131-661: Stanislavsky Award (full title of the prize: "I Believe. Konstantin Stanislavski "; Russian : Верю. Константин Станиславский ) is a special prize awarded since 2001 at the Moscow International Film Festival for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavski's school ("For Conquering the Heights of Acting and Faithfulness" as it is traditionally formulated). This film award–related article
262-450: A Naturalistic external surface to the characters' subtextual , inner world. Both had stressed the importance of achieving a unity of all theatrical elements in their work. Their production attracted enthusiastic and unprecedented worldwide attention for the theatre, placing it "on the cultural map for Western Europe", and it has come to be regarded as a seminal event that revolutionised the staging of Shakespeare's plays. It became "one of
393-417: A café-chantant . How does she do gymnastics or sing little songs? Do your hair in various ways and try to find in yourself things which remind you of Charlotta. You will be reduced to despair twenty times in your search but don't give up. Make this German woman you love so much speak Russian and observe how she pronounces words and what are the special characteristics of her speech. Remember to play Charlotta in
524-517: A simulacrum of their effects. Stanislavski recognised that in practice a performance is usually a mixture of the three trends (experiencing, representation, hack) but felt that experiencing should predominate. The range of training exercises and rehearsal practices that are designed to encourage and support "experiencing the role" resulted from many years of sustained inquiry and experiment. Many may be discerned as early as 1905 in Stanislavski's letter of advice to Vera Kotlyarevskaya on how to approach
655-483: A "return to realism " in a production of Gogol's The Government Inspector as soon as The Blue Bird had opened. At a theatre conference on 21 March [ O.S. 8 March] 1909, Stanislavski delivered a paper on his emerging system that stressed the role of his techniques of the "magic if" (which encourages the actor to respond to the fictional circumstances of the play "as if" they were real) and emotion memory. He developed his ideas about three trends in
786-472: A "theatre studio" (a term which he invented) that would function as "a laboratory for the experiments of more or less experienced actors." The Theatre-Studio aimed to develop Meyerhold's aesthetic ideas into new theatrical forms that would return the MAT to the forefront of the avant-garde and Stanislavski's socially conscious ideas for a network of "people's theatres" that would reform Russian theatrical culture as
917-455: A 'literary' explanation, but speaking in terms of the play's dynamic, its action, the thoughts and feelings of the protagonists , the world in which they lived. His account flowed uninterruptedly from moment to moment. Benedetti argues that Stanislavski's task at this stage was to unite the realistic tradition of the creative actor inherited from Shchepkin and Gogol with the director-centred, organically unified Naturalistic aesthetic of
1048-461: A case, an actor not only understands his part, but also feels it, and that is the most important thing in creative work on the stage. Just as the First Studio, led by his assistant and close friend Leopold Sulerzhitsky , had provided the forum in which he developed his initial ideas for his system during the 1910s, he hoped to secure his final legacy by opening another studio in 1935, in which
1179-461: A classical text. He began to inflect his technique of dividing the action of the play into bits with an emphasis on improvisation; he would progress from analysis, through free improvisation, to the language of the text: I divide the work into large bits clarifying the nature of each bit. Then, immediately, in my own words, I play each bit, observing all the curves. Then I go through the experiences of each bit ten times or so with its curves (not in
1310-589: A coherent, systematic methodology, which built on three major strands of influence: (1) the director-centred, unified aesthetic and disciplined, ensemble approach of the Meiningen company ; (2) the actor-centred realism of the Maly ; and (3) the Naturalistic staging of Antoine and the independent theatre movement. The system cultivates what Stanislavski calls the "art of experiencing" (to which he contrasts
1441-536: A conclusion." Reflecting in 1908 on the Theatre-Studio's demise, Stanislavski wrote that "our theatre found its future among its ruins." Nemirovich disapproved of what he described as the malign influence of Meyerhold on Stanislavski's work at this time. Stanislavski engaged two important new collaborators in 1905: Liubov Gurevich became his literary advisor and Leopold Sulerzhitsky became his personal assistant. Stanislavski revised his interpretation of
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#17327804664201572-402: A crucial milestone for the fledgling company that has been described as "one of the greatest events in the history of Russian theatre and one of the greatest new developments in the history of world drama ." Despite its 80 hours of rehearsal—a considerable length by the standards of the conventional practice of the day—Stanislavski felt it was under-rehearsed. The production's success was due to
1703-465: A director. He became interested in the aesthetic theories of Vissarion Belinsky , from whom he took his conception of the role of the artist. On 5 July [ O.S. 23 June] 1889, Stanislavski married Maria Lilina (the stage name of Maria Petrovna Perevostchikova). Their first child, Xenia, died of pneumonia in May 1890 less than two months after she was born. Their second daughter, Kira,
1834-479: A discussion of what Stanislavski would come to call the "through-line" for the characters (their emotional development and the way they change over the course of the play). This production is the earliest recorded instance of his practice of analysing the action of the script into discrete "bits". The pursuit of one task after another forms a through-line of action, which unites the discrete bits into an unbroken continuum of experience. This through-line drives towards
1965-417: A discussion of what he would come to call the "through-line" for the characters (their emotional development and the way they change over the course of the play). This production is the earliest recorded instance of his practice of analysing the action of the script into discrete "bits". At this stage in the development of his approach, Stanislavski's technique was to identify the emotional state contained in
2096-506: A dramatic moment of her life. Try to make her weep sincerely over her life. Through such an image you will discover all the whole range of notes you need. Exercises such as these, though never seen directly onstage or screen, prepare the actor for a performance based on experiencing the role. Experiencing constitutes the inner, psychological aspect of a role, which is endowed with the actor's individual feelings and own personality. Stanislavski argues that this creation of an inner life should be
2227-469: A fixed way, not being consistent). Then I follow the successive bits in the book. And finally, I make the transition, imperceptibly, to the experiences as expressed in the actual words of the part. Stanislavski's struggles with both the Molière and Goldoni comedies revealed the importance of an appropriate definition of what he calls a character's "super-task" (the core problem that unites and subordinates
