On Object Études
By Andrew Tsao
The étude as conceived by Stanislavski, refined by Strasberg and Uta Hagen seeks to provide students of acting the experience of performing tasks that are of private life, in public.
These “slices of life” are by necessity often mundane and habitual, in that they are assigned in order to assess whether a student can do these tasks in public without adornment, indication, performative force and self-consciousness.
Until the student actually experiences this sense through the étude, they do not truly understand what it means to be “engaged in a task in the present moment with authenticity.”
After this exercise using mundane and everyday objects that are familiar and routine, it is time to introduce the next key aspect in the acting process: imaginative truth.
In all performances, whether on stage or on screen, actors are interacting with a world of objects and environments that are real, partially real, partially false and entirely false. Sets, costumes, props, special effects and CGI all present a specific set of imaginative challenges for actors.
Some try to reduce the complexity of choices and range of imaginative energy in order to focus on the relationships and deeper actions and moments a character lives through. Some choose to wear period armor of the true weight in order to achieve this. Some spend months riding horses to train their bodies for authenticity. Some simply wear the correct shoes to get the correct feel of the character in their bodies on a day to day basis.
This area of craft can be taught by assigning variations of the object étude. Once a student is able to live in the present with everyday objects, they can be challenged to bring an object that is part of an imagined scenario. An example might be a tool or a necessary object in order to complete a task. It is important that the object be crucial in completing an important task, in order to clarify need, action and objective.
That tool or situation should encounter an obstacle: failure of the tool, unfamiliar circumstance, accidental happenstance or other complication. This complication should be not something the actor/character could have predicted when engaging in the task.
The actor must then improvise, adjust and rethink their tactics in order to complete the task.
It is up to the actor whether the task is completed, or not. If completed, there should be a clear moment of realisation that this occurred. Conversely, if the task is unable to be completed, then a clear moment should also occur. This brings the étude to an end.
The final moment of success or failure is key. It instills in students the instinct that scenes have a beginning, middle and distinct end, with clear obstacles, tactical changes and a final moment where a character’s world changes in a specific manner.
These études can be done with very simple props, but should be three dimensional, not electronic and be tangible in terms of its use and purpose. This exercise is not for exploring fantasy or unfamiliar tasks, as it is designed to develop the student’s ability to endow their own world with imaginative reality.
Once this early exercise is mastered, we can add imaginative layers with elements where the form and structure of the objects are real, but there are elements that require imaginative truth to perform the task.
A simple example is a pan, some real water, and a table top with an area designated and a stovetop. The pan and water are real, but the tabletop does not heat up. Can the student perform the task while at the same time behaving as if the stovetop is hot and even burns their fingers? This is a challenge for students because handling the pan with water in it requires little imaginative work but imagining heat and a true reaction to a burn requires a high level of imaginative ability without appearogn false or becoming indicative or performative.
These high level études can have varying degrees of “real” objects and imaginative objects, depending on the students ability. At a high level, experiencing pain, cold, heat, discomfort, accidental physical obstacles (tripping, twisting and ankle, seeing something in a field of vision, etc.) become challenges for the student.
To sum up, the object étude provides the student with the lived experience of shaping an imaginative scenario, living truthfully in a three-dimensional world, shaping a scene with authenticity, then adding layers of imaginative truth to a real environment to connect and enhance this key actor’s tool.
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