Konstantin Stanislavski - Biography - IMDb Konstantin Stanislavski Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trivia (2) Overview (3) Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev Mini Bio (1) Konstantin Stanislavski was a wealthy Russian businessman turned director who founded the Moscow Art Theatre, and originated the Stanislavski's System of acting which was spread over the world by his students, such as Michael Chekhov , Aleksei Dikij , Stella Adler , Viktor Tourjansky , and Richard Boleslawski among many others. He was born Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseev on January 5, 1863, in Moscow, Russia. His father, Sergei Alekseev, was a wealthy Russian merchant. His mother, Elisaveta Vasilevna (nee Yakovleva) was French-Russian and his grandmother was a notable actress in Paris. Young Stanislavski grew up in a bilingual environment. He was fond of theatre and arts, studied piano and singing, and performed amateur plays at home with his elder brother and two sisters.

He studied business and languages at Lasarevsky Institute, the most prestigious private school in Moscow. He did not graduate, instead he continued self-education while traveling in several European countries and studying at libraries and museums. Eventually Stanislavski joined his father's company, became a successful businessman, and the head of his father's business, the Alekseev's factory and other assets. During the 1880s Stanislavski made a fortune in international business and trade, he was awarded the Gold Medal at the World's Fair in Paris. At the same time, he was an active patron of arts and theatre in Russia. In 1885 he studied acting and directing at the Maly Theatre in Moscow, and took a stage name Stanislavski. In 1888 he founded the "Society for Arts and Literature" in Moscow. In 1898 Stanislavski together with his partner, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko , founded the Moscow Art Theatre, which made a profound influence on theatrical art all over the world.

They opened with staging of "Tsar Feodor" a play by Aleksei Tolstoy , then staged "The Seagull" written by Anton Chekhov specially for the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1900 Stanislavski brought the Moscow Art Theatre on tour in Sebastopol and Yalta in Crimea, where he invited then ailing Anton Chekhov to see several plays. Chekhov admired the company's stage production of his plays, and respected the theatrical achievements of Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko . Chekhov's legendary collaboration with the Moscow Art Theatre was fruitful for both sides: it resulted in creation of such classics as 'The Seagull', 'Uncle Vanya', 'The Three Sisters', and 'The Cherry Orchard', the four big plays which remained in the repertoire ever since. Stanislavski's system was developed through his own cross-cultural experience as actor, director, and businessman. He constantly updated his method through inter-disciplinary studies, absorbing from a range of sources and influences, such as the modernist and avant-garde developments, yoga and Pavlovian behaviorist psychology. He introduced group rehearsals and relaxation techniques to achieve better spiritual connections between actors.

Pavlovian approach worked well by conditioning actors through discipline in longer, organized rehearsals, and using a thorough analysis of characters. Stanislavski himself was involved in a long and arduous practice making every actor better prepared for stage performance and eventually producing a less rigid acting style. In his own words, Stanislavski described his early approach as "Spiritual Realism." His actors worked hard to deliver perfectly believable performances, as none of his actors wanted to hear his famous verdict, "I don't believe." As an actor, Stanislavski starred in several classical plays. His most notable stage performances, such as Othello in the Shakespeare's 'Othello', and as Gayev in Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard', were acclaimed by critics and loved by public. His own students said that Stanislavski was a very comfortable partner on stage, due to his highly professional, truthful and reciprocative acting. At the same time, he could be very demanding off stage, because of his high standards, especially during his lengthy and rigorous rehearsals, requiring nothing less but the full devotion from each actor of his company, the Moscow Art Theatre.

