Stanislavski’s 7 Questions

In a recent physical theatre session with Lydia Baksh we learnt about Konstantin Stanislavski and the 7 questions his acting and character development methodology is based upon. These 7 questions that you must ask your character (as an actor or an animator) to better understand them and to create a vivid multi-dimensional and believable character (instead of a flat and limited one) are as follows:

1. Who am I?

2. Where am I?

3. What time is it?

4. what do I want?

5. Why do I want it?

6. How will I get what I want?

7. What must I overcome to get what I want?

I personally feel I have a wealth of characters as visual ideations, but have never attempted to construct their inner dialogues or personality before so I think I will find this a useful resource. I used the 7 questions to develop the character ‘goose girl’. She is pretty simple but I enjoyed it as a process and a first attempt at using the method. I look forward to using it again in the future.