Objective & Super-objective

 

 

 I

Introduction

 

Stanislavski

The Stanislavski system of Objectives refers to a character’s wants within a play. He theorized that the character will always want to achieve something by the end of the play and that every decision they make should lead them towards that goal in some way.

 

 

II

 

 

Review

Objectives

The objective is a goal that a character wants to achieve. This is often worded in a question form as “What do I want?” An objective should be action-oriented, as opposed to an internal goal, in order to encourage character interaction onstage. The objective does not necessarily have to be achieved by the character and can be as simple as the script permits. For example, an objective for a particular character may simply be ‘to pour a mug of tea.’ For each scene, the actor must discover the character’s objective. Every objective is different for each actor involved because they are based on the characters of the script.

If we apply this to our daily lives, this is what we want to do right now. My objective, right now is to write this blog. It’s quite a simple objective but an objective it is, nonetheless. My objective for the day is to have a productive day despite being really quite tired.

 

 

III

 

Super-Objectives

A super-objective, in contrast, focuses on the entire play as a whole. A super-objective can direct and connect an actor’s choice of objectives from scene to scene. The super-objective serves as the final goal that a character wishes to achieve within the script.

In our daily life this is the big goal, the “where do I wanna be in…” question. Mine is to earn a decent living from just things I enjoy doing; Improv, acting and design.

 

Question 1

 

 Based on all the work we have done so far, what will be the super-objective of your character?

 

 

References

https://www.themaydays.co.uk/actions-objectives-and-super-objectives/