Stanislavski's Seven Questions For Actors... And business?: Blog 30

Good morning.

Its been a week of talking about Eastern Europe, and Eastern European directors. So it shouldn't have really come as any surprise when a dear friend and colleague left me a message yesterday saying that the answer to a puzzle we are trying to solve lay in Stanislavski's seven questions for an actor!  This isn't the sort of message I normally get, and I must admit it made me chuckle. The places we go to find answers eh!

But in terms of a business challenge it was an imaginative insight to suggest we return to a master of human motivation. Life is art and art is life and all that.


But theatre and life have one thing in common, they both have people at their centre in our infinite variety, full of ambition, motivation, love, envy, passion, fear, anger, revenge...........you name it. I spent some time last week talking about the actor's job to elicit emotion. But these seven questions for the actor are focused on motivation. And motivation sits just under the surface of everything we do. What do we want to get out of this? Why do I want to win this so much? What is the other person's objective? etc; etc;



I think my friend may have hit on a useful tool for business leaders! Its all there if you just look for it.

So here are the questions: Maybe have a go with them yourselves today, and notice what you notice, there may be hidden gems there for you!


1. Who am I?


Here you must think of the 3 aspects of your character, physically, sociologically and psychologically. Also, for each scene you write, think of the current state of being of this character. If a guy has just found out his girl is cheating on him, he's not going to be exactly the same person as in the scene before. The writer must be specific enough about who and what the character is.


2. Where am I?

And what is the relation of the character to this place - a familiar place, first time there, doesn't fit, etc.

3. When?

Day, year, weather. Why now? What happened before? It relates to what we we decided on the first question: the time of the scene creates the specific state of our character. If I just arrived for a date after a sweaty bike ride, I won't act the same, I won't sound the same.

4. What do I want?

This changes from scene to scene and even inside the scene. Each unit in the scene has its goals and actions of the characters inside it. Say I want to kill a spider. But then I look up closely and I'm amazed by its beauty. Now I don't want to kill it, I just want to catch it. so I do what's needs to be done, gets a nice jar and all, only to find out the spider is not so beautiful from inside the jar. So I want to let it go. But not in my house. So I go downstairs and let it free in the garden. Then I see this really attractive man. And again, I have a new goal...you get the point.

5. Why do I want this?

You always need to know the Why, which is by far more important than the What of the action. It gives the action the life it needed. Say your character needs a coffee in the morning. She really needs it because she hasn't been sleeping and she has a very important meeting in an hour. (Sound like anyone you know?!) Now she finds out the there's none left. She reacts differently from a person whose not bothered and may display all sorts of agitation.

6. How will I achieve my goal?

Simply put, the actions I need to perform to get what I want. Open the cupboard and get out the cafetiere, to make myself the coffee I want.

7. What must I overcome?

So we have run out of coffee. I must go out to buy some more. But it's too early and the the nearest corner shop is near a rough estate. I must overcome my hesitations first, then think about the walk and what I might encounter on the way - muggers etc?


And there we have a way of ordering our thinking in order to create character. As actors and directors of course we have the script, life is a little more variable! Maybe fun to apply the questions too to a real life business challenge today?

Let me now how you get on!