ABSTRACT
Given Circumstances are the lifeline of Analysis through Action. They are the gifts of the author to actors and directors. Sometimes they are bluntly factual, sometimes hiding in plain sight, sometimes deeply buried, and sometimes must be speculated on. In Analysis through Action, Given Circumstance supersede the more traditional hunt for Objectives and Actions. Any character’s Actions are based on the life they have lived and how they have lived it, what Stanislavsky dubbed Action-facts – life events that live on consciously or not in the character’s psychobiography. But any full-length play will contain hundreds or thousands of Given Circumstances. How the actors and directors recognize those needs a process. Tovstonogov proposes a systematic way or organizing “Three Rings of Given” circumstances: (1) the world of the play; (2) Events that occur on the Throughline Action of the play; and (3) Action-facts of the characters that are alive and dynamic during particular scenes. After defining Given Circumstances and The Three Rings, this chapter focuses on “The World of the Play.” Character Circumstances will be addressed in the following chapter.
