believeness of what you are showing or doing. You can take a phone and imagine that it is a guitar or soap and show a small scene with it. And as long as it presented truthfully everyone will believe in it.

At home I have tried another technique which is called Tempo-rhytm by Stanislavski

As a result of it, I experienced different beats per minute in different scenes and saw how it affects the whole mood of the scene or the unit. I found this exercise quite useful for myself at first for using it as a tool for emotional memory and also for building feelings and atmosphere on the stage.

Another technique which I have tried for building my character is Action by Max Stafford-Clark. The main point is to write for each sentence a transitive verb, an action what I am doing towards to other actor. Also I include physical action which I can do during my talking on the stage and what each line actually meant.

The file can be find at this link below

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fHqj7YI9KoSKDsTRjGsvNH7m3RwO2RYN

The important technique what we explored is called Hot Seating. For the exercise actors should be seated and asked questions about their characters. The answers should be given by their characters.

This activity helped me to understand my character and think about her history a bit more. That she was married in a very young age, her husband was old and when he died she discovered that he did not love her at all.

This is a video of our performance of all 3 comedy shorts by K.Chekhov

After performing I was thinking what was good and what is still my zones to improve.

Good:

- people were laughing, so the comedy was understandable

- even if we forgot our lines it did not look obvious and did not disturb the plot

- some improvisation from Matt worked really well

- the pace of the play was quite fast

Zone to impove:

- think how to make first part of the play more funny and more fast

To conclude with, I found Stanislavski techniques very useful and will definitely use them in future. Also, I would like to try Max Stafford-Clark exercise "repetition" and work more on my psychological gesture for Madam Popov.