Stanislavski suffered after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Stanislavski's fortune, his factory and all other business property was nationalized by the Soviet Communists, but he survived and was allowed to own his mansion in Moscow. Stanislavski wisely let go of all his wealth and possessions and expressed himself in writing and directing. He remained the principal director of Moscow Art Theatre for the rest of his life. During the turbulent years before and after the Russian Revolution, and later in the 1920s and 30s, he witnessed bitter rivalry among his former students. Some actors emigrated from Russia, others fought for their share of success, and the Moscow Art Theatre was eventually divided into several companies. In 1928 Stanislavski suffered from a heart attack. He then distanced himself from disputes and competition between his former students Michael Chekhov and Aleksei Dikij , whose individual ambitions resulted in further fragmentation of the original Moscow Art Theatre company. At the same time, his younger apprentice, Nikolay Khmelyov , remained loyal to the teacher, and eventually later filled the position held by Stanislavski at Moscow Art Theatre.

However, his other students, such as Vsevolod Meyerhold and Yevgeni Vakhtangov founded their own theatre companies and continued using their versions of the Stanislavski's system. In the 1930s, Stanislavski together with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko formed one more theatrical company in Moscow, the Musical Theatre of Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko. Stanislavski was a proponent of democratic ideas, such as equal opportunity and equal value of every human being on the planet. He managed to survive through the rough political regime in the Soviet Union under dictatorships of V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin . At that time Stanislavski's nephew was arrested for political reasons, and died in the Gulag prison-camp. Stanislavsky was also under permanent surveillance, because his Moscow Art Theatre was frequently attended by Joseph Stalin and other Soviet strongmen. However, at that time Moscow Art Theatre became especially popular, because Russian intellectuals needed a cultural oasis to escape from the grim Soviet reality. Under Stanislavski the Moscow Art Theatre produced several brilliant plays by Mikhail A.

Bulgakov , and also continued running such classics as 'The Seagull', 'The Cherry Orchard', 'The Lower Bottom' and other original productions of plays by Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky . In his later years, Stanislavsky wrote a book titled "An Actor Prepares" which, in Charley Chaplin's words, ".. helps all people to reach out for big dramatic art. It tells what an actor needs to rouse the inspiration he requires for expressing profound emotions." Stanislavsky explained how actors may use his System, "Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep braking traditions, I beg you!" And that was exactly what the best of his followers did. Stanislavski's ideas were used by many acting teachers, such as Michael Chekhov, Stella Adler, and Lee Strasberg, among others across the world. During the 1930s Konstantin Stanislavski directed the original productions of several classic Russian plays, such as "Na Dne" (aka.. The Lower Depths) by Maxim Gorky , "Tsar Fedor Ioannovich" by A.K.

Tolstoy, and other plays at the Moscow Art Theatre. After Stanislavski's death his original theatrical productions were adapted to black and white films, where Stanislavsky is credited as the original theatrical director. He died of a heart failure on August 7, 1938, in Moscow and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. Stanislavski's mansion in central Moscow is now a public museum and research center displaying a collection of original stage sets and theatrical costumes. Stanislavski's personal library is also part of his museum. It has rare books that he collected in his numerous travels, as well as original manuscripts and letters by Stanislavski. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov Spouse (1) ( 5 July 1889 - 7 August 1938) (his death) (3 children) Trivia (2) Stanislavski's method acting admired by Michael Billington | Stage | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close Who has dominated theories of acting over the past 100 years?

Undoubtedly, it is the Russian actor and theatre director Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938), who co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre. Almost all the acting we see today, on stage or screen, is either an endorsement of, or reaction against, his principles. He developed a method, applicable to most situations, which comprised three key ideas: a reliance on "emotional memory", a focus on the actor's "circle of attention" and a search for a "through-line of action" in which the actor pins down key objectives. Stanislavski's theories were expressed in three crucial books: My Life in Art, An Actor Prepares and Building a Character. His ideas were disseminated throughout the United States by a group of passionate disciples, including Harold Clurman, Elia Kazan, Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg, who ran the New York Actors' Studio from 1951 to 1982 and whose pupils included Marlon Brando, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe.

