Stanislavski, Stanislavski – my first
introduction to him was when Mrs. Moon mentioned him to me in ninth grade on
the London Theatre Discovery Week trip. I came back from Europe with a whole
book on his practice and advice to actors. I hope this presentation will grant
me a better understanding of his philosophy.
Constatin
Stanislavski
Born January 5th, 1863 as
Konstatin Sergeyeich Alekseyev in Moscow, Russia
Influences on Peter Brook
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Childhood theater troupe
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Tomasso Salvini playing Othello
in 1882
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Mikhail Shchepkin (1788-1863)
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Ernesto Rossi; told
Stanislavski that his acting needed art
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Let him discover the ‘life’ in
a role
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Stanislavski developed the idea
of a realistic set in 1898 with Hauptemann’s The Sunken Bell
Key Philosophies
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“A system is not a hand-me-down
suit that you can put on and walk off in, or a cook-book where all you need to
find the page and there is your recipe. No, it is a whole way of life…”
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Key Principles
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Analysis
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Perception
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Experience
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Objective/Purpose
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Belief
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Discipline
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Realism/Naturalism
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Definition:
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Realism – selection and
distillation of observations of daily life; capturing the essence of life
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Naturalism – ‘exposing a slice
of life’ and portraying the intricacies of the world; complete attention to
detail
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Terms are generally used
synonymously, but they are different
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Ardent supporter of detail
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Detested ‘meaningless’
avant-garde
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Physical Realism
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Sometimes overrepresented
details
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Lived for character research
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Psychological Realism
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Acknowledge the emotional subtext of the characters
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All action must have a purpose and meaning
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Always be analyzing your actions
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Who are you? (funnily
enough, this is what I do every time I make a character for a roleplay or a
story >w>)
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Where do you come from?
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What do you want?
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Why are you doing this?
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Where are you going?
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What will you do when you get
there?
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Outward action (physical) &
Inward action
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The actors is Never unengaged
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IT MUST HAVE A WHY
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The Magic If – a way of
creating new context
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The context creates the subtext
(oh, I
love this >w<)
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Believe in what is happening onstage
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Emotion Memory
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The most controversial part of
Stanislavski’s system
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‘Scars on the nervous system’
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Actors should make an effort to
broaden their range of experience
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Recreation > Imitation
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‘Always and forever, when you
are on stage, you must play yourself. But it will be in an infinite variety of
combinations of objectives, and given circumstances which you have prepared for
your part, and which have been smelted in the furnace of your emotion memory’.
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The most difficult and dangerous
aspect of the System
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Stanislavski later disavowed
this aspect of his System in 1930
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Movement, Tempo, Rhythm
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“Wherever there is life, there
is action; wherever action, movement; where movement, tempo; and where there is
tempo, there is rhythm.”
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Every character/actor has his
or her own tempo/rhythm
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Rhythms must be distinct
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Rhythms can drive a performance
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Stillness is a powerful
instrument
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Other Aspects of Stanislavski’s
System
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Circle of Attention – helps an
actor relax and refocus himself and his character, like the ripples of a pond
where the focal point of the ripples is the actor.
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Units and Objectives – plays can
be broken down into Units of Action
Manifestations of the Philosophy
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Collaborated with…
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Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
(Moscow Art Theater)
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Anton Chekhov, the writer of “The
Seagull” and Leo Tolstoy, writer of “What is Art?”
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Chekhov made subtler,
emotionally charged projects after he learned upon understanding the implied
messages hidden in the writing. This idea was shared by both Stanislavski and
Chekhov.
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Tolstoy influenced
Stanislavski, which art had to be simplified and available for all. This helped
form the thinking of Stanislavski.
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The Society of Art and
Literature (1888)
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Stanislavsky, A.F. Fedotov,
F.P. Komissarzhevskii, F.L. Sologuh
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Create a society where they
portray acting in a redefining way.
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Moscow Art Theater (1898)
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Moscow, Russia’s most valued
company
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Many classic performances all
depicting a sense of realism
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January 17th, 1904 –
written by Anton Chekhov but directed by Stanislavski,
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Cherry Orchard
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“A man who didn’t find acting
through reality, yet reality through acting” – Austin
Oh, I loved the activity. There are just sooooo
many options! I hope we can do it again soon, because I really love subtext and
there were just so many unrepresented scenarios running through my head!
Also, I forgot to ask: Stanislavski, or Stanislavsky?
