Stanislavski

Boal was actually influenced by Stanislavski. Stanislavski believed that actors should be into what they are doing and have emotion in their performances. Boal believed that as well. However, he was also influenced by Boal which may seem like a direct contradiction but Boal thought that emotion needed to be applied sometimes (but not all the time) and detached acting was also needed sometimes.

For the monologue, I was partnered up with Shivani, who did her report on Stanislavski. I chose to do the monologue of Mary, the spoiled brat, where she begins to verbally attack Rosalie Wells. At first, I read it normally like it was a passage I needed to read for English class or something but Shivani made me go over it and try to pretend like I really was the spoiled twelve-year-old girl. I had a lot more fun with it the more I added because it made it seem more real and it gave the whole thing a point. Then, she told me to add some hand motions to emphasize the words further. I was actually quite happy the way it turned out because, even though I could not see it, I felt like I embodied the character way better than I did when we first started. Even the smallest gesture made it more believable that I actually was this evil little girl.