Super+Objective,+Objective+Hierarchy+and+Through-Line+of+Action

(Morgan) Hey guys, I thought it'd be easier to plan if we had our own page, so here goes.

**__ Super Objective, Objective Hierarchy and Through-Line of Action __** For reference:

__Super objective:__ What the character wants most in life

__Objective Hierarchy:__ Range of lesser but still important goals, both conscious and unconscious

__Through-Line of Action:__ Particular way of dealing with a variety of obstacles and setbacks. Find a connection between all of the moments when a psychological motive prompts a physical impulse, through rehearsal experimentation until a pattern emerges. //In other words:// The through-line is what links a character’s actions together and pushes them forward through a scene.

Tonight I’ll brainstorm ways of explaining each of these things and allowing the audience to experience them. So far one of the easier activities may just be to come up with given circumstances, and change the super objective and immediate objectives to see how the scene and through-line of action changes.

What think you?

Oh, and here’s a totally useless but incredibly entertaining video of Peter Linder training Chris Anich in method acting to play Hooch. They’re both really intense: []

__Kareem:__ Hey this is really cool, I was just thinking we should have a page of our own to help us organize ourselfs and such. Anyways I like your idea that you just came up with. Just to shout out an idea I just had: for the through-line of action we could actually have members not in the scene try to observe the scene to see how the through-line of action changes as we change the objectives. Then they can discuss with the actors when they happened and how they effected the scene so they too, the actors, can get understanding of what that step really is. Honestly though I think the hardest one of these to teach is the through-line of action so I will try to research some stuff on that and post it here.

Ok i found a phrase that helps me better understand the through-line of action, so it might help you guys to: --the through line of action is the spine the connects all the characters objectives in a scene --The Through Line of Action is a concept to help the actor to understand ways of getting his or her actions and motives to move with the whole work of art towards the ultimate goal of the dramatic piece. Stanislavski refers to this ultimate goal of the dramatic piece as the super-objective from ([]) --The “through line of action” must guide everyone toward the super objective. All the smaller units and objectives must serve this common purpose. An example of all these things put together I concluded would be: -super objective: become king/leader -objective heirarchy: get selfconvidence(unconcious), kill brother (competitor, concious), gain big ego (unconcious), win popularity with people (concious), Beware Macduff. -Through Line of action: internal want to gain sense of superiorty to peers

Morgan: Kareem, thanks for finding those explanations. I think the through-line is definitely hardest to explain, but we can do it by looking at how the objectives affect it.

What other kinds of activities can we do though? I mean, we can do a couple scenes with different scenarios where we change the objectives and stuff, but it seems like it'd get kinda old. What other fun activities go along with it?

Hey!!! I thought of one. Have you ever played Kill Murray- Save Murray? It's this game where you get two people, two markers, and a big sheet of paper. In the middle, you draw a stick-figure man (Murray). One of the people is bent on killing Murray in any merciless way he can, and the other absolutely MUST save him. So, they take turns drawing all sorts of methods for killing him and saving him from untimely death. The only rules are that you can't use the same method of killing/ saving more than once, and you are not allowed to use Chuck Norris. He has more important things to do.

Obviously a game based mainly on drawing is not necessarily what we want to do for a theater workshop (although it isn't bad), but the idea of maintaining the super objective and objectives as the through-line changes rapidly is there. Do you like it? Could we incorporate this into another idea somehow?

- Karma : Hey guys, i found this sort of article thing on the internet that could help us with understanding more about accomplishing a super objective as well as the concentration of basic steps to succeeding in the art of imagination. http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2005/05/27/an_actor_prepare.php I found another one as well that is perfect and better than the above :) www.geocities.com/dramastuff/Stan1.doc

Morgan: So, for whatever reason, Karma's links link back to this page, so I'm putting them on here again to see if it works because those pages are really helpful: [] [|www.geocities.com/dramastuff/Stan1.doc]

There. Let's hope that works. Also, can you guys think of any more ideas for activities?

Kareem: Here is a list of the activities we wanted to do after we met up on Sunday The good thing is I think a few scenes and the Murray game will be good for the time limit, without going over or under, but if we want to add another activity we might want to replace on of the ones we already have.
 * The kill/save the stick figure man game Kill Murray Save Murray
 * where we have audience divided into two, and each side sends one person up at a time to save/kill the stick figure
 * do we still want to use the big piece of paper, or a white board so then the whole audience can watch? (I'm pro the white board)
 * Have them improvise scenes which we give them (Change objectives)
 * do we want to give them one super objective and then change the objective hierarchy as we give them new obstacles, or keep changing both?
 * plus for this one we should all come up with 2 or 3 improv scenes for this, basically a who they are, what they are doing setting etc... ( and once you guys come up with a scene just post them up here and once we get all of them we can decide on the ones we want)

Some Scene Ideas: Ya these are just some ides you guys can change these however you want 1. Crocodile Hunters 2. Lab
 * characters
 * 1: man who is in early 30's who is adventurous and couragous
 * 2: also in 30's, obnoxious, pompous, hard headed
 * Scene: They are searching for the world's biggest crocodile
 * Setting: The heart of the Nicaraguan jungle, in a swamp
 * 1st man Super Objective: Find and document croc for science
 * 2nd man Super Objective: Capture and kill croc, for glory
 * Scene: Two students are doing a very important lab for chemistry
 * Characters:
 * student 1: A sophomre who is competitive with grades, and is very cold and controling
 * student 2: Could care less about the Lab, and is a senior with extreme senioritis
 * Setting: A chemistry room
 * Student 1 Super Objective: Get the best grade in not only the class, but the whole school
 * Student 2 Super Objective: Do the least amount of work possible