ABSTRACT

Objectives, Obstacles, and Tactics in Practice is the first book that compiles practical approaches of the best practices from a range of practitioners on the subject of working with Stanislavski's "objectives," "obstacles," and "tactics."

The book offers instructors and directors a variety of tools from leading acting teachers, who bring their own individual perspectives to the challenge of working with Stanislavski's principles for today's actors, in one volume. Each essay addresses its own theoretical and practical approach and offers concrete instructions for implementing new explorations both in the classroom and in the rehearsal studio.

An excellent resource for acting and directing instructors at the university level, directing and theatre pedagogy students, high school/secondary theatre teachers, and community theatre leaders, Objectives, Obstacles, and Tactics in Practice serves as a resource for lesson planning and exploration, and provides an encyclopedia of the best practices in the field today.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

part I|2 pages

Playing Objectives

chapter One|10 pages

Money in Your Pocket

Meisner, Objectives, and the First Six Lines

chapter Two|14 pages

Psychological Gesture

Michael Chekhov Exercises on Physicalizing the Objective

chapter Three|8 pages

Making Sport of Objectives

Teaching through Student-Developed Physical Competition

chapter Four|8 pages

Structured Improvised Scenes

chapter Five|10 pages

Scoring the Un-Scorable

chapter Six|10 pages

Creating a Physical Score in a Snap

Using Social Media to Appeal to the Smartphone Generation

part II|2 pages

Overcoming Obstacles

chapter seven|12 pages

Engaging Obstacles

chapter Eight|8 pages

Active Obstacle Image Scoring

chapter Nine|10 pages

Resistance

chapter Ten|8 pages

Returning the Dress

Demonstrating Objectives, Obstacles, and Tactics

chapter Eleven|8 pages

Improvised Fantasies

Heightening Objectives and Obstacles in Scene Work

chapter Twelve|14 pages

Optimizing the Obstacle

Using Indicators of Csíkszentmihályi’s Flow to Help Select, Test, and Experience Stanislavski’s Obstacles

part III|2 pages

Identifying Tactics

chapter Thirteen|8 pages

The Tag-tic that Works

chapter Fifteen|6 pages

Transformational Tactics

Engaging Students in the Heroic Pursuit of Their Objective

chapter Sixteen|8 pages

Hunter/Hunted

Experiential Learning and the Actor’s Craft

chapter Seventeen|12 pages

Tactics and Action Drives

Stanislavski Meets Laban

chapter Eighteen|8 pages

Stanislavski in the Voice Studio

chapter Nineteen|10 pages

Stimulating Embodied Tactical Actions

chapter Twenty|8 pages

NRGs and the Nature of Action

The Lessac Tactic Circle

chapter twenty one|10 pages

Relaying Action – from Breath to Text

chapter Twenty Two|8 pages

Using Improvisation to Identify Tactics

chapter twenty three|10 pages

Activating the Actor with Game Theory

Using Gamification to Create Playable Tactics on Stage

part |2 pages

Afterword

chapter Twenty Four|8 pages

Recording Truth

The Camera in Acting Training