Comparing Stanilslavski & Brecht | 'Crossing the Threshold'

Transitioning from Brecht's Epic Theatre to Stanislavski's Naturalism and comparing the two is something that I think will benefit me throughout the rehearsal process for this production. I think it's interesting differentiating the two styles because we learn what their overall motivations were and what effects they wanted their plays to have on audiences. We were introduced to the way in which Stanislavski may have trained his actors; by envisioning a circle around performance space and committing to a that focus no distractions surrounding it (like audience reactions) should interfere with that performance. Unlike Stanislavski, in Brechtian performances actors would instinctively improvise (if not directed to already) react to spontaneous endeavours from a live audience. Considering this made me come up with a diagram that I feel represents the difference in 'thresholds' with these two practitioners' styles.

The red outline here signifies the area in which the actor’s character shows a conscious awareness of their surroundings as their reality. Naturalistic actors will be trained to dismiss and ignore anything going on outside their perception of their limited reality- and to not cross that threshold. This distances the audience by effectively separating their versions of reality at the moment of performance. Whereas, Brecht constantly reminds the audience that they are watching a performance. Actors practising Brecht's style would probably be given the freedom to react to real life events from the audience who are constantly reminded that this is a play, and they are in a theatre being directly spoken to by actors playing characters.