The manner in which it is employed is simple and direct. As an example, if the character knows close to nothing about their father and it would be useful to have such information then what if question(s) about the father may prove to be helpful. Questions such as what if the character’s father beat him, what if his father ran off, or what if the father died before the character was born may be appropriate.

When an actor starts to ask themselves if questions about the character that they are playing, they can discover whole new elements that can be used anytime they approach the creation or rediscovery of a role.

This enables the actor to put themselves into a certain situation in order to play their character as best as possible.

http://broadwayeducators.com/stanislavski-method-magic-if-and-illusion-of-the-first-time/

In 1932-1933 he published his first work of dramatic theory, Manifestes du théâtre de la cruauté (Manifestos of the Theater of Cruelty), and in 1935 staged the first work based on his theories, an adaptation of Les Cenci, heavily dependent on the earlier works on that theme by the British poet Shelley and the French novelist Stendhal. Since one of Artaud's theories involved the breaking of the barrier between actors and audience, Les Cenci may be have been the first play ever staged in the round.

This cruelty is a matter of neither sadism nor bloodshed. …" He went on, "I do not systematically cultivate horror … cruelty signifies rigor, implacable intention and decision, irreversible and absolute determination." He added, "It is a mistake to give the word 'cruelty' a meaning of merciless bloodshed and disinterested gratuitous pursuit of physical suffering. … Cruelty is above all lucid, a kind of rigid control and submission to necessity. There is no cruelty without consciousness. …" Yet, at the same time, it must be remembered that in one of his staged works Artaud picked as the theme the Cencis, a tale of rape, incest, and murder; that another of his works concerned the warped and dissolute Roman emperor Heliogabalus, and that one of his favorite British plays was 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, also about incest and murder. What Artaud's Theater of Cruelty had to offer instead of the conventional was a theater in which spectacle played the main role. Instead of poetic language, there would be a series of sounds and " … these intonations will constitute a kind of harmonic balance, a secondary deformation of speech. …" There will be musical instruments, he said, which will be "treated as objects and as part of the set." The lighting will be calculated to produce "an element of thinness, density, and opaqueness, with a view to producing the sensations of heat, cold, anger, fear, etc." The dress should be "age-old costumes of ritualistic intent," while the stage should be "a single site, without partition or barrier of any kind." He adds: "Manikins, enormous masks, objects of strange proportions will appear." As to the set, "There will not be any set." Finally, there will be no script: "We shall not act a written play, but we shall make attempts at direct staging, around themes, facts, or known works."