{"title":"Experiencing Stanislavsky today, training and rehearsal for the psychophysical actor","authors":"F. Schopf","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2021.1872199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2021.1872199","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":"113 - 115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79036456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stanislavsky’s method and some conceptual echoes in Russian culture","authors":"S. Panov, S. Ivashkin","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1860161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1860161","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Konstantin Stanislavsky created his artistic method of psychological symbolism, trying to overcome the legacy of the socio-typological theatre of the nineteenth century, where the actors’ internal resources were aimed at reproducing recognizable social reflexes of consciousness. Alexander Ostrovsky`s theatre consolidated this tradition in Russian theatrical culture, offering a powerful ensemble of dramatic characters and typical situations of Russian life. The theatre production becomes a continuous discovery of the author’s intention by the director, not a simple presentation of social types. The truth of life, the manifestation of essence as an identity in all changes of action, the fullness of experience, and the persuasiveness of the presentation are the leading motives in the perception of the artistic system of Stanislavsky by Russian directors of the Soviet era such as Oleg Efremov and Georgi Tovstonogov. These directors saw the merits of Stanislavsky’s artistic method, but also recognized the need for innovations as they contemplated an artistic trajectory of the Moscow Art Theatre. However, an essential revision of the psychological symbolism of Stanislavsky, for whom the possibility of the creation was based on a simple reflection of the most intense effects of impulsive expressions of our internal nature, took place in the late Soviet and post-Soviet time in the phenomenological theatre of Piotr Fomenko, Anatoli Vasiliev and Аndrei Zholdak, in which every symbolizing consciousness became a natural attitude – an approach different from the one that focused on capturing the essence of reality of human life.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"235 1","pages":"81 - 89"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77044298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Konstantin Stanislavski on the professional and ethical education of the film actor: based on the silent films of Boris Sushkevich, Yakov Protazanov, Aleksander Sanin, and Yuri Zhelyabuzhski","authors":"V. Volkova","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2021.1878660","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2021.1878660","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Stanislavski’s attitude to the cinematic art in general and acting in particular changed throughout his life. On the one hand, Stanislavski’s initial negative position on filming actors from the MAT for the first silent films is well-known, but on the other, numerous colleagues who worked at the interface of theatre and cinema confirmed Stanislavski’s attention to the actor’s play within the then emerging movie art, and the adoption of professional and ethical standards in both. One of the co-founders of the Russian film company Rus’, Moisei Aleynikov, highlighted in his memoirs Stanislavski’s profound conviction that “cinematography carri[ed] in it some new laws of performing art” and that in order to research cinematographic art and the professional and ethical development of film actors one had to carry out “hard, systematic experimental work”, comparable with what Stanislavski conducted in the theatre. Because of his time-consuming involvement in theatre, Stanislavski postponed and then delegated the exploration of filmmaking to Leopold Sulerzhitski, months before his sudden death froze the research again. Notwithstanding the absence of such research, from 1915 Stanislavski regularly involved his best actors and directors in filmmaking. Subsequently, early silent films starring theatre actors were assessed by Stanislavski, directly or indirectly. The results of his assessment can be found in the works of the first Russian creators of feature films. Focusing on the works of the four filmmakers included in its title, this paper aims to explore the development of Stanislavski’s attitude to the professional and ethical education of the film actor.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"91 - 108"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83666997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stanislavski and Indian media: an exploration of “So Sorry” politoons","authors":"Harshwardhani Sharma","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2021.1875183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2021.1875183","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper undertakes a study of the Indian “So Sorry” political cartoon (politoon) series, drawing on the work of Russian acting theorist Konstantin Stanislavski. The paper aims to illuminate the cartoons through the prism of Stanislavski’s work. The contribution of this paper will be the application of some of Stanislavski’s key principles to the cartoon series. Thus the paper will provide an example of how Stanislavski’s work can be a useful theoretical framework in the field of media studies. For this study, I have chosen cartoons from the “So Sorry” politoons series, the highly popular political cartoons video series on Indian television. The sample of “So Sorry” politoons for this study is the video “Kamal ki Tsunami” (The Tsunami of Lotus Flower), which was screened on 4 June 2019. I interpret this video to further explore Stanislavski’s notions in the creation of cartoons and to understand the cartoonist´s imagination.