Constantine Stanislavski

1 Pages 359 Words

Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski was the founder of the first acting "System." He had the most profound effect on the process of acting than anyone else in the twentieth century and the most influential acting system on stage and screen. He thought that if the theater was going to be meaningful it needed more than external representation. So, over forty years he experimented with the psychological and emotional aspects of acting. The result was the Stanislavski System, also known as "the method." In his system the actor’s main responsibility was to be believed. "Believable truth", was found by using "emotional memory." Which meant the actor would recall their own feelings and experiences and substitute them for those of their characters. For example, when preparing for a role that involves fear, the actor must remember something frightening. Also when preparing for a role the actor would research the situation created by the script, break down the text according to their character's motivations and recall their own experiences. This caused actions and reactions according to motivations. Then the actor would make his motivations for acting identical to those of the character in the script. He could then replay these emotions and experiences in the role of the character and its personality. Stanislavski also believed that an actor needed to take his or her own personality onto the stage when they began to play a character. By doing this they were able to achieve a special link with the audience.
It was also his attention to detail that created this effect. For example he used long pauses and gloomy stares. He felt that life was exposed in these truthful emotions and actions of the performers. Stanislavski called this effect "psychological realism."
Ironically, Stanislavski eventually believed that these emotional memory techniques could be psychologically damaging. So he created a new theory: the "Method of Physical Actions." Th...