"Acting is action. The basis of drama is doing, dynamism."
Thus Stanislavski admonishes us to always be in a state of doing something which helps us achieve our character's goals.
What about sitting in a chair staring into space?
Indeed. This choice is a TACTIC, a means to an end. Are you sitting in the chair to attract attention? To hide? To rest? Why? How does the choice to sit in the chair help you achieve your character's goal? This immediate goal is the character's ACTION in the present moment.
Perhaps your character needs to deal with a present OBSTACLE. Perhaps sitting quietly is a way to avoid attention, wait for someone else to leave, to observe, to learn, etc.
In our acting classes, we emphasize the need for the actor to always make an active choice when in a scene. This requires a deep understanding of the character's INNER LIFE.
Interestingly enough, the deeper your commitment and understanding of a character's inner life makes choosing a tactic like just sitting easier: you simply live in what Stanislavksi called the GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES.
Uta Hagen offers the Nine Questions for actors to help guide us to living completely in the given circumstances of a character: Who am I? What time is it? Where am I? What surrounds me? What am I doing here and how did I get here? What are my relationships? What do I want? How do I get what I want? What stands in my way?
Stanislavksi describes this as a melding of an actor's own being and the character's circumstances: he calls this the MAGIC "IF". (If I were in this situation....)
We teach actors how to coordinate and synthesize these concepts over time in order to establish a clear process any actor can use to get at the heart of who a character truly is.
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