The term ''Given Circumstances'' is a principle from
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
theatre practitioner
Konstantin Stanislavski's methodology for
actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...
training, formulated in the first half of the 20th century at the
Moscow Art Theatre.
The term given circumstances is applied to the total set of environmental and situational conditions which influence the actions that a
character
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
in a
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
undertakes. Although a ''character'' may make such choices unconsciously, the ''actor'' playing the character is aware of such conditions on a conscious level to help him or her deepen his or her understanding of the
motivation behind the character's actions. Given circumstances include conditions of the character's world (e.g. specifics of time and place: in
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
for instance, being in
Elsinore at a specific time in history is a given circumstance), elements from the history of the character's environment (e.g. Hamlet: the death of the old King Hamlet preceding the play's plot is a given circumstance), and elements from the character's personal situation (e.g. Hamlet: the character Hamlet is a crown prince).
In his own writing on his theatre practice, Stanislavski describes given circumstances as ''"The plot, the facts, the incidents, the period, the time and place of the action, the way of life.
..The Given Circumstances, just like "if", are suppositions, "products of the imagination."''
Literature
* : The director's craft: A handbook for the theatre. Abingdon: Routledge, 2008.
* Stanislavski, Konstantin: An Actor's Work: A Student's Diary. Transl. Jean Benedetti. Abingdon: Routledge, 2008.
{{Stanislavski system
Performing arts education