2358-477: A greater attention to "inner action" and a more intensive investigation of the actor's process. He began to develop the more actor-centred techniques of " psychological realism " and his focus shifted from his productions to rehearsal process and pedagogy . He pioneered the use of theatre studios as a laboratory in which to innovate actor training and to experiment with new forms of theatre . Throughout his career, Stanislavski subjected his acting and direction to
2489-444: A greater attention to "inner action" and a more intensive investigation of the actor's process. He began to develop the more actor-centred techniques of " psychological realism " and his focus shifted from his productions to rehearsal process and pedagogy . He pioneered the use of theatre studios as a laboratory in which to innovate actor training and to experiment with new forms of theatre . Stanislavski organised his techniques into
2620-592: A group of teachers in the training techniques of the 'system' and the rehearsal processes of the Method of Physical Action. The teachers had some previous experience studying the system as private students of Stanislavski's sister, Zinaïda. His wife, Lilina, also joined the teaching staff. Twenty students (out of 3500 who had auditioned) were accepted for the dramatic section of the Opera—Dramatic Studio, where classes began on 15 November 1935. Its members included
2751-430: A human way, within the character, and in complete parallel to it", such that the actor begins to feel "as one with" the role. Stanislavski's approach seeks to stimulate the will to create afresh and to activate subconscious processes sympathetically and indirectly by means of conscious techniques. In this way, it attempts to recreate in the actor the inner, psychological causes of behaviour, rather than to present
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#17327804664202882-413: A laboratory in which to conduct his experiments. At Stanislavski's insistence, the MAT went on to adopt his system as its official rehearsal method in 1911. A rediscovery of the 'system' must begin with the realization that it is the questions which are important, the logic of their sequence and the consequent logic of the answers. A ritualistic repetition of the exercises contained in the published books,
3013-515: A physical action, he assumed at this point in his experiments, the actor's repetition of that action would evoke the desired emotion. As with his experiments in The Drama of Life , they also explored non-verbal communication , whereby scenes were rehearsed as "silent études " with actors interacting "only with their eyes". The production's success when it opened in December 1909 seemed to prove
3144-731: A play", Stanislavski argued, "is to take action in the given circumstances ." Thanks to its promotion and development by acting teachers who were former students and the many translations of Stanislavski's theoretical writings, his system acquired an unprecedented ability to cross cultural boundaries and developed a reach, dominating debates about acting in the West. According to one writer on twentieth-century theatre in London and New York, Stanislavski’s ideas have become accepted as common sense so that actors may use them without knowing that they do. Having worked as an amateur actor and director until
3275-427: A play", Stanislavski argued, "is to take action in the given circumstances." Just as the First Studio, led by his assistant and close friend Leopold Sulerzhitsky , had provided the forum in which he developed his initial ideas for the system during the 1910s, he hoped to secure his final legacy by opening another studio in 1935, in which the Method of Physical Action would be taught. The Opera-Dramatic Studio embodied
3406-468: A result of its pronunciation in a heavy Russian accent by Stanislavski's students who taught his system there.) A task must be engaging and stimulating imaginatively to the actor, Stanislavski argues, such that it compels action: One of the most important creative principles is that an actor's tasks must always be able to coax his feelings, will and intelligence, so that they become part of him, since only they have creative power. [...] The task must provide
3537-471: A revised, Russian-language edition in 1926), though its account of his artistic development is not always accurate. Three English-language biographies have been published: David Magarshack 's Stanislavsky: A Life (1950) ; Jean Benedetti's Stanislavski: His Life and Art (1988, revised and expanded 1999). and Nikolai M Gorchakov's "Stanislavsky Directs" (1954). An out-of-print English translation of Elena Poliakova's 1977 Russian biography of Stanislavski
3668-461: A rigorous process of artistic self-analysis and reflection. His system of acting developed out of his persistent efforts to remove the blocks that he encountered in his performances, beginning with a major crisis in 1906 . Stanislavski eventually came to organise his techniques into a coherent, systematic methodology, which built on three major strands of influence: (1) the director-centred, unified aesthetic and disciplined, ensemble approach of
3799-455: A role, actors break up their parts into a series of discrete "bits", each of which is distinguished by the dramatic event of a "reversal point", when a major revelation, decision, or realisation alters the direction of the action in a significant way. (Each "bit" or "beat" corresponds to the length of a single motivation [task or objective]. The term "bit" is often mistranslated in the US as "beat", as
3930-647: A solemn analysis of a text into bits and tasks will not ensure artistic success, let alone creative vitality. It is the Why? and What for? that matter and the acknowledgement that with every new play and every new role the process begins again. This system is based on "experiencing a role." This principle demands that as an actor, you should "experience feelings analogous" to those that the character experiences "each and every time you do it." Stanislavski approvingly quotes Tommaso Salvini when he insists that actors should really feel what they portray "at every performance, be it
4061-515: A task operating at the scale of the drama as a whole and is called, for that reason, a "supertask" (or "superobjective"). A performance consists of the inner aspects of a role (experiencing) and its outer aspects ("embodiment") that are united in the pursuit of the supertask. In his later work, Stanislavski focused more intently on the underlying patterns of dramatic conflict. He developed a rehearsal technique that he called "active analysis" in which actors would improvise these conflictual dynamics. In
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4192-508: A theatre studio as "neither a theatre nor a dramatic school for beginners, but a laboratory for the experiments of more or less trained actors." The First Studio's founding members included Yevgeny Vakhtangov , Michael Chekhov , Richard Boleslavsky , and Maria Ouspenskaya , all of whom would exert a considerable influence on the subsequent history of theatre . Leopold Sulerzhitsky , who had been Stanislavski's personal assistant since 1905 and whom Maxim Gorky had nicknamed "Suler",
