ABSTRACT
Both Maria Knebel and Georgii Tovstonogov believed that Stanislavsky’s notion of Events was central to the understanding and practice of Analysis through Action. In the last chapter (18) we began the process of identifying Events through the Five Event Structure of the production. This chapter will examine how to perceive and utilize all the Events in a play. Identifying and ‘partitioning’ the Events – where one starts, where it ends, and where a new one begins – can be laborious to be sure. But if we compare a playtext to a musical score, determining the progression of the piece from start to finish, we can begin to detect shifts in pace, rhythm, timbre, and more importantly the behavior of the characters as they encounter one another. Knebel called Events “life-like vortices” which generate Action, propelling the play and the characters forward. In an Event (monologues excepted) two or more characters will be in Conflict with one another. One character is the Protagonist, who sets the terms of the argument, the other is the Antagonist, who with equal inner fervor also desires to alter their opposite’s behavior. In a larger scene the opponents will have supporters; everyone onstage must have a stake in the Conflict and must take one side or another. Conflict is certainly a loaded word but was defined by one Russian director as “competing logics.” Conflict is the essence of an Event.
