Given Circumstances

A given circumstance is where you are given a scenario, for instance we were told to act like we were in a church so we had to act like how we would act in a church. For this to really work, you have to really be able to think what it's like to be in a church, you have to be able to smell it, hear your footsteps echo in the large space, you have to be able to see the stained-glass windows. All those little things make you act completely differently to how you normally would.
When we started walking around the room but pretending it's a church, I started to feel really small and shy/uncomfortable, because I never ever go to church and you forget just how large they are inside and it made me feel slightly uncomfortable. After a while though, I began to feel a bit more relaxed, so I slowly paced myself looking around at the stained-glass windows.
When Andy saw that we were all imagining ourselves being in a church he then changed the scenario slightly to a wedding inside the church, but we were not meant to be there.
When Andy said this, I felt really awkward and out of place, and also trespassing a bit. I then started holding tension in my arms and shoulders and I felt like just leaving.

The second scenario was we were in Brighton town and it was absolutely packed. When Andy said this, straight away I thought of Summer because everyones always out in summer. So I was taking my time, walking around quite slowly, enjoying the sun. The scenario changed slightly again to we're meant to be seeing our mum, and we're really late and she's going to be angry. When Andy said this, straight away I was running, making my way around people, after a little while I started to get really annoyed with anyone who got in my way.

What 'if'

The next exercise we did was the What "if" exercise, which is where you're put in a certain situation, and you have to think "what if..." then think of something that could happen and then think to yourself "how would I react?", "what would I do?" etc.

In this game we were all in a little farm house in the middle of fields for a New Years Eve party, you had some people sitting down by the fire not doing much, then in the kitchen you had loads of people partying, drinking and doing drugs- we had to act how we would actually act. We were all waiting for the countdown when a news flash came up on the radio saying that a murderer had escaped from a very nearby prison, and they have no idea where he has gone too.
After that little new flash, a lot of people started panicking- including me-(practically all of the drunk/drugged up people were panicking because we weren't thinking straight).
When we calmed down a little, people started locking all of the doors and windows. However, after a little while all of the lights went off and we all started going crazy again and freaking out like mad, then Max went missing, then we started hearing bangs which scared the life out of me!
In this exercise I did actually start to freak out and get scared, so it went from me acting, to me actually being scared and not knowing what's going t happen next.

 Stanislavski's idea of the magic 'if' he said "transforms the character's aim into the actor's. It is a strong stimulus to inner and physical actions. If carries the actor into the imaginary circumstances."