Stanislavski and the Stanislavski System of Method Acting.

Have a little read: ... Stanislavski and the Stanislavski System of Method Acting Konstanin Stanislavski was a Russian actor and director who challenged traditional notions of the dramatic process, establishing himself as a pioneering thinker of modern theatre. He coined phrases such as 'stage direction', laid the foundations of modern opera, gave exposure to important playwrights and co-founded the Moskow Art Theatre in 1897. He was a revolutionary, protesting against the old manner of acting and against the traditional arrangement of plays. The most significant of his achievements was his development of a successful 'system of method acting'; a way to teach, practice, correct and monitor the 'method': a pragmatic way of acting that created and acknowledged the internal motivations and feelings of a character, leading to a realistic performance. Before the system, method acting was a talent mastered by only a few individual actors and actresses. Stanislavski was able to identify and describe what these actors did naturally and intuitively. From his observations, he compiled his series of principles and techniques for portraying believable characters. An early observation was the fluid movement of great actors; they were always in a state of complete freedom and relaxation when they performed, letting the behavior of the character come through effortlessly. Stanislavski deduced that unwanted tension should be eliminated from a good performance, and that the performer should at all times attain a state of physical and vocal relaxation. He also noticed that gifted performers would always appear fully concentrated on an object, person or event whilst onstage. Stanislavski called the range of an actor's concentration the 'circle of attention'. The performer should accept and notice their surroundings gradually... beginning only by acknowledging themselves and a few props nearby, and then 'expanding' the circle to include the entire set and other thespians. This is a successful technique for focusing concentration and eliminating self-consciousness, as the circle is never widened to include the audience. Stanislavski believed passionately in attention to detail. He recognised that emotions are complicated, and that a good actor should portray feeling such as love, grief and hate with specific nuances... physically expressing emotional stress or elation in a focused way. An angry character, for instance, could throw down a newspaper or scrunch a piece of paper into a ball in his fist, or a nervous character could tap frantically on a table. This should be part of the actor's search for 'inner truth': an absolute conviction in the world