Stanislavski For Beginners

David Allen, Jeff Fallow

• Publisher: For Beginners
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781939994356
• eBook ISBN: 9781939994363
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre Stagecraft & Scenography

Stanislavski was the first person to develop a cogent and practical system of acting. Throughout his life he sought the answers to such fundamental questions as: "What is great acting?" and "How can you find inspiration in every performance?" Stanislavski remains the most important influence on actor training today, and yet many of his ideas are little known, or even misunderstood.

Stanislavski For Beginners charts the development of the Stanislavski system. It includes a clear exposition of the key elements of the system and explores his Method of Physical Actions, which he worked on in the years before his death, and which he called “the result of my whole life’s work.”

Act VI: The “System” Triumphant

Stanislavski had to spend several months in bed. In May 1929 he left Russia for a rest cure, travelling to Badenweiler in the Black Forest, and then to Nice. He did not return to Moscow until the autumn of 1930. He had contemplated writing a book about his acting methods for some years; now he began assembling his notes. The book that slowly (very slowly) emerged was called The Actor's Work on the Self. It is in two parts:

Part One : The Actor's Work on the Self in the Creative Process of “Living Through”

“perezhivanie” (The title is a bit of a mouthful and the book first appeared in America and the U.K. as “An Actor Prepares”)

Part Two : The Actor's Work on the Self in the Creative Process of Physical Embodiment (First published as “Building a Character”)

The first part concentrates on the actor's inner or psycho-technique, and is designed to help the actor to live the role.

The second part concentrates on physical work - movement, voice etc - and is intended to help the actor to express the inner life of the role in an “artistic, scenic form.”

The two parts should be read together.

In fact, the plan was to publish them as one volume. The decision was made to split them into two separate books because of length.

The books appeared with a 14-year gap between them in the States - and a 17-year gap in the Soviet Union. This has had very unfortunate consequences. The first volume, inevitably, made more impact. There has even been an assumption that it is the “system.” But it is only part of it. The second volume, focusing on physical work, has received comparatively little attention. Partly as a result some people have even assumed, quite erroneously, that the “system” is only concerned with the actor's internal technique, to the neglect of physical work.

The ideas are presented in the form of a fictional “diary” written by a young student, Kostya, who is studying acting with the director, Tortsov. Stanislavski chose this format because he did not want to use a “dry, scientific language”; instead, he wanted the book to be accessible to actors, and to work through concrete anecdotes and practical examples.

Both Kostya and Tortsov are loosely based on Stanislavski himself. Kostya represents Stanislavski in his youth - naïve and keen to learn. Tortsov represents the mature Stanislavski - the experienced director, teacher, and actor.

THE ACTOR'S WORK ON THE SELF (Part One)

The book opens with an actor finding “inspiration” on stage quite by chance. Kostya is preparing a scene from “Othello.” On the day of the performance, he only feels empty inside; the “excessive effort to squeeze out the emotion” and “the powerlessness to achieve the impossible” produces tension in his whole body, paralysing his movements, But then the line, “O blood, blood, blood!” seems to burst from him, like “the frantic cry of a man in pain.” It is a moment of real inspiration. He is acting “subconsciously, intuitively.”

At the end of the first book, Kostya again experiences “inspiration” on the stage - but this time it is not by accident. Instead, he applies different elements of the actor's psycho-technique he has studied under Tortsov. He creates the conditions for “inspiration” to appear.

Action

The first lesson Tortsov's students learn is that everything that happens on the stage must happen for a purpose. One of them is asked to imagine she has lost a very valuable brooch, and must search for it. At first, she rushes around the stage, clutching her head or beating her breast in despair. But she actually forgets all about looking for the brooch itself...

Tortsov asks her to repeat the exercise - this time, concentrating on her purpose: to find the brooch. Her search now is painstaking and slow; she is completely absorbed in her task; and the sincerity of her feelings is evident. Tortsov concludes: “Do not run for the sake of running, or suffer for the sake of suffering. On stage, you must not act in a ‘generalised’ way, for the sake of action; you must act with a purpose.”

All too often, actors aim for results and try to show jealousy or despair and so on. The actor should remember that feelings are the result of something that has gone before. Rather than thinking about the feeling directly, the actor should concentrate on the steps that lead to it.

The Russian actor and director, Iosif Rapoport (who appeared in Vakhtangov's Princess Turandot), offered the following example. You cannot act “sorrow,” but you might, say, be acting a scene in which someone you are close to is seriously ill. “You want to help him, ease his suffering, but you are unable to do so. Here is your task, fulfil it, fight for the person's health, do this in all sincerity - and you will evoke the authentic stage feeling which corresponds to the feeling we call sorrow.”

In other words, the actor should concentrate on the action - on trying to achieve an objective. The action, in fact, will create the feeling.

In working on a role, you should ask yourself: what would I do if I was in this situation? This helps to put you in the character's shoes: “as if acts as a lever, lifting us from the plane of reality, into the world where it is possible to create” - the world of imagination. “As if” does not ask you to believe something is real. Everyone knows it isn't. You simply act as if you were in these circumstances.

Tortsov's students do an improvisation. They are gathered on a stage set representing someone's apartment. They are asked to imagine that a man who used to live in the apartment became violently insane, and he was put in hospital; but now, Tortsov asks, “if he escaped, and he was standing outside that door, what would you do?” The students act as if this was real. They become absorbed in the problem, and begin to look for ways to defend themselves. They barricade the door with tables and chairs. They begin to experience a sense of danger and fear.

Given Circumstances

The Great Russian writer, Aleksandr Pushkin, declared:

And Stanislavski adds that this is al...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• ACT I: Youth
• Act II: The Society of Art and Literature
• Act III: The Moscow Art Theatre
• Act IV: First Thoughts on the “System”
• Act V: Stanislavski and the State
• Act VI: The “System” Triumphant
• Act VII: The Last Act
• Recommended Reading
• Index