The method, as it became known, perfectly suited the American penchant for self-analysis: less attention was paid to Stanislavski's fanatical insistence on voice, diction, physical deportment and personal discipline. However, while Stanislavski's system perfectly suited a theatre based on illusion, it also bred continuing opposition. In Russia, Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940) developed his theory of the actor as a combination of singer, dancer, acrobat and juggler: something that profoundly influenced Peter Brook's 1970 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In Germany, Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) evolved a new theory of acting in which actors demonstrate the actions of a character rather than identify with their roles: a style that matched Brecht's anti-illusionist, political theatre and often found favour in Britain. And in France there has always been a strong mime tradition seen in the work of Jean-Louis Barrault (1910-1994) and fostered more recently by Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999).

The Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School, founded in Paris in 1956, rapidly became a mecca for British theatre practitioners including Steven Berkoff and Complicite's Simon McBurney. Today the actor is faced with a range of options. The growth of physical and visual theatre has led to a renewed interest in Meyerhold, with his use of techniques adopted from sport and the circus. Parisian mime has also been given a British inflexion. However, even if people react against him, Stanislavski retains his magisterial dominance. No system in itself can, of course, endow a performer with the magnetism, vitality and creative intelligence that are an essential part of great acting: those qualities stem from the character of the individual. But Stanislavski provided a route map for exploring what he called "that conscious road to the gates of the unconscious", which is the foundation of modern theatre. And it is a map that no actor, even today, can afford to ignore. His acting 'method' has been adopted by stars from Brando to Day-Lewis, but Stanislavski's company rejected his theories – and the Russian felt his own acting was lacking.

Simon Callow explains Published: 16 Mar 2013 Stanislavsky system | acting | Britannica.com Stanislavsky system Alternative Titles: Stanislavsky method, the System Related Topics acting Stanislavsky system, also called Stanislavsky method , highly influential system of dramatic training developed over years of trial and error by the Russian actor, producer, and theoretician Konstantin Stanislavsky . He began with attempts to find a style of acting more appropriate to the greater realism of 20th-century drama than the histrionic acting styles of the 19th century. He never intended, however, to develop a new style of acting but rather meant to codify in teaching and performing regimens the ways in which great actors always have achieved success in their work, regardless of prevailing acting styles. Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky as Vershinin in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters, … Courtesy of the Moscow Art Theatre Museum; photograph, Sovfoto The Stanislavsky system requires that an actor utilize, among other things, his emotional memory (i.e., his recall of past experiences and emotions).

The actor’s entrance onto the stage is considered to be not a beginning of the action or of his life as the character but a continuation of the set of preceding circumstances. The actor has trained his concentration and his senses so that he may respond freely to the total stage environment . Through empathic observation of people in many different situations, he attempts to develop a wide emotional range so that his onstage actions and reactions appear as if they were a part of the real world rather than a make-believe one. acting: Stanislavsky’s contribution A risk in the Stanislavsky system is that, when role interpretation is based on the inner impulses of the performer, a scene may unexpectedly take on new directions. That temptation was opposed by Stanislavsky himself, who demanded that the actor subordinate himself to the play, and some directors have likewise been disposed against the system, seeing in it a threat to their control of a production . Many, however, find it especially useful during rehearsals in uncovering unsuspected nuances of character or of dramatic action. Similar Topics Method Acting and Stanislavsky ...

Method Acting index * 200X * Film Dir * Books * Theatre w/Anatoly * SHOWs * Script Analysis * Acting * Directing * Russian-American Theatre (RAT) * Film Links * My Russian Plays * BioMechanics * Classes Dir * VIRTUAL THEATRE * appendix * links * list * Glossary * Anatoly's Blog * "Take nothing for granted. Think of your own experiences and use them truthfully." Born in Moscow in 1863, Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky had a more profound effect on the process of acting than anyone else in the twentieth century. At age 14, Stanislavsky joined a theatrical group organized by his family, and soon became its central figure. Throughout the late 1800s he improved as an actor and began to produce and direct plays. It was his assertion that if the theater was going to be meaningful it needed to move beyond the external representation that acting had primarily been. Over forty years he created an approach that fore fronted the psychological and emotional aspects of acting.

