Presentation Style: What if …?

by Terry Gault

Konstantin Stanislavski, the famous Russian director and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theater, was a major force in the arts of theater and film.  No one since Shakespeare has had a stronger impact on the theater.

Stanislavski devised a simple technique to help actors overcome the artificiality of the theater.  By this I mean that when you are acting on a theater set, you are not in a real space – it’s a representation of a real space.  It’s not a real living room or a real office or a real battlefield.  It’s a set.

 

When you speak to the other actors you are not speaking to your sister or your work colleague or a fellow warrior, you are speaking to another actor.

 

The problem for the actor is, “How can I behave and act in a believable and real way when I am acting in a false world?”  When playing Hamlet, how can I know how to behave when my uncle hasn’t married my mother, I haven’t seen my father’s ghost, and I am not a prince?

 

Stanislavksi’s system was taught to me by Phil Bennett at the San Francisco Theater Academy and later the Bennett Theater Lab in San Francisco in the 1980s.

 

Stanislavski discovered a key to unlock the imagination and he called it the Magic If.

 

The actor is encouraged to ask the question, “What would I do IF this really were my sister?  How would I behave IF this was a battlefield and I was a warrior?  How would I act IF I really did see my father’s ghost and IF I was a prince?”

 

Then the actor makes choices based on their own instincts and imagination.  They fulfill the actions that would seem appropriate given the circumstances. 

 

Stanislavski’s system demonstrates that the fulfillment of simple physical actions in pursuit of an objective using this Magic If will lead to genuine emotional involvement and truth.

 

This same principle can be applied to presentation.  It can more deeply inform the notion of authenticity and style.

 

As we ask the questions, “What do I want my style to be?  Who do I want to be?”, the Magic If can be extremely valuable.

 

If we ask these questions and determine that we want to be more charismatic or even inspiring, our ego may rebel.  “Oh, no, that’s not me!  I am neither of those things.”

 

Instead, try on the question, “If I really were inspiring and charismatic, what would I do?  How would I behave?”  Then simply DO THAT BEHAVIOR.

 

You have countless examples to draw upon from in your life experience.  In fact, the beauty of Stanislavski’s Magic If is that you don’t even have to consciously remember or recall the people who you saw as inspiring or charismatic.  Your brain retains that memory in the unconscious mind and your mind and body are quite capable of mimicking that behavior if you can get your own ego out of the way AND if you have developed strong technique.

 

You may find it helpful to watch videos or listen to recordings of speakers and leaders that you feel are inspiring and charismatic.  These elements of style may be easier to mimic having listened to Martin Luther King or Winston Churchill or watch video of John Kennedy or Barack Obama.

 

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photo credit: KalinaSoftware