Stanislavski

Stanislavski

1. Personal Life

   • Born Konstantin Sergeievich Alexiev on 17th January 1863
     • Interested in circus skills, ballet and puppetry as a child
   • 1884 - adopted stage name 'Stanislavski' to keep performances secret from parents
     • 1884 - became interested in 'experiencing the role', began vocal training under Fyodor Komissarzhevsky (we now call this method acting)
   • 1877 - made his debut performance, began life long series of notebooks, notes later formed his system and techinque
   • Left Moscow Theatre School after two weeks because he was dissapointed with their approach to theatre
   • Glikeryria Fedotova (student of Mikhail Shchepkin) 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" which all helped towards the development of his own ‘system’
   • Died 7th August 1938

2. Career

   • 1897 - Stanislavski met with Danchenko in a restaurant and after an 18 hour meeting established the Moscow Arts Theatre
   • 1898 - Stanislavski discovered 'The Seagull' to be ideally suited to his artistic aspirations and naturalistic methods
     • Chekov went on to craft plays specifically for the company
   • Notable productions at the Moscow Arts Theatre
     • The Lower Depths, The Life of Man, The Blue Bird, Hamlet, The Petty Bourjeois, An Enemy of People, The Cherry Orchard, Eugene Onegin
   • 1922-1924 - travelled the United Sates with his company
     • 1924 - 'My Life in Art' was published

3. Influence

   • contribution remains the core of mainstream western performance training
     • organised realistic techniques into a coherent and usable system
       • system acquired unprecedented ability to cross cultural boundaries and developed international reach
   • Stanislavski understood the need to coax Chekov's subtleties out of the text which wouldn't of been possible with more accepted 19th century acting styles
     • Chekov's plays lend themselves to a naturalistic style of acting, characters famous for what they don't say rather than do
       • Stanislavski's production of 'The Seagull' is one of the most famous in the world of theatre