- Konstantin Stanislavski .

Konstantin Stanislavski (Vladimir Nemirovich Danchenko)

·         Upper class

·         Developed the MAT (Moscow art theatre) which turned well known for realistic interpretations of plays that were famous by Russian playwrights

·         Protected by Lenin

·         In fear of government, deleted many of his own works

·         Stage Directions were turned from simple into ways of evoking certain emotions, showing subtle details

·         “As if for the first time”, everything is new truthful sincere and joyous

·         Meyerhold

a.       Method acting: Stanislavski taught his actors to “be” rather than to “act”. For example, if character is experiencing a loss, the actor was to pull from himself the emotions that he himself would have felt in the past, for example the death of a family member, and channel it through his character to evoke the same emotion.

b.      The circle: when actors were nervous on stage, he taught them to focus on a small circle, usually consisting of one prop and one other character. Once the actor became comfortable with the small section on the stage, he could expand to other characters and props, always being able to resort back to the initial two items within the small circle if the nerves were to return.

c.       The magic “if”: Rather than simply having his actors learn their lines and memorize the expected emotions and reactions expected to go with them, Stanislavski used the magic “if” to expand the actors understanding of their characters. He would take the characters out of their scenes and allow the actors to react as their characters in different situations through using “if”. For example, how would your character respond if it was pushed while walking down the street? It allowed them to find the differences between their characters and themselves.