Stanislavski "an actor prepares"?

Question

What does Torsov mean when he states" Through conscious means we reach the subconscious"

Answer 1

Emotions (feelings) arise from the sub-conscious as a result of our ability to fulfill our desires.
An actor strives to make his character's desires his own desires.
In every moment of acting, an actor must have justifiable and believable answers for these three questions:

What am I doing?
Why am I doing it?
How am I doing it?
People are motivated to action by a desire to attain a goal - a desire. For example:

You desire to stop feeling nervous about going on a first date with someone you like a lot - so you go to the refrigerator and get something tasty to eat.
You desire to be accepted by people you like - so you dress in a similar fashion and behave in similar ways.
You desire to stand out seperate from the rest of your peers, so you color your hair purple and pink and wear nothing but black leather clothing with silver studs.
You desire to own a new car - so you get a job, save your money and secure good credit so you can afford the downpayment and qualify for credit to purchase that new car.
You swing your arms at an attacker's knife - so you can ward off the deadly stabbing blows.
You weep deep, sobbing, tears - so you can express and alleviate you intense pain and grief over the sudden tragic death of your dearest friend.
In the real world, our desires and actions are not always known to us consciously (available to our full awareness and knowledge.) Often times our desires and actions are initially known only to our sub-conscious (unavailable to our full awareness and knowledge.)

For instance, in example 1, you might not be consciously aware that you are eating because you are feeling nervous about the date. You might interpret the nervous feeling as hunger. Or you might not even feel hungry but are simply eating out of habit - it is simply something you do when you are nervous. Or possibly, as you are nervously preoccupied with preparing for your date, you might not even be aware that you have opened the refrigerator door and have taken something to eat.

In the second example, you probably did not consciously say to yourself, "Gosh, I seem to like those people. I want to be liked by them. I think I will dress and behave like them." No. More than likely, your attraction to a particular group of people, your desire to be liked by them and your decision to dress and behave like them was initially not a part of your conscious awareness. You might, in retrospect, have become aware of why you dress and behave like the group you belong to, but that is likely something that happened some time after your desire arose and you started dressing and behaving like them.

Of course, in the real world, desires and actions are also a part of our conscious awareness. For instance, in the fourth example, you could easily be consciously aware that you want to own a particular new car, and consciously decide to get a job, save your money and establish good credit for the intent of one day being able to purchase that car. The entire process would be a conscious effort.

So in the real world, desires and the actions which attempt to fulfill those desires can be both conscious and subconscious.

In real life, as stated above, emotions (feelings) arise from the sub-conscious as a result of our ability to fulfill our desires. For instance, let's say as in example 3 above, that you did color your hair purple and pink, etc. and showed up at school the next day. You found that you indeed were quite different and seperate from your peers and everyone noticed you and commented how wonderfully unique you were. You would feel happy perhaps even euphoric because your desire (whether determined or still in the realm of your sub-conscious) to stand out seperate from the rest of your peers , has been. gratified.

You did not plan to feel the emotions happiness and euphoria. You did not plan to smile broadly, walk with a light, carefree, bouncy gait and talk in an upbeat, cheerful tone. These actions came about as the emotions of the happiness and euphoria arose from your sub-conscious; a result of the fulfillment of your desire to stand out seperate from the rest of your peers .

If, however, you colored your hair purple and pink, etc. and showed up at school the next day only to find that ALL your friends also showed up to school with purple and pink hair, etc., you would likely feel frustrated, angry, perhaps even sad because your desire to stand out seperate from the rest of your peers has not been gratified.

You did not plan to feel the emotions frustration or anger. You did not plan to frown, to walk with a reckless, heavy gait, and talk in a curt, abrupt manner. These actions came about as the emotions of frustration and anger arose from your sub-conscious; a result of the lack of fulfillment of your desire to stand out seperate from the rest of your peers .

Acting, on the other hand, is not like real life. Acting is willful (conscious) . Actors have to determine and plan every desire, every action. When performing, an actor cannot depend upon sudden revelations of subconscious desires and spontaneous bursts of unrehearsed action. Heavens, the entire performance would be thrown into chaos. Each member of the cast constantly trying to figure out and respond to the seemingly random actions of every other cast member."

For more - and very interesting it is, too - see the link below, please.

Answer 2

I'd say John deserves longest answer. Torsov, John and other proponents of Stanislavskt are full of psycho-acting gobbledygook. The truth is that Stanislavski's way of training actors was only relevent for his time 1900-1938 during which he had to retrain all the Russian actors from the stagey, artificial style of the 19thC to realistic performers. His "system" is no longer pertainent to acting as today's actors have been accustomed to realistic acting since 1930.
All these phony acting teachers think it takes some guru with a magic method to train good actors. BALONEY. It just takes a little practice and know how to do something that is innate, pleasurable and easy==ACTING.

Answer 3

I'd say John deserves Best Answer!