Units, Objectives and Super-Objectives.
Stanislavski’s system does not exist in a vacuum. It exists in order to prepare actors for real roles within actual plays. The system requires that the actors undertake close analysis of the playtext before and during the rehearsal process.
Units :
When approaching a scene, the actor must examine the spoken words and actions of a character, and divide them into ‘units’. Large units of action may then be reduced :
“...to medium size, then to small, and then to fine.” (115)
Units enable the actor to chart her or his character’s continuous progress through a scene. The division of a scene into units means that no element of the playtext is overlooked when researching a role. However, Stanislavski did not want actors to ignore the bigger picture when dividing a scene into units, and suggested that :
“...an actor must proceed, not by a multitude of details, but by those important units which, like signals, mark his channel and keep him in the right creative line.” (114)
Ultimately, the examination of units of action represents only one stage within the process of creating a role. Stanislavski noted that :
“...the division [into units] is temporary. The part and the play must not remain in fragments. A broken statue, or a slashed canvas, is not a work of art. It is only in the preparation of a role that we use small units. During its actual creation they fuse into large units.” (115)
Objectives :
On its own, the division of a scene into units of action has only limited value to the actor. Without further analysis, units reveal little regarding the inner state of a character. Stanislavski notes that :
“The division of a play into units, to study its structure, has one purpose ... There is another, far more important, inner reason. At the heart of every unit lies a creative objective” (116)
The key to successfully establishing a character’s objective with regard to a unit is to be as elemental as possible.
“The most important question [is] : how to draw an objective from a unit of work. The method is simple. It consists of finding the most appropriate name for the unit, one which characterises its inner essence” (121)
Objectives are most useful to the actor when they can be expressed in the form of a single, active intention or desire. This is usually a simple sentence - for instance, “I want my students to do all the hard work for me”. Stanislavski suggests that objectives should be framed in such a way that they stimulate and excite the actor within the character development process :
“If you introduce something ... definitely active, state a question so that it requires an answer, it will push you to some fruitful activity to carry out that purpose ...Try sitting on this chair and wishing for power, in general. You must have something more concrete, real, nearer, more possible to do. As you see, not any verb will do, not any word can give an impetus to full action” (124).
The Super-Objective :
The process of textual analysis is not completed through the establishment of a character’s objectives within a scene, however. Stanislavski suggests that without guiding principles which govern the direction of the play as a whole, a role’s units and objectives have no purpose. The research process, shared by all the actors, builds a collective understanding of the play’s meaning. Stanislavski notes that :
“...the main inner content of a play produces a state of inner grasp and power in which actors can develop all the intricacies and then come to a clear conclusion as to its underlying, fundamental purpose” (273)
This ‘underlying, fundamental purpose’ is the play’s ‘super-objective’. The process by which the super-objective is reached is lengthy and complex :
“In a play the whole stream of individual, minor objectives, all the imaginative thoughts, feelings and actions of an actor, should converge to carry out the super-objective of the plot. The common bond must be so strong that even the most insignificant detail, if it is not related to the super-objective, will stand out as superfluous or wrong.” (271)
Like individual units and objectives, the super-objective can be as simple as a single, active statement, expressed in the form of a sentence. The super-objective represents a collective statement of understanding from the actors, and offers the play-in-performance a sense of conceptual unity.
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Super-Objective (The Spine): A statement (agreed by director and actors) which represents that guiding and active principle that governs the direction and meaning of the whole play.
Units (Of Action) : Sections of a scene which represent the individual actions of a character.
Objectives (What the Character wants): The motivation which propels a character through individual units of action.
(All quotes taken from Stanislavski’s ‘An Actor Prepares’, Methuen Drama 1988 paperback edition)
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"The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."
