​Ruhi Kumar

The System: Units 

Stanislavski believed that it was impossible to grasp a whole play or role at once. So, the actor must, in rehearsal, break a play down into smaller sections or 'units.'

What constitutes a unit?

When dividing up the play into bits, there are three main things to look out for to help us decide when to change bits of how to recognise a new bit: 

 

• When an event happens, whether physical or psychological, that affects what the characters are thinking or doing on stage;

• What a character changes objective and starts wanting something else;

• When a character enters or exits the stage  

Stanislavski suggests the actor needs to find a title that captures the essence of each unit. This should not be a literary title such as A Mother's Love. For each unit, the actor should ask himself, "What happens?" Define the action not the subject matter. 
When he was working on Moliere's Tartuffe, Stanislavski broke the play into units, and gave them titles which sum up the action- e.g.,  Protest against the oppression of Tartuffe. 

 

Units Task

By now you should have chosen your monologue, which will be your starting point for this exercise. 
Please now select two other scenes which are significant moments for your character, one preceding the monologue and onefollowing it. 
Separate these two scenes and the monologue into units with reference to the guidance above.