The Stanislavsky System, or "the method," as it has become known, held that an actor�s main responsibility was to be believed (rather than recognized or understood). To reach this "believable truth", Stanislavsky first employed methods such as "emotional memory." To prepare for a role that involves fear, the actor must remember something frightening, and attempt to act the part in the emotional space of that fear they once felt. Stanislavsky believed that an actor needed to take his or her own personality onto the stage when they began to play a character. This was a clear break from previous modes of acting that held that the actor's job was to become the character and leave their own emotions behind. Later Stanislavsky concerned himself with the creation of physical entries into these emotional states, believing that the repetition of certain acts and exercises could bridge the gap between life on and off the stage. In his travels throughout the world with the Moscow Arts Theater, Stanislavsky earned international acclaim as an actor, director, and coach. Among his collaborators were the writers Tolstoy and Chekov.

While Stanislavsky�s new method of acting supported actors in breaking from the exact lines and actions of the script, it also demanded that they pay closer attention to the important unsaid messages within the writing. This prompted writers such as Chekov to make subtler emotionally alive work. Today in the United States, Stanislavsky�s theories are the primary source of study for many actors. Among the many great actors and teachers to use his work are Stella Adler, Marlon Brando, Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman, and Gregory Peck. Many of these artists have continued experimentation with Stanislavsky�s ideas. Among the best known of these proponents is the Actor�s Studio, an organization that has been home to some of the most talented and successful actors of our time. [ PBS ] Stanislavsky "The real lesson that Stanislavsky taught does not lie in any of the theories and training methods that bear his name. He knew there were no shortcuts to truthfulness. After the actor has assembled all the external facts about a character and used his imagination to feel what it is like to live within those boundaries, there still remains the difficult task of using these insights to better understand the human condition.

The rules are irrelevant. The process is all." Stanislavsky on Home Ground, JOHN ELSOM The origins of Stanislavsky' System are in naturalism, positivism, even Marxism, photography, Darwin, electricity... Realism became "natural" -- the subtext idea promiced that we can discover everything within the ordinary. Everybody as predicted by Christ became a hero. The "immortal soul" could be brought out by the camera! The turn of the century Theatrical Revolution was anti-theatrical, as Meyerhold understood it after a decade of being a revolutionary; he revolted against The Method (with a new one, Theatrical Theatre). Stanislavsky's gift was to small, studio, theatre -- which is a sound stage, with the professional spectators only. It took fifty years for Method to find its true domain -- the screen... July 2003. More I work on acting and directing pages, stronger the desire to defend the legacy of Stanislavsky, who doesn't need my or anybody else defense. Did you read "True and False" by Mamet? Read and you can see that even a brilliant man could talk nonsense. So, what is the matter with this "Method Acting"?

First, there is no one techniques of acting and before Stanislavsky there was no system at all. Period. If you do not understand Chekhov and took place in drama of the 20th century, unlikely you can see the need for the new approach in acting. From inside, artistic, psychological. For a change Stanislavsky thought of actors as artists, no less than writers or philosophers. Do we understand it today? I don't think so. We still stress the craft -- and actors themselves do not equate acting with writing... Actors do not respect themselves. Even in the age of cinema, where their art could be recorded and preserved, they do not behave as authors. The movies, fame and fortune, turn them into celebraties -- when do they have time to think about the art of acting. What could you do with it? Perhaps the whole thing came to us too early. Another century or two and maybe we will be ready. Look how complicated the theory of musical composition -- and look at actors! Actor is the biggest orchestra one can imagine, but how primitive is acting theories! Look back at the twenty five centuries of theatre -- what do you see? The history of drama!

