“Vakhtangov invited us for the next rehearsal to rewrite our role so that the left side of the page was the author’s text, and the right side – a blank sheet of paper. The first rehearsal he devoted to dissecting the images [characters] in the play. I played the central role of Henry, a young actor who goes through the whole play. By the way, it was a one-act play and was one hour and forty-five minutes without intermission. The action of the play is very intense; it happened in the days of the French Revolution.
At the second rehearsal we realized why Vakhtangov told us to rewrite the role in a special way. Vakhtangov began work on the play, carefully examining the text, breaking it down as required in using the Stanislavsky ‘system’ into pieces [bit/beats], defining actions and problems [objectives]. The author’s text was on the left side of the notebook, and the action was transferred to the right side, the recorded tasks: “what I want”, “for what purpose” and “how do I do it”. In addition, the pieces [bit/beats] were “entitled” by what happens in the action. On the right side, in addition to defining the tasks [objectives] and pieces [bit/beats], we recorded all comments by Vakhtangov. The whole play was thoroughly disassembled. In the course of the analysis, we determined the large “chunks” [big bit/beats or events] of the play. They usually coincide with the climaxes of the play: a change of action, the entry of new actors, a new topic of conversation. In the future, we determined the through-action of the play and, finally, for what reason we put on the play. The result was an original score. Now, just by virtue of their ability to play, the actors could not play just “anything” but knew what to do in every moment of their stay on the stage. Analysis of pieces [bit/beats] really helps the actors to meaningfully speak the text [verbal action] and act the action [in a way] necessary to initiate feelings.”
Ruben Simonov (“Ruben Simonov: The Artistic Heritage, 1981):
