Vsevolod Meyerhold - Biochemical techniques.

Techniques

 We focused a lot on Lee Strasburg, inspired by Stanislavski and the Moscow theatre company his method encourages actors intensify their connection to the material by using their own emotional experiences to create their character. While method acting is similar to Stanislavski’s methods Strasberg’s method requires actors to go beyond simply playing a character but  to temporarily become the characters they are portraying using a technique called “Substitution” Method acting focuses on achieving realism, According to the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute website, method actors “…use their imagination, senses and emotions to conceive of characters with unique and original behaviour, creating performances grounded in the human truth of the moment.”

Method acting says that actors should prepare for a role by immersing themselves as much as possible in the circumstances of their characters. This can include living on a farm, working in a factory, or transforming their bodies. Method acting has come under scrutiny because it is believed that some actors go so far to replicate the lives of their characters, that they actually put their health or lives at risk. In addition, many stories have been told of actors who played their roles to extremes, refusing to step outside of their roles, even when the cameras were not rolling.

We used a lot of "What if" senarios as our undertsnding of the play grew more and our understanding of the contex i think we stopped seeing our seleves as just 'Animasl' but as people going through a rebellion. We related our characters to the situations of those during the revolution. In the first act i looked at Troskey a key figure in the Russian Revolution. I found it hard to connect to him at frist becouse of who he is but looking back i know see that its more than likly he started caring abut the people, but slowly became more currupted. I tried to see him not as a political figure but as a human being with good intententons who lost his way. And his tdeath really affected the way i played he ending of the frist act when Snowball is killed. Troskey was assesinated after he was expelled from Russia, he dided alone, far away from without forfilling what he wanted, despite him being what i would class as a terrible person but i sill find this quite sad. I used this information to add more intensity to Snowballs death, i decided to shout "comrades" a saying that united all the  animals together howeve no matter how much i shouted and screamed ni came t help the rest of the animal stood by aimlessly.
We also wanted realism another tecnique that satnislavaski was very fond of, desoite us all being animals and it dose requre an amount to abstact thought to be an animal we also wanted to the personality of the characters real. For example even thoguh Snowball is a leader by nature he isnt perfect he dosent see the fault in his ideas or how to nessasrly fix them. As rehearsal went on i stopped seeing Snowball as a pig i began to see him a full rounded charcter just as i would if he was human.
We tended to use the fourth wall a through out the show but we did also at some parts like when the windmill is destroyed where we all face the audince but theirs still no direct adress to the audience. This really added to the atmosphere of the show overall, this was the asudince could really see exacly ohow the animals where feeling thorugh our facial expressions.

Lee Strasberg also developed several exercises to help actors create believable characters on stage. he most known is the animal exercise where a method student will observe an animal and then try to create the experience of being that animal through their five senses. With practice, the actor can pick a couple of attributes of the animal and incorporate them into the role he’s playing. Lee Strasberg “method” is the most widely used acting technique in America.

We had to be very specific when we were observing our animals, focusing on what is the animal's posture? How does he move? When does he move? Why does he move? We tried to imagine what it might be thinking? Then Begin to physically imitating its movements.

 Overcoming our inhibitions, and imitating the animal was a struggle during the beginning of the rehearsals but as time progressed we all became more and more comfortable with each other and we did all eventually "get over our selves". We even stared to suggest ideas on how to move and speak  regardless of what animal we were.

http://www.onlocationeducation.com/blog/2018/1/3/acting-styles-Strasberg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNBRFSUXR-A

We also used a lot of Brecht Techniques which we later realised further into rehearsals. Through out the show narration is used by the Boy who tells the story of animal farm thorugh out the show. Even though its stroytelling the way it was done by the actors who used split -roll (another Brecht teqniue)  for the part of Boy used a more dark gritty way of telling the story. However it took a lot of experimenting to achive the final product and finding a balance of charcter and narrator. 
As a cast we found funny momnets in the script but there where of inside jokes just for us, we though hat using somthing like spass would lose all the tention we where trying ti build, it wold also take the audinece away from what the show is trying to be. 
(For more Brech tecniques please go to costume and set.)