The true history of theatre is ahead of us -- the history of acting! Do you still question that a performer is the heart of theatre? You do not want to use the System? Don't. Do whatever you want in hope that somehow one day you will get it. They say that thousand monkeys could type a Shakespeare' sonnet if they keep typing for one thousand years. Go ahead. In my film classes students often ask my opinion about our movie actors -- the question itself tells me how little they know about filmmaking ... and acting. Fourty years from today, get the best movies of your youth and watch them again. You will understand how bad is the acting of our best. Camera is close and camera is merciless -- it records, and fourty years from now it won't possible to watch them without a smile... How do I know? Even my favorites (Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, see Film & Movies ) can stand as directorial discoveries, but acting -- no comments! I didn't teach Stanislavsky fifteen years ago. I teach Method now because of the fifteen years of experience of teaching acting. They need it -- the system. Why should I invent some new theories and techniques?

I simply use what Stanislavsky (and Meyerhold) discovered. There are many things which are still not explored in Stanislavsky (yoga connections, for one); all you need is start here and go further. Please, do. If I will have time, I want to work on Method, but in Virtual Theatre and The Book of Spectator directions. But this is not a place to talk about it... He is not a director (read Chekhov's letters). He is a head-actor, master-actor -- the old tradition, when the most experienced and smartest does teach the new ones. There are no directors in cirus. Stanislavsky developed his system the under house arrest at the time when Moscow Art Theatre couldn't do anything besides socialist realism. a lot of Russian artists uder Stalin turned to theory in order to stay alive. Stanislavsky (Alexeyev) wasn't an artist, but a craftsman. His method is not an invention but a discovery of what was used from the beginning of time. "Psychological realism" makes sense because only feelings are the reality. The only material I, the spectator, can use -- my own feelings, memories, experiences.

So, Stanislavsky advises actor to do the same. My dear actor! Don't wait for your luck -- learn directing to manage yourself in order to direct others -- the public. That is what I do, when I direct shows -- I direct my feelings and thoughts. When I write plays, I use the same method -- I become a character without forgetting myself. Of course, the character is "me" -- and more. "Identification" is a long word, but the only ground for dramatic experience. It's ME, who must be in the middle of action, I am on stage! Actor uses a role to extend his natural status of being a spectator. He makes an extra step by becoming a new being. I wish I could have time to translate the best of the century's philosophy into theatrical terms. The existentialists defined it all -- being and becoming, becoming as being an so on. Theatre folks are too busy to read fat books, otherwise they would know the philosophy behind the techniques. Stanislavsky himself didn't read much and had no idea what Heidegger was writing. But all Russians read Nietzsche and a lot in the Russian Thought follows the tradition of the revolt against modernity and humanity.

Stanislavsky directed Chekhov's plays, didn't he? Chekhov is the great nihilist of all times, the one Nietzsche tried to fight. Chekhov is a demonstration of Nietzsche paradox -- the conflict between Will To Power and the Eternal Return concept. The Return annihilates TIME and paralyzes WILL. It turns each of us in a babble, when we live in one and only world of SELF. Obviously, Stanislavsky teaches to study this territory -- the self. Being is Becoming, nothing else. Only Becoming is Being. And here is where "will" is coming into action. It's Self-Willing, getting control over your own Self, known in acting theory is a mastery of emotions, body, voice, etc. Theatre like everything else is about CONTROL and as every power it starts with the power over yourself. Actor is a master of his own moods! He is happy, when he commands himself to be happy. He is angry when he willing so. He is a creator of his feelings! What a picture! What a spectacle to watch! "What exercises resemling solfeggi are needed by him?

What scales, what arpeggi for development of creative feeling and experience are required by the actor? They must be given numbers... for systematic exercises in the school and at home. All books and works of the theatre are silent on this score. There is no practical textbook." (My Life in Art, 166-67) The connection with Yoga (late Stanislavsky) I will explore in Biomechanics. Here, in Method directory, a few words must be said about connections with Freud. 3 parts/levels: important for many Stanislavsky's concepts. Emotional Recall and Supression. Also, application for drama theraphy! "Preconscious" is the less understood term. Maybe, this is place for IDENTIFICATION (where actor meets his character).... [ Left -- Moscow Art Theatre? ] "The revolution thundered in and made its demands on us. There began a period of new explorations, of reappraisal of the old and the search for new ways. At a time when the new for the sake of the new and the negation of everything that had come before held sway in the theatre, we could not reject out of hand all that was fine in the past ...