4323-516: A whole. Central to Meyerhold's approach was the use of improvisation to develop the performances. When the studio presented a work-in-progress, Stanislavski was encouraged; when performed in a fully equipped theatre in Moscow, however, it was regarded as a failure and the studio folded. Meyerhold drew an important lesson: "one must first educate a new actor and only then put new tasks before him", he wrote, adding that "Stanislavski, too, came to such
4454-531: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Konstantin Stanislavski Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski ( Russian : Константин Сергеевич Станиславский , IPA: [kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj] ; né Alekseyev ; 17 January [ O.S. 5 January] 1863 – 7 August 1938) was a seminal Soviet Russian theatre practitioner . He
4585-409: Is interpreted as simply, as true to life, as we play Chekhov". He also staged other important Naturalistic works, including Gerhart Hauptmann 's Drayman Henschel , Lonely People , and Michael Kramer and Leo Tolstoy 's The Power of Darkness . In 1904, Stanislavski finally acted on a suggestion made by Chekhov two years earlier that he stage several one-act plays by Maurice Maeterlinck ,
4716-453: Is sometimes formed psychologically, i.e. from the inner image of the role, but at other times it is discovered through purely external exploration." In fact Stanislavski found that many of his students who were "method acting" were having many mental problems, and instead encouraged his students to shake off the character after rehearsing. I may add that it is my firm conviction that it is impossible today for anyone to become an actor worthy of
4847-508: Is the heart of the bit, that makes the pulse of the living organism, the role, beat. Stanislavski's production of A Month in the Country (1909) was a watershed in his artistic development, constituting, according to Magarshack, "the first play he produced according to his system." Breaking the MAT 's tradition of open rehearsals, he prepared Turgenev's play in private. The cast began with
4978-545: Is the very basis of our art, and with it our creative work must begin. An actor's performance is animated by the pursuit of a sequence of "tasks" (identified in Elizabeth Hapgood's original English translation as "objectives"). A task is a problem, embedded in the " given circumstances " of a scene, that the character needs to solve. This is often framed as a question: "What do I need to make the other person do ?" or "What do I want?" In preparing and rehearsing for
5109-595: The Actors Studio . Boleslavsky thought that Strasberg over-emphasised the role of Stanislavski's technique of "emotion memory" at the expense of dramatic action. Every afternoon for five weeks during the summer of 1934 in Paris , Stanislavski worked with Adler, who had sought his assistance with the blocks she had confronted in her performances. Given the emphasis that emotion memory had received in New York, Adler
5240-592: The Meiningen Ensemble . In My Life in Art (1924), Stanislavski described this approach as one in which the director is "forced to work without the help of the actor". From 1894 onward, Stanislavski began to assemble detailed prompt-books that included a directorial commentary on the entire play and from which not even the smallest detail was allowed to deviate. Whereas the Ensemble's effects tended toward
5371-448: The Meiningen company ; (2) the actor-centred realism of the Maly ; and (3) the Naturalistic staging of Antoine and the independent theatre movement. Stanislavski's earliest reference to his system appears in 1909, the same year that he first incorporated it into his rehearsal process. Olga Knipper and many of the other MAT actors in that production— Ivan Turgenev 's comedy A Month in the Country —resented Stanislavski's use of it as
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5502-465: The " art of representation "). It mobilises the actor's conscious thought and will to activate other, less-controllable psychological processes—such as emotional experience and subconscious behaviour—sympathetically and indirectly. In rehearsal, the actor searches for inner motives to justify action and the definition of what the character seeks to achieve at any given moment (a "task"). Stanislavski's earliest reference to his system appears in 1909,
5633-586: The American Method , although the latter's exclusively psychological techniques contrast sharply with the multivariant, holistic and psychophysical approach of the "system", which explores character and action both from the 'inside out' and the 'outside in' and treats the actor's mind and body as parts of a continuum. In response to his characterisation work on Argan in Molière 's The Imaginary Invalid in 1913, Stanislavski concluded that "a character
5764-563: The American developments of Stanislavski's system—such as that found in Uta Hagen 's Respect for Acting , for example—the forces opposing a characters' pursuit of their tasks are called "obstacles". Stanislavski further elaborated his system with a more physically grounded rehearsal process that came to be known after his death as the "Method of Physical Action". Stanislavski had developed it since 1916, he first explored it practically in
5895-638: The Art of the Stage (1950). Pavel Rumiantsev—who joined the studio in 1920 from the Conservatory and sang the title role in its production of Eugene Onegin in 1922—documented its activities until 1932; his notes were published in 1969 and appear in English under the title Stanislavski on Opera (1975). Near the end of his life Stanislavski created an Opera—Dramatic Studio in his own apartment on Leontievski Lane (now known as "Stanislavski Lane"), under
6026-514: The Belgian Symbolist . Despite his enthusiasm, however, Stanislavski struggled to realise a theatrical approach to the static , lyrical dramas. When the triple bill consisting of The Blind , Intruder , and Interior opened on 15 October [ O.S. 2 October], the experiment was deemed a failure. Meyerhold , prompted by Stanislavski's positive response to his new ideas about Symbolist theatre, proposed that they form
6157-536: The Italian Ernesto Rossi , who performed major Shakespearean tragic protagonists in Moscow in 1877, particularly impressed him. So too did Tommaso Salvini 's 1882 performance of Othello . By now well known as an amateur actor, at the age of twenty-five Stanslavski co-founded a Society of Art and Literature. Under its auspices, he performed in plays by Molière , Schiller , Pushkin , and Ostrovsky , as well as gaining his first experiences as
6288-536: The MAT staged more plays by Ibsen than any other playwright. In its first decade, Stanislavski directed Hedda Gabler (in which he played Løvborg), An Enemy of the People (playing Dr Stockmann, his favorite role), The Wild Duck , and Ghosts . "More's the pity I was not a Scandinavian and never saw how Ibsen was played in Scandinavia," Stanislavski wrote, because "those who have been there tell me that he
6419-486: The MAT. In 1902, Stanislavski directed the première productions of the first two of Gorky's plays, The Philistines and The Lower Depths . As part of the rehearsal preparations for the latter, Stanislavski took the company to visit Khitrov Market , where they talked to its down-and-outs and soaked up its atmosphere of destitution. Stanislavski based his characterisation of Satin on an ex-officer he met there, who had fallen into poverty through gambling. The Lower Depths
