Influences

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Mitchell was trained in Russia and studied to great detail Stanislavsky’s practice and his influence on the world. Stanislavsky introduced practices like isolating a character’s intention and creating character biographies which both are essential elements in Mitchell’s process. Mitchell highlights in her book that Stanislavsky’s practice is ever changing and developing as he lives his life and doesn’t include a single system or single right way of directing or acting. She mainly uses his practice ‘from the outside in,’ focussing more on what a character is ‘doing’ rather than what they are ‘feeling’. In her direction, she uses questions like “what would you do?” rather than “what do you feel?” to create a response in her actors that allows the audience access to all the puzzle pieces in the play.

Her knowledge of Stanislavsky was taught by Lev Dodin, who used Stanislavsky’s practice in an almost scientific way. He looked at actions and events logically with an extreme level of detail at the internal and external truths. This has appeared in her work through the use of concrete scores, scene building exercises and the indepth logging of questions and facts. He introduced the idea of behaviour over language. This idea of behaviour was looked at in more depth as Mitchell began working as a director in the UK. She began to research the biology of emotions, learning that from behaviour comes emotion. Her look at the physiology of emotions allows her to create a clearer language between her performers and most importantly her audience. Most of Mitchell’s knowledge branches from the many interpretations and translations of Stanislavsky’s work as well as her own discoveries as a working director.