This link with the past and the eagerness to move to an unknown future, the searching quests of the new theatre - all this helped to keep us from succumbing to the dangerous 'charms' of formalism ... We did not succumb; instead we began our quest for new ways, cautiously but doggedly." - Stanislavsky Next: method "What we need is a new kind of theatre... We need new forms.... I don't want to show life how it is, or the way it should be, but the way it is in dreams." Treplyov/Meyerhold, The Seagull (1898) -- read Chekhov Pages * "Whatever thread one takes up in the history of twentieth-century drama leads back to Stanislavsky." James Roose-Evans "Stanislavsky and Meyerhold, the two great Russian theatrical innovators of the twentieth century, had a curious relationship. They first worked together in 1898 at the inception of the Moscow Art Theatre. Stanislavsky was the 37 years old co-founder of the Art Theatre, and Meyerhold at 24 was one of the young actors invited to join the troupe.

Meyerhold, amid controversy, left the group in 1902 and formed his own company in the provinces where he attempted new symbolist staging along with the more conventional theatrical techniques he had learned at the MAT." Stanislavsky and Meyerhold: Art and Politics in the Russian Theatre, 1898-1938 "Stanislavsky was the great innovator of the pre-Revolutionary era. His work as a director and acting theorist may be considered the theatrical culmination of the Russia's Golden Age of Art begun in the mid-nineteenth century, combining realism with a progressive social message. He was a descendent of Gogal, Ostrovsky, Shchepkin, and Tolstoy - an artistic heritage manipulated,distorted and made grotesque by the socialist realists in the 1930's. He was able to achieve great artistic heights in an era of alternating lifting and pressing of tzarist oppression at the beginning of the century. His art was an art of subtlety and nuance. He and his artistic theories were able to survive under the Imperial,the Revolutionary and the Soviet systems.

Meyerhold, the great innovator of the 1920's, brought to fruition the goals of the Russian aesthetic movement begun in the 1890's, Russia's Silver Age of Art." more on Russian Theatre @ rutheater.home.att.net : "There have been only a handful of periods in world cultural history when the theater was the leading form-Athens of the 5th century BC, Elizabethan England, and Russia/the Soviet Union from the 1890s to the 1930s. This web site is dedicated to the Russian theater of Stanislavsky and Meyerhold, Chekhov, Mayakovsky and Bulgakov, Malevich and Tatlin, Stravinsky and Shostakovich." [ Commentary: Andrew Wachtel, Northwestern University + Developer: Michael Denner, Stetson University ] "It was with a feeling of deep emotion and joy that we entered Stanislavski's house: a tall old man with snow white hair rose from the arm chair to greet us.

It was enough for us to converse with Stanislavski just 5- 10 minutes to come away feeling like a new born person, cleansed of all that might be 'bad' in art." - Khmelyov stanislavsky Konstantin Stanislavsky (originally Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev) is best remembered for the system of acting he developed and documented over the course of his life. He was born near Moscow in 1863 to a wealthy family and began acting in small family theatres with siblings and friends from an early age. In his late teens, he began directing amateur vaudevilles and operettas, implementing rigorous discipline into his carefully planned rehearsals and usually playing the lead roles. Emphasising the importance of commitment to artistic excellence and ethical behaviour from actors and technicians, his ideas and autocratic style of directing found full expression when he founded the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1898. A resilient and enduring company, the MAT managed to remain open after the Russian Revolution but was often forced to adopt correct political views in the times of political upheaval that marked Russia in the decades thereafter.