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"61 1","pages":"51 - 64"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84561929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rediscovering Stanislavsky","authors":"J. Gillett","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1863641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1863641","url":null,"abstract":"There are a number of remarkable things about Maria Shevtsova’s new book. One is that it is a work of love and dedication, full of depth and breadth in the scope of her fresh and detailed research and vision. We see a whole Stanislavsky: the actor, director of theatre and opera, producer and administrator, teacher, researcher and experimenter, and the artist knowledgeable about design, lighting, visual arts, and music. She elucidates his character by placing him clearly within his historical epoch, its culture, philosophies, and politics. Rather than taking us through a year by year account of his development, she focuses on each main facet of his experience and work, each one throwing light on the others as from ascending a spiral rather than a ladder: so we have chapters on Context, followed by Actor, Studio, Director, and Legacy.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"53 1","pages":"109 - 113"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79659092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Approaching Stanislavski’s work at the Opera-Dramatic Studio: part 2","authors":"Diego Moschkovich","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1838152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1838152","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This is the second article written from an investigation of the Opera-Dramatic Studio (1935–1938) unpublished files, held at the Moscow Art Theatre Museum between November 2017 and February 2018. In it, we try to present an analysis of some new aspects of Stanislavski’s preparation of the Studio’s faculty and his practice with the pupils. After a short introduction to the research, we present the period of the faculty’s preparation (Jun-Oct 1935) and the training work conducted with the pupils (Nov-Dec 1935). We analyse three aspects of Stanislavski’s practice during his last years: the étude, the physical actions and the subconscious moment, as a triple basic-training structure used in the preparation for the future work on the play and the role. To finish, we present a short conclusion the analysed material.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"65 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82981857","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The first Jean Benedetti lecture (2020) Stanislavsky and Film: Con and Pro","authors":"L. Senelick","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1827347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1827347","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Stanislavsky distrusted cinema as a distraction for the actor and a poor substitute for the communion between audience and stage. His only intensive engagement with film came in 1923 when a Hollywood studio persuaded him to prepare a scenario about 16th-century Muscovy; but it and other proposed experiments remained unrealized. Nevertheless, the aesthetics and ethos of the Moscow Art Theatre permeated Russian cinema from its beginnings; many of its leading directors, designers and performers had worked there. The film maker Moisey Aleynikov imbibed from it the notions of the collaborative director, the importance of ensemble and the importance of supplementing the script. The director Vsevolod Pudovkin paid lip service to the Stanislavsky system of acting but with a Stalinist gloss. In Hollywood, many Art Theatre veterans found employment and taught classes, though their most abiding influence was through their own performances.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"3 - 19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82235728","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Brecht encounters “the system”","authors":"M. Silberman","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1782560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1782560","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Brecht’s “encounters” with Stanislavsky span the 1935 production of The Mother in New York and the 1953 Stanislavsky Conference in East Berlin, revealing the evolution in his thinking vis-à-vis his Russian counterpart. While the first encounter introduced him to American Method Acting as the epitome of dramatic theatre against which his epic theatre was aimed, it also convinced him that he needed a coherent “system” like Stanislavsky’s to reach a wider audience of theatre practitioners. As a result, Brecht authored during his last years of exile the Short Organon for the Theatre. If Stanislavsky’s name does not appear in it, concepts central to the epic theatre respond to Brecht’s understanding of what he referred to as Aristotelian, culinary, or Naturalist theatre identified with his rival. A similar project, Buying Brass (also known as The Messingkauf Dialogues), occupied Brecht in the years between 1939 and the early 1950’s. The fragmentary texts and conversations were the closest he came to presenting a “system,” here conceived as a theory to be performed on stage as dialogues and including references to techniques employed by Stanislavsky. This