6550-552: The Maly his "university". One of Shchepkin's students, Glikeriya Fedotova , taught Stanislavski; she instilled in him the rejection of inspiration as the basis of the actor's art, stressed the importance of training and discipline, and encouraged the practice of responsive interaction with other actors that Stanislavski came to call "communication". As well as the artists of the Maly, performances given by foreign stars influenced Stanislavski. The effortless, emotive, and clear playing of
6681-728: The Meiningen approach. That synthesis would emerge eventually, but only in the wake of Stanislavski's directorial struggles with Symbolist theatre and an artistic crisis in his work as an actor. "The task of our generation", Stanislavski wrote as he was about to found the Moscow Art Theatre and begin his professional life in the theatre, is "to liberate art from outmoded tradition, from tired cliché and to give greater freedom to imagination and creative ability." Stanislavski's historic meeting with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko on 4 July [ O.S. 22 June] 1897 led to
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#17327804664206812-571: The Method of Physical Action would be taught. The Opera-Dramatic Studio embodied the most complete implementation of the training exercises described in his manuals. Meanwhile, the transmission of his earlier work via the students of the First Studio was revolutionising acting in the West . With the arrival of Socialist realism in the USSR , the MAT and Stanislavski's system were enthroned as exemplary models. Many actors routinely equate his system with
6943-471: The Russian theatre directed by Stanislavki include: several plays by Ivan Turgenev , Griboyedov 's Woe from Wit , Gogol 's The Government Inspector , and plays by Tolstoy , Ostrovsky , and Pushkin . Stanislavski%27s system Stanislavski's system is a systematic approach to training actors that the Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski developed in the first half of
7074-577: The Second Moscow Art Theatre, though Stanislavski came to regard it as a betrayal of his principles. Benedetti argues that a significant influence on the development of Stanislavski's system came from his experience teaching and directing at his Opera Studio. He created it in 1918 under the auspices of the Bolshoi Theatre , though it later severed its connection with the theatre. Stanislavski worked with his Opera Studio in
7205-535: The Theatre , where he developed an emphasis on what Stanislavski called "communication" and "adaptation" in an approach that he branded the " Meisner technique ". Among the actors trained in the Meisner technique are Robert Duvall , Tom Cruise , Diane Keaton and Sydney Pollack . Though many others have contributed to the development of method acting, Strasberg, Adler, and Meisner are associated with "having set
7336-668: The acting manual An Actor's Work (1938). He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and the Order of Lenin and was the first to be granted the title of People's Artist of the USSR . Stanislavski wrote that "there is nothing more tedious than an actor's biography" and that "actors should be banned from talking about themselves". At the request of a US publisher, however, he reluctantly agreed to write his autobiography, My Life in Art (first published in English in 1924 and in
7467-477: The actor principally by the playwright or screenwriter, though they also include choices made by the director, designers, and other actors. The ensemble of these circumstances that the actor is required to incorporate into a performance are called the " given circumstances ". "It is easy," Carnicke warns, "to misunderstand this notion as a directive to play oneself." A human being's circumstances condition his or her character, this approach assumes. "Placing oneself in
7598-649: The actor's creative process in particular. He began to formulate a psychological approach to controlling the actor's process in a Manual on Dramatic Art . Stanislavski's activities began to move in a very different direction: his productions became opportunities for research , he was more interested in the process of rehearsal than its product, and his attention shifted away from the MAT towards its satellite projects—the theatre studios—in which he would develop his system . On his return to Moscow, he explored his new psychological approach in his production of Knut Hamsun 's Symbolist play The Drama of Life . Nemirovich
7729-411: The actor's first concern. He groups together the training exercises intended to support the emergence of experiencing under the general term " psychotechnique ". When I give a genuine answer to the if , then I do something, I am living my own personal life. At moments like that there is no character. Only me. All that remains of the character and the play are the situation, the life circumstances , all
7860-402: The actors to face front. Stanislavski's early productions were created without the use of his system. His first international successes were staged using an external, director -centred technique that strove for an organic unity of all its elements —in each production he planned the interpretation of every role, blocking , and the mise en scène in detail in advance. He also introduced into
7991-514: The age of 33, in 1898 Stanislavski co-founded with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) and began his professional career. The two of them were resolved to institute a revolution in the staging practices of the time. Benedetti offers a vivid portrait of the poor quality of mainstream theatrical practice in Russia before the MAT: The script meant less than nothing. Sometimes
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#17327804664208122-486: The auspices of which between 1935 and 1938 he offered a significant course in the system in its final form. Given the difficulties he had with completing his manual for actors, in 1935 while recuperating in Nice Stanislavski decided that he needed to found a new studio if he was to ensure his legacy. "Our school will produce not just individuals," he wrote, "but a whole company." In June he began to instruct
8253-418: The cast did not even bother to learn their lines. Leading actors would simply plant themselves downstage centre, by the prompter's box, wait to be fed the lines then deliver them straight at the audience in a ringing voice, giving a fine display of passion and "temperament." Everyone, in fact, spoke their lines out front. Direct communication with the other actors was minimal. Furniture was so arranged as to allow
8384-496: The cast helps the director, the second is creating the performance when the director helps the cast. Stanislavski's preparations for Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird (which was to become his most famous production to-date) included improvisations and other exercises to stimulate the actors' imaginations; Nemirovich described one in which the cast imitated various animals. In rehearsals he sought ways to encourage his actors' will to create afresh in every performance. He focused on
8515-467: The character's moment-to-moment tasks). This impacted particularly on the actors' ability to serve the plays' genre, because an unsatisfactory definition produced tragic rather than comic performances. Other European classics directed by Stanislavski include: Shakespeare 's The Merchant of Venice , Twelfth Night , and Othello , an unfinished production of Molière 's Tartuffe , and Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro . Other classics of
