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Method of Physical Action
The Method of Physical Action is a system of steps based on the teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski. Although Stanislavski didn't name this system himself, it was formally documented by his students soon after he died. Stanislavski believed that in order to successfully achieve a specific emotion in a performance, an actor or actress must use physical action to create the feeling. According to Stanislavski, if an actor were to follow these steps consciously, the actor would also feel it subconsciously. "'Because, if you do not use your body, your voice, a manner of speaking, walking, moving, if you do not find a form of characterization which corresponds to the image, you probably cannot convey to others its inner, living spirit.'"

Units, Objectives and Subtext
In a given scene, a character normally has an objective. An objective is a character's purpose or what they want to accomplish at that given time. A unit is where this objective is located in a given scene. As scenes change, so does the unit along with the character's objective.

Stanislavski stressed that the subtext and the objective should be connected. Subtext, in the theatre, is the hidden message in the lines an actor delivers. It is essentially what the character is thinking at any given time. The audience must then observe what the actor says and determine if they mean what they say literally rather than figuratively. Underlying meaning in a text most often takes strong thinking and analytical skills to decipher. It is an actor's duty to aid the audience in understanding any hidden meaning in a theatrical piece.

Action and Superobjective
Action and emotion relate to each other directly in this method. Stanislavski encouraged actors to use action to create the genuine emotion they needed to create their character. "'Genuine and specific emotion is achieved-on stage as in life-only as the result of action, of trying to do something important.'"Stanislavski's methods focused heavily on a character's objective. The objective, or goal, for the character was very important for the actor's development of that character. These objectives were part of a larger aspect of a character known as the superobjective. The superobjective is a character's main goal throughout the entire production. The objectives build off each other in order to attempt to accomplish the superobjective. In order to further understand a character's objective through action, Stanislavski instructed actors to ask three questions: why, what, and how. The actor must understand why the character does what they do, what they do, and how they do it in order to further understand their objective and physicality.

The "Magic If"
Stanislavski believed that it was very important for an actor to separate themselves from real life and what is happening on stage in the production. They would need to understand the difference between the "truth" on stage and the "truth" of reality. Actors tried to achieve what Stanislavski called "scenic truth". A performer would use their physicality and objectives of their character to get the audience to beleive that what they did and said as their character was the truth. Problems started arising with Stanislavski's students in which they were starting to believe they were the characters they were playing, and were having difficulty separating themselves from their character. To aid in creating a safer way of becoming one with their characters, Stanislavski created the concept of the "Magic If". Actors would ask the question "If I were this character, what would I do in this scenario?" The question and the "if" the actor creates would therefore drive their physical actions as well as their objective and give the actor their motivation for portraying their character in a certain way.

Concentration and Relaxation
The relationship between the actor and the audience is a vital component of a theatrical performance. The actor must recognize the significance and presence of the audience, while trying not to get distracted and put on a performance. Stanislavski was very interested in this segment of the actor and audience relationship and developed ways to keep the actor engaged with the audience, but not distracted. He trained his actors to focus on specific objects that were on the stage so they could develop natural emotion from the focus of the object. Stanislavski believed that if an actor were to focus on the setting of the stage or just a significant piece of the set, they would create a need for their character and the physicality and emotion would come naturally, and therefore, not be distracted by the presence of the audience.

Stanislavski was a firm believer that in order for an actor to gain full control of their body, they needed to be fully relaxed, mentally and physically. He concluded that an actor's performance would be compromised if they were to be stiff. It would affect the actor's movement and voice of their character negatively. He also stressed that being too relaxed was just as dangerous to a performance as being stiff. Being too relaxed in the body would in return make a performer too loose in their movements and speech.