Stanislavski suffered a heart attack in 1928 and his weakened condition forced him to take a more supervisory role at MAT. While he sometimes conducted rehearsals from home and appeared occasionally at rehearsals at the theatre, his health increasingly deteriorated. He died in 1938, shortly before the beginning of World War II. At the same time as directing and developing various productions at MAT, Stanislavki began to investigate and document a systematic approach to acting training that he hoped would enable actors to perform with a ï¿½believable truth'. He carefully articulated and recorded terms that he found useful to teach and direct actors about his insights and the concepts he introduced such as the imaginary ï¿½fourth wall' encouraged actors to imaginatively distinguish different types of realities between audiences and performers. Terms like ï¿½emotional memory' and the ï¿½magic if' were also described by Stanislavsky and these and many other concepts have been utilised, discussed and challenged by performers and theorists ever since they were first introduced. Stanislavsky's written work has profoundly influenced the study and practice of acting and theatre.

Significant texts include his first publication My Life in Art an autobiographical text referring to the work he was developing during the evolution of the Moscow Art Theatre and a text he wrote and published a few years before he died entitled An Actor's Work on Himself (1936). This later text offered his mature views of his theory of acting and was translated into English in 1937 with the English title An Actor Prepares. Stanislavsky was impressed with the principles underlying the concept of ensemble playing and established the first Russian ensemble theatre. The ensemble approach advanced a personal and cooperative method of playing that stressed the importance of developing relationships between the cast rather than focusing on individual parts. This emphasis was an important part of his approach to theatre throughout his life but many of his other theoretical views were continually modified as they were informed by his practical work as an actor, director and teacher. For example, Stanislavsky's productions and ideas initially emphasised realism and are quite often studied as typical examples of naturalism. But from about 1905 he became interested in other theatrical styles and he began studying non-naturalistic modes of theatre production.

He invited directors Meyerhold (1905) and Edward Gordon Craig (1910) to explore the relevance of emerging theatre forms like symbolism in productions with the MAT. Unimpressed with the results of these explorations, he did not pursue further collaborations. However, his ideas about the role and source of an actor's creativity shifted gradually in response to new ideas and practices being discussed and investigated by actors training in the studios that were attached to the MAT. In fact, looked at as a whole, his work reveals an ongoing interest in establishing a system of training that could refine the art of acting honestly and define the role of ï¿½creativity' in actors' performances. Overseas, MAT's productions were noted for the painstaking attention to detail evident in both the acting and set designs and when the company toured America in the 1920s, their approaches to acting and theatre production stimulated much discussion. Stanislavki's ideas attracted the interest of a handful of New York theatre practitioners and they were to form the basis of an influential American acting training program developed by Lee Strasberg called The Method.

Although much of Stanislavsky's work is often over- simplified and has been widely misunderstood due to its association with Strasberg's Method, there is no doubt that the extent of Stanislavsky's influence on the development of acting training has been enormous. The Stanislavsky Method - Acting Techniques By Wade Bradford Updated July 23, 2016. Constantin Stanislavsky, famed Russian actor, director, and teacher, profoundly influenced the theater of the 20th century and beyond. Throughout his long life, he developed a variety techniques that became known as "The Stanislavsky System" or "The Method." His books My Life in Art (an autobiography), An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, and Creating a Role are still studied today. What is the Stanislavsky System? Although very complex, one of the basic goals of the "Stanislavsky System" was to portray believable, natural people on stage. This notion was a striking contrast to the thespians in 19th century Russia. Most of the actors during that era spoke in a grandiose tone, and gestured in an over-the-top manner.