8646-434: The classics, Stanislavski believed that it was legitimate for actors and directors to ignore the playwright's intentions for a play's staging. One of his most important—a collaboration with Edward Gordon Craig on a production of Hamlet —became a landmark of 20th-century theatrical modernism . Stanislavski hoped to prove that his recently developed system for creating internally justified, realistic acting could meet
8777-560: The continuity of the Method of Physical Action with Stanislavski's earlier approaches; Whyman argues that "there is no justification in Stanislavsky's [ sic ] writings for the assertion that the method of physical actions represents a rejection of his previous work". Stanislavski first explored the approach practically in his rehearsals for Three Sisters and Carmen in 1934 and Molière in 1935. Minimising at-the-table discussions, he now encouraged an "active analysis", in which
8908-439: The conventional practices they wished to abandon and, on the basis of the working method they found they had in common, defined the policy of their new theatre. Stanislavski and Nemirovich planned a professional company with an ensemble ethos that discouraged individual vanity; they would create a realistic theatre of international renown, with popular prices for seats, whose organically unified aesthetic would bring together
9039-469: The creation of what was called initially the "Moscow Public-Accessible Theatre", but which came to be known as the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT). Their eighteen-hour-long discussion has acquired a legendary status in the history of theatre . Nemirovich was a successful playwright, critic, theatre director, and acting teacher at the Philharmonic School who, like Stanislavski, was committed to
9170-432: The creative development of both men. His ensemble approach and attention to the psychological realities of its characters revived Chekhov's interest in writing for the stage, while Chekhov's unwillingness to explain or expand on the text forced Stanislavski to dig beneath its surface in ways that were new in theatre. In response to Stanislavski's encouragement, Maxim Gorky promised to launch his playwrighting career with
9301-509: The creative process." His interest in the creative use of the actor's personal experiences was spurred by a chance conversation in Germany in July that led him to the work of French psychologist Théodule-Armand Ribot . His "affective memory" contributed to the technique that Stanislavski would come to call "emotion memory". Together these elements formed a new vocabulary with which he explored
9432-487: The definition of what the character seeks to achieve at any given moment (a "task"). Later, Stanislavski further elaborated what he called 'the System' with a more physically grounded rehearsal process that came to be known as the "Method of Physical Action". Minimising at-the-table discussions, he now encouraged an "active representative", in which the sequence of dramatic situations are improvised . "The best analysis of
9563-507: The early 1930s. The roots of the Method of Physical Action stretch back to Stanislavski's earliest work as a director (in which he focused consistently on a play's action) and the techniques he explored with Vsevolod Meyerhold and later with the First Studio of the MAT before the First World War (such as the experiments with improvisation and the practice of anatomising scripts in terms of bits and tasks). Benedetti emphasises
9694-409: The emergence of an "unbroken line" of experiencing through a performance, which constitutes the inner life of the role. An "unbroken line" describes the actor's ability to focus attention exclusively on the fictional world of the drama throughout a performance, rather than becoming distracted by the scrutiny of the audience, the presence of a camera crew, or concerns relating to the actor's experience in
9825-402: The end of June, Meyerhold was so impressed with Stanislavski's directorial skills that he declared him a genius. The lasting significance of Stanislavski's early work at the MAT lies in its development of a Naturalistic performance mode. In 1898, Stanislavski co-directed with Nemirovich the first of his productions of the work of Anton Chekhov . The MAT production of The Seagull was
9956-552: The family business. Increasingly interested in "experiencing the role", Stanislavski experimented with maintaining a characterization in real life. In 1884, he began vocal training under Fyodor Komissarzhevsky , with whom he also explored the coordination of body and voice. A year later, Stanislavski briefly studied at the Moscow Theatre School but, disappointed with its approach, he left after little more than two weeks. Instead, he devoted particular attention to
10087-536: The fidelity of its delicate representation of everyday life, its intimate, ensemble playing , and the resonance of its mood of despondent uncertainty with the psychological disposition of the Russian intelligentsia of the time. Stanislavski went on to direct the successful premières of Chekhov's other major plays: Uncle Vanya in 1899 (in which he played Astrov), Three Sisters in 1901 (playing Vershinin), and The Cherry Orchard in 1904 (playing Gaev). Stanislavski's encounter with Chekhov's drama proved crucial to
10218-526: The first day of rehearsals, 26 June [ O.S. 14 June] 1898, Stanislavski stressed the "social character" of their collective undertaking. In an atmosphere more like a university than a theatre, as Stanislavski described it, the company was introduced to his working method of extensive reading and research and detailed rehearsals in which the action was defined at the table before being explored physically. Stanislavski's lifelong relationship with Vsevolod Meyerhold began during these rehearsals; by
10349-547: The first or the thousandth." Not all emotional experiences are appropriate, therefore, since the actor's feelings must be relevant and parallel to the character's experience. Stanislavski identified Salvini, whose performance of Othello he had admired in 1882, as the finest representative of the art of experiencing approach. Salvini had disagreed with the French actor Cocquelin over the role emotion ought to play—whether it should be experienced only in rehearsals when preparing
10480-451: The formal demands of a classic play. Craig envisioned a Symbolist monodrama in which every aspect of production would be subjugated to the protagonist : it would present a dream-like vision as seen through Hamlet's eyes. Despite these contrasting approaches, the two practitioners did share some artistic assumptions; the system had developed out of Stanislavski's experiments with Symbolist drama, which had shifted his attention from
10611-418: The future artistic director of the MAT, Mikhail Kedrov , who played Tartuffe in Stanislavski's unfinished production of Molière 's play (which, after Stanislavski's death, he completed). Jean Benedetti argues that the course at the Opera—Dramatic Studio is "Stanislavski's true testament." Stanislavski arranged a curriculum of four years of study that focused exclusively on technique and method—two years of
