Method Lawyering-Living The Truth

Living the truth occurs when the lawyer is so connected to the truth and their client they have entered into the reality of their client. The lawyer feels what the client feels and thinks like the client thinks. This is short of losing the self. Rather the lawyer’s  consciousness and the client’s consciousness meet. (Butler, The Method at xiv). To Stanislavski living the truth is the highest level, the artistic mountaintop that all lawyers should strive to reach.

Stanislavski instilled in his acting students to serve the truth. The truth is neither philosophical nor political. To Stanislavski the truth is internal. It is the real feeling demanded of the situation. The truth leads to a sense of lived truth to the jury.

Stanislavski taught that concentration and attention help focus the lawyer’s complete physical and spiritual nature on what is going on in the soul. This in turn creates an appearance of not realizing being watched. This is powerful for the jury to see and feel as the lawyer is seen to be immersed in the truth. The secret is to present as real and present experiencing actual emotion. The lawyer introduces themself into the circle of the jury as their world is here with the jury. When the lawyer has belief in their case they have a purpose which makes natural behavior easier to create. 

By speaking the truth the lawyer speaks to the needs of the jury because the truth is what we naturally want. The truth is what we see as our common language. The keys to Stanislavski’s system are ACTION, in the given CIRCUMSTANCES, and IMAGINATION. The best trials move from action to action within the given circumstances. Trials deal with problems. To resolve a problem we need action, an object, adjustment and connection. Great trials require the lawyer to do something (action) to something (the object) in a way that takes into account the circumstances (adjustment) made by the scene partner the jury through (connection) and (imagination).

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