Stanislavski System

The Stanislavski System is an approach to acting developed by Konstantin Stanislavski, a Russian actor, director, and theatre administrator. The System is the result of Stanislavski's many years of efforts to determine how a human being can control, in performance, the most intangible and uncontrollable aspects of human behavior: things such as emotions, and artistic inspiration.

Approaching acting

Konstantin Stanislavski had a dictum at some point, which he probably believed throughout most of his life, that one should always approach a role as directly as possible and see if it lives. If the actor and role connect, and the role comes to life, then what is the point of applying a technique, a system? Forget it, and enjoy, he assured his actors, but remember: such a thing may only happen once or twice in your life, or never. The rest is -- technique. The rest is dependent upon your way of working.

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It must surely depend on the individual actor and whether or not an approach 'works' for him, as actors are fond of saying. And indeed it is a very practical thought, coming from Stanislavski, a man who in the end, was always brilliantly practical.

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While Stanislavski was not the first to codify some system of acting (see for instance, any number of Victorian gesture-books for actors) it was for all intents and purposes the first to take questions and problems of psychological significance head on. And while Stanislavski's approach changed greatly throughout his life, he never lost sight of truth in performance and love of art.

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