10742-406: The grandiose, Stanislavski introduced lyrical elaborations through the mise-en-scène that dramatised more mundane and ordinary elements of life, in keeping with Belinsky's ideas about the "poetry of the real". By means of his rigid and detailed control of all theatrical elements, including the strict choreography of the actors' every gesture, in Stanislavski's words "the inner kernel of the play
10873-422: The history of acting, which were to appear eventually in the opening chapters of An Actor's Work : "stock-in-trade" acting, the art of representation , and the art of experiencing (his own approach). Stanislavski's production of A Month in the Country (1909) was a watershed in his artistic development. Breaking the MAT's tradition of open rehearsals, he prepared Turgenev's play in private. They began with
11004-486: The idea of a popular theatre. Their abilities complemented one another: Stanislavski brought his directorial talent for creating vivid stage images and selecting significant details; Nemirovich, his talent for dramatic and literary analysis, his professional expertise, and his ability to manage a theatre. Stanislavski later compared their discussions to the Treaty of Versailles , their scope was so wide-ranging; they agreed on
11135-419: The importance to great actors' performances of their ability to remain relaxed, he discovered that he could abolish physical tension by focusing his attention on the specific action that the play demanded; when his concentration wavered, his tension returned. "What fascinates me most", Stanislavski wrote in May 1908, "is the rhythm of feelings, the development of affective memory and the psycho-physiology of
11266-573: The influential American Laboratory Theatre (1923—1933) in New York , which they modeled on the First Studio. Boleslavsky's manual Acting: The First Six Lessons (1933) played a significant role in the transmission of Stanislavski's ideas and practices to the West. In the Soviet Union , meanwhile, another of Stanislavski's students, Maria Knebel , sustained and developed his rehearsal process of "active analysis", despite its formal prohibition by
11397-531: The interpretation of every role, blocking , and the mise en scène in detail in advance. He also introduced into the production process a period of discussion and detailed analysis of the play by the cast. Despite the success that this approach brought, particularly with his Naturalistic stagings of the plays of Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky , Stanislavski remained dissatisfied. Both his struggles with Chekhov's drama (out of which his notion of subtext emerged) and his experiments with Symbolism encouraged
11528-429: The means to arouse creative enthusiasm. Like a magnet, it must have great drawing power and must then stimulate endeavours, movements and actions. The task is the spur to creative activity, its motivation. The task is a decoy for feeling. [...] The task sparks off wishes and inner impulses (spurs) toward creative effort. The task creates the inner sources which are transformed naturally and logically into action. The task
11659-401: The most complete implementation of the training exercises described in his manuals. Meanwhile, the transmission of his earlier work via the students of the First Studio was revolutionising acting in the West . With the arrival of Socialist realism in the USSR , the MAT and Stanislavski's system were enthroned as exemplary models. Stanislavski had a privileged youth, growing up in one of
11790-460: The most famous and passionately discussed productions in the history of the modern stage." Increasingly absorbed by his teaching, in 1913 Stanislavski held open rehearsals for his production of Molière 's The Imaginary Invalid as a demonstration of the system. As with his production of Hamlet and his next, Goldoni's The Mistress of the Inn , he was keen to assay his system in the crucible of
11921-476: The new Russian drama of his day—principally the work of Anton Chekhov , Maxim Gorky , and Mikhail Bulgakov —to audiences in Moscow and around the world; he also staged acclaimed productions of a wide range of classical Russian and European plays. He collaborated with the director and designer Edward Gordon Craig and was formative in the development of several other major practitioners, including Vsevolod Meyerhold (whom Stanislavski considered his "sole heir in
12052-466: The performances of the Maly Theatre , the home of Russian psychological realism (as developed in the 19th century by Alexander Pushkin , Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Shchepkin ). Shchepkin's legacy included a disciplined, ensemble approach, extensive rehearsals, and the use of careful observation, self-knowledge, imagination, and emotion as the cornerstones of the craft. Stanislavski called
12183-412: The production process a period of discussion and detailed analysis of the play by the cast. Despite the success that this approach brought, particularly with his Naturalistic stagings of the plays of Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky , Stanislavski remained dissatisfied. Both his struggles with Chekhov's drama (out of which his notion of subtext emerged) and his experiments with Symbolism encouraged
12314-403: The psychological experience of the character during each bit and, through the use of the actor's emotion memory, to forge a subjective connection to it. Only after two months of rehearsals were the actors permitted to physicalise the text. Stanislavski insisted that they should play the actions that their discussions around the table had identified. Having realised a particular emotional state in
12445-447: The real world offstage or outside the world of the drama. In a rehearsal process, at first, the "line" of experiencing will be patchy and broken; as preparation and rehearsals develop, it becomes increasingly sustained and unbroken. When experiencing the role, the actor is fully absorbed by the drama and immersed in its fictional circumstances; it is a state that the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls " flow ." Stanislavski used
12576-408: The rest is mine, my own concerns, as a role in all its creative moments depends on a living person, i.e., the actor, and not the dead abstraction of a person, i.e., the role. Stanislavski's "Magic If" describes an ability to imagine oneself in a set of fictional circumstances and to envision the consequences of finding oneself facing that situation in terms of action. These circumstances are "given" to
12707-562: The revelation", Stanislavski wrote of the rapturous acclaim they received. The success of the tour provided financial security for the company, garnered an international reputation for their work, and made a significant impact on European theatre. The tour also provoked a major artistic crisis for Stanislavski that had a significant impact on his future direction. From his attempts to resolve this crisis, his system would eventually emerge. Sometime in March 1906—Jean Benedetti suggests that it
12838-550: The richest families in Russia, the Alekseyevs. He was born Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev—he adopted the stage name "Stanislavski" in 1884 to keep his performance activities secret from his parents. Up until the communist revolution in 1917, Stanislavski often used his inherited wealth to fund his experiments in acting and directing. His family's discouragement meant that he appeared only as an amateur until he