Stanislavsky (also spelled "Konstantine Stanislavski") helped to change much of that. In many ways, Stanislavsky is the father of today's style of Method Acting, a process in which actors immerse themselves into their characters as much as possible. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance The Life of Stanislavsky Born: January 17, 1863 Died: August 7, 1938 Before he adopted the stage name "Stanislavsky," he was Constantin Sergeyvich Alekseyev, a member of one of the wealthiest families in Russia . According to his autobiography, My Life in Art, he was enchanted by the theater at an early age. During his childhood, he adopted a love of puppet theater , ballet, and opera. During adolescence he developed a love of the theater; he defied the expectations of family and social class by becoming an actor. He dropped out of drama school after only several weeks of instruction. The style of the day called for unrealistic, over-dramatic performances. It was a style he loathed because it did not truly convey human nature.

Working with directors Alexander Fedotov and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Stanislavsky would eventually co-found the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. His international success in the early 1900s is tied to the rise of Anton Chekhov's popularity as a playwright. Chekhov, already a beloved storyteller, vaulted to higher levels of fame with his unique comedic dramas, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya , and The Cherry Orchard . Each production of Chekhov's major plays was overseen by Stanislavsky, who realized early on that Chekhov's characters could not be effectively brought to life on stage by traditional means. Stinslavsky felt that the best performances were the most natural and realistic ones. Hence, his method developed, revolutionizing acting techniques throughout Europe, and eventually the world.

Elements of his Method Although the Stanislavsky System cannot be thoroughly explored in a brief article such as this, here are a few defining aspects of the this famous teacher's method: The "Magic If": A simple way of beginning the Stanislavsky Method is to ask yourself "What would I do if I were in this situation?" This is a good way to consider natural reactions to the events in the story. However, Stanislavsky also realized that these types of "what if" questions do not always lead to the best characterization. "What would I do?" might be a very different question from "What would Hamlet do?" Still, it's a good place to begin. Re-Education: Actors must rethink the way they move and talk while onstage. Being onstage in front of a large audience can be an intimidating experience -- certainly not part of most people's everyday lives. Theater began in Ancient Greece with masks and choreographed sequences; styles may have changed in subsequent centuries, but they were still characterized by an actor's over-emphasis found in early theater. However, in real life, we don't behave that way.

Stanislavsky compelled actors to find ways to exhibit true-to-life human nature, while still being able to project loudly enough for audiences to hear. Observation: Stanislavsky was the ultimate people-watcher. He encouraged his students to carefully observe others, focusing on their phsyical traits just as much as their personalities. After studying everday people, he would often disguise himself as a peasant or an old man, and interact with the townspeople to see how well he could fit in. Every person is unique. Therefore, every character should exhibit unique traits -- many of which can be inspired and adapted from an actor's observation. Motivation: It's become a cliche actor's question -- What is my motivation? Yet, that is precisely what Stanislavsky expected his actors to consider. Why does the character say this? Why does the character move to this part of the stage? Why does she turn on the lamp light? Why does he take a gun out of the drawer? Some actions are obvious and easy to explain. Others can be mysterious. Maybe the playwright doesn't even know.

(Or maybe the playwright was just lazy and needed someone to move a chair across the stage for the sake of convenience.) The actor must study the text thoroughly to determine the motivation behind a character's words and actions. Emotional Memory: Stainslavskly didn't want his actors to simply create a facsimile of an emotion. He wanted his actors to actually feel the emotion. So, if a scene called for extreme grief, actors needed to put themselves in the mindset of the character's situation so that they genuinely experience the feelings of intense sadness. (The same goes for all the other emotions.) Sometimes, of course, the scene is so dramatic and the character so human that these intense emotions come naturally to the actor. However, for actors not able to connect with the character's emotional state, Stanislavsky advised performers to reach into their personal memories and draw upon a comparable life experience. Stanislavsky's Legacy Stanislavsky's Moscow Theater thrived during the days of the Soviet Union, and it even continues today.

His method of acting has influenced many other renowned drama teachers including: Stella Adler Lee Strasberg Uta Hagen ​This video, Stanislavsky and the Russian Theatre , provides a little more background information via words and photos.

Question: Which style of acting was founded by Konstantin Stanislavsky?
Answer: The Method