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.

The System versus the Method

Stanislavski and his System are frequently misunderstood. For instance, often the System is confused with the Method. The latter is an outgrowth of the American (much of it in New York) theatre scene in the 1930s and 40s, when actors and directors such as Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, Lee Strasberg, etc, first in the Group Theatre and later in the Actors Studio, came across Stanislavki's thought through such intermediaries as Stella Adler and Richard Boleslavski. Stanislavski's emphasis on life within moments, on psychological realism, on emotional authenticity, seemed to attract the actors and thinkers working in these cutting-edge institutions. While much work was done with the works of playwrights like Clifford Odets, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, the Method ended up being applied to older works like those of Shakespeare. Indeed it is an instructive contention whether or not this is an appropriate idea, namely that of a Method approach to pre-Modernist plays. For while the System and Method share the same love of psychology, in reality they are very different, as different as the temperaments of Stanislavski and Strasberg..

Related Topics:
Method - Elia Kazan - Robert Lewis - Lee Strasberg - Actors Studio - Stella Adler - Richard Boleslavski - Arthur Miller - Tennessee Williams - Shakespeare - Modernist

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