12969-536: The role (Cocquelin's position) or whether it ought to be felt in performance (Salvini's position). On this basis, Stanislavski contrasts his own "art of experiencing" approach with what he calls the " art of representation " practised by Cocquelin (in which experiencing forms one of the preparatory stages only) and "hack" acting (in which experiencing plays no part). Stanislavski defines the actor's "experiencing" as playing "credibly", by which he means "thinking, wanting, striving, behaving truthfully, in logical sequence in
13100-454: The role does not mean transferring one's own circumstances to the play, but rather incorporating into oneself circumstances other than one's own." In preparation and rehearsal, the actor develops imaginary stimuli, which often consist of sensory details of the circumstances, in order to provoke an organic, subconscious response in performance. These "inner objects of attention" (often abbreviated to "inner objects" or "contacts") help to support
13231-468: The role of Charlotta in Anton Chekhov 's The Cherry Orchard : First of all you must live the role without spoiling the words or making them commonplace. Shut yourself off and play whatever goes through your head. Imagine the following scene: Pishchik has proposed to Charlotta, now she is his bride... How will she behave? Or: Charlotta has been dismissed but finds other employment in a circus of
13362-415: The role of Trigorin (and Meyerhold reprised his role as Konstantin) when the MAT revived its production of Chekhov's The Seagull on 13 October [ O.S. 30 September] 1905. This was the year of the abortive revolution in Russia . Stanislavski signed a protest against the violence of the secret police, Cossack troops, and the right-wing extremist paramilitary " Black Hundreds ", which
13493-458: The same year that he first incorporated it into his rehearsal process. The MAT adopted it as its official rehearsal method in 1911. Later, Stanislavski further elaborated the system with a more physically grounded rehearsal process that came to be known as the "Method of Physical Action". Minimising at-the-table discussions, he now encouraged an "active analysis", in which the sequence of dramatic situations are improvised . "The best analysis of
13624-402: The search for inner motives to justify action and the definition of what the characters are seeking to achieve at any given moment (what he would come to call their "task"). This use of the actor's conscious thought and will was designed to activate other, less-controllable psychological processes—such as emotional experience and subconscious behaviour—sympathetically and indirectly. Noting
13755-406: The sequence of dramatic situations are improvised . "The best analysis of a play", Stanislavski argued, "is to take action in the given circumstances ." He continues: For in the process of action the actor gradually obtains the mastery over the inner incentives of the actions of the character he is representing, evoking in himself the emotions and thoughts which resulted in those actions. In such
13886-554: The state. In the United States, one of Boleslavsky's students, Lee Strasberg , went on to co-found the Group Theatre (1931—1940) in New York with Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford . Together with Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner , Strasberg developed the earliest of Stanislavski's techniques into what came to be known as " Method acting " (or, with Strasberg, more usually simply "the Method"), which he taught at
14017-779: The students in March and April 1937, focusing on their sequences of physical actions, on establishing their through-lines of action, and on rehearsing scenes anew in terms of the actors' tasks. "They must avoid at all costs," Benedetti explains, "merely repeating the externals of what they had done the day before." Many of Stanislavski's former students taught acting in the United States , including Richard Boleslavsky , Maria Ouspenskaya , Michael Chekhov , Andrius Jilinsky, Leo Bulgakov, Varvara Bulgakov, Vera Solovyova, and Tamara Daykarhanova . Others—including Stella Adler and Joshua Logan —"grounded careers in brief periods of study" with him. Boleslavsky and Ouspenskaya went on to found
14148-406: The study is necessary, as previously, when he alone decided the whole plan and all the details of the production, wrote the mise en scène and answered all the actors' questions for them. The director is no longer king, as before, when the actor possessed no clear individuality. [...] It is essential to understand this—rehearsals are divided into two stages: the first stage is one of experiment when
14279-430: The techniques of the Meiningen Ensemble and those of André Antoine 's Théâtre Libre (which Stanislavski had seen during trips to Paris). Nemirovich assumed that Stanislavski would fund the theatre as a privately owned business, but Stanislavski insisted on a limited , joint stock company . Viktor Simov , whom Stanislavski had met in 1896, was engaged as the company's principal designer . In his opening speech on
14410-406: The term "I am being" to describe it. He encouraged this absorption through the cultivation of "public solitude" and its "circles of attention" in training and rehearsal, which he developed from the meditation techniques of yoga . Stanislavski did not encourage complete identification with the role, however, since a genuine belief that one had become someone else would be pathological . Action
14541-408: The theatre"), Yevgeny Vakhtangov , and Michael Chekhov . At the MAT's 30-year anniversary celebrations in 1928, a massive heart attack on-stage put an end to his acting career (though he waited until the curtain fell before seeking medical assistance). He continued to direct, teach, and write about acting until his death a few weeks before the publication of the first volume of his life's great work,
14672-483: The time in which he is living, an actor on whom such great demands are made, without going through a course of study in a studio. The First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) was a theatre studio that Stanislavski created in 1912 in order to research and develop his system. It was conceived as a space in which pedagogical and exploratory work could be undertaken in isolation from the public, in order to develop new forms and techniques. Stanislavski later defined
14803-432: The twentieth century. His system cultivates what he calls the "art of experiencing" (with which he contrasts the " art of representation "). It mobilises the actor's conscious thought and will in order to activate other, less-controllable psychological processes—such as emotional experience and subconscious behaviour—sympathetically and indirectly. In rehearsal, the actor searches for inner motives to justify action and
14934-657: The two rehearsal rooms of his house on Carriage Row (prior to his eviction in March 1921). His brother and sister, Vladimir and Zinaïda, ran the studio and also taught there. It accepted young members of the Bolshoi and students from the Moscow Conservatory . Stanislavski also invited Serge Wolkonsky to teach diction and Lev Pospekhin (from the Bolshoi Ballet) to teach expressive movement and dance . By means of his system, Stanislavski aimed to unite
15065-709: The validity of his new methodology. Late in 1910, Gorky invited Stanislavski to join him in Capri , where they discussed actor training and Stanislavski's emerging "grammar". Inspired by a popular theatre performance in Naples that employed the techniques of the commedia dell'arte , Gorky suggested that they form a company, modeled on the medieval strolling players , in which a playwright and group of young actors would devise new plays together by means of improvisation . Stanislavski would develop this use of improvisation in his work with his First Studio. In his treatment of
