Stanislavski's 'system' for Actors and Actresses

In his 1936 book An Actor Prepares, Konstantin Stanislavski writes from the point of view of a student learning to be an actor, over the course of roughly 300 pages he describes the ways in which an actor should prepare for a role. 

Here I shall give a much simplified version of the methodical system Stanilsavski laid out in his book for creating a sense of connection with the character. It aims to do this simply by giving the Actor or Actress objectives that they are striving to achieve, this creates obstacles where the objective cannot be easily achieved and then more objectives to overcome the obstacles. Therefore if carefully thought out a performer can have an objective in mind whenever they are on stage and therefore have justification for every action, because only actions that achieve the current objective would be carried out.

The system can be broken down into a few basic elements. If you aim to break down any script or part you have to play and fit it into this structure you will find that it gives you much clearer reasons for your actions than if you try to improvise. 

The Superobjective 

This is your characters overall goal for the entire play, for some characters it will be obvious for others it will be quite obscure. Sometimes it is easier to look at all the smaller objectives and see if it creates a better picture of the overall objective. Objectives do not need to be achieved, they are just their for motivation. 

Objective

This may be what your character wants in this scene, so in the famous balcony scene Romeo' objective may be to profess his love to Juliet. 

Obstacles

THese are the things that are in the way of your objective, to use the balcony example, these could be the feud, the guards even the physical distance between Romeo and the balcony. 

Methods

How are you going to overcome these obstacles? You can't do much about the feud right now, but you can be physically wary of the guards and climb up high on the set to try and be near to the balcony and Juliet.

Each small objective is known as a Unit and the action taken to achieve the unit is a Bit so the balcony scene would look like this

Objective: To profess love to Juliet

Method: Go to balcony

Obstacle: Balcony is high up and guarded

Unit: Get closer to Juliet and avoid the guards

Bit: Creep over to her wall and climb up being wary of the surrounding. 

You can have as many bit's and units as you like, I like to think of Units as things to do, and Bits as the decisions that have been made on how to do them.

Finally we have Actions these are the character's line by line objective, so when Romeo begins the speech 'But soft! What light...' his action is to express his love for Juliet and hope that he may see her. The action is the inner monologue of the character and essentially the thought process guiding all actions. 

If you follow the process and believe in the thought process it means every action you perform will have a purpose to your character and create a believable performance!