15196-462: The work detailed later in An Actor's Work on Himself and two of that in An Actor's Work on a Role . Once the students were acquainted with the training techniques of the first two years, Stanislavski selected Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet for their work on roles. He "insisted that they work on classics, because, 'in any work of genius you find an ideal logic and progression.'" He worked with
15327-642: The work of Mikhail Shchepkin and Feodor Chaliapin . He hoped that the successful application of his system to opera , with its inescapable conventionality, would demonstrate the universality of his methodology. From his experience at the Opera Studio he developed his notion of "tempo-rhythm", which he was to develop most substantially in part two of An Actor's Work (1938). A series of thirty-two lectures that he delivered to this studio between 1919 and 1922 were recorded by Konkordia Antarova and published in 1939; they have been translated into English as On
15458-423: The world-famous Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) company with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko , following a legendary 18-hour discussion. Its influential tours of Europe (1906) and the US (1923–24), and its landmark productions of The Seagull (1898) and Hamlet (1911–12) , established his reputation and opened new possibilities for the art of the theatre. By means of the MAT, Stanislavski was instrumental in promoting
15589-413: Was a triumph that matched the production of The Seagull four years earlier, though Stanislavski regarded his own performance as external and mechanical. The productions of The Cherry Orchard and The Lower Depths remained in the MAT's repertoire for decades. Along with Chekhov and Gorky, the drama of Henrik Ibsen formed an important part of Stanislavski's work at this time—in its first two decades,
15720-532: Was actor Marlon Brando . Later, many American and British actors inspired by Brando were also adepts of Stanislavski teachings, including James Dean , Julie Harris , Al Pacino , Robert De Niro , Harvey Keitel , Dustin Hoffman , Ellen Burstyn , Daniel Day-Lewis and Marilyn Monroe . Meisner, an actor at the Group Theatre, went on to teach method acting at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse School of
15851-466: Was also published in 1982. Stanislavski subjected his acting and direction to a rigorous process of artistic self-analysis and reflection. His system of acting developed out of his persistent efforts to remove the blocks that he encountered in his performances, beginning with a major crisis in 1906. He produced his early work using an external, director-centred technique that strove for an organic unity of all its elements —in each production he planned
15982-463: Was born on 2 August [ O.S. 21 July] 1891. In January 1893, Stanislavski's father died. Their son Igor was born on 26 September [ O.S. 14 September] 1894. In February 1891, Stanislavski directed Leo Tolstoy 's The Fruits of Enlightenment for the Society of Art and Literature, in what he later described as his first fully independent directorial work. But it
16113-460: Was during An Enemy of the People —Stanislavski became aware that he was acting without a flow of inner impulses and feelings and that as a consequence his performance had become mechanical. He spent June and July in Finland on holiday, where he studied, wrote, and reflected. With his notebooks on his own experience from 1889 onwards, he attempted to analyze "the foundation stones of our art" and
16244-400: Was not until 1893 he first met the great realist novelist and playwright that became another important influence on him. Five years later the MAT would be his response to Tolstoy's demand for simplicity, directness, and accessibility in art. Stanislavski's directorial methods at this time were closely modelled on the disciplined, autocratic approach of Ludwig Chronegk , the director of
16375-409: Was particularly hostile to his new methods and their relationship continued to deteriorate in this period. In a statement made on 9 February [ O.S. 27 January] 1908, Stanislavski marked a significant shift in his directorial method and stressed the crucial contribution he now expected from a creative actor: The committee is wrong if it thinks that the director's preparatory work in
16506-436: Was revealed by itself". Analysing the Society's production of Othello (1896), Jean Benedetti observes that: Stanislavski uses the theatre and its technical possibilities as an instrument of expression, a language, in its own right. The dramatic meaning is in the staging itself. [...] He went through the whole play in a completely different way, not relying on the text as such, with quotes from important speeches, not providing
16637-401: Was selected to lead the studio. In a focused, intense atmosphere, its work emphasised experimentation, improvisation, and self-discovery. Until his death in 1938, Suler taught the elements of Stanislavski's system in its germinal form: relaxation, concentration of attention, imagination, communication, and emotion memory. On becoming independent from the MAT in 1923, the company re-named itself
16768-712: Was submitted to the Duma on the 3 November [ O.S. 21 October]. Rehearsals for the MAT's production of Alexander Griboyedov 's classic verse comedy Woe from Wit were interrupted by gun-battles on the streets outside. Stanislavski and Nemirovich closed the theatre and embarked on the company's first tour outside of Russia. The MAT's first European tour began on 23 February [ O.S. 10 February] 1906 in Berlin , where they played to an audience that included Max Reinhardt , Gerhart Hauptmann , Arthur Schnitzler , and Eleonora Duse . "It's as though we were
16899-452: Was surprised to find that Stanislavski rejected the technique except as a last resort. He recommended an indirect pathway to emotional expression via physical action. Stanislavski confirmed this emphasis in his discussions with Harold Clurman in late 1935. The news that this was Stanislavski's approach would have significant repercussions in the US; Strasberg angrily rejected it and refused to modify his approach. Adler's most famous student
17030-536: Was thirty three. As a child, Stanislavski was interested in the circus , the ballet, and puppetry . Later, his family's two private theatres provided a forum for his theatrical impulses. After his debut performance at one in 1877, he started what would become a lifelong series of notebooks filled with critical observations on his acting, aphorisms, and problems—it was from this habit of self-analysis and critique that Stanislavski's system later emerged. Stanislavski chose not to attend university, preferring to work in
17161-424: Was widely recognized as an outstanding character actor , and the many productions that he directed garnered him a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation. His principal fame and influence, however, rests on his "system" of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique. Stanislavski (his stage name) performed and directed as an amateur until the age of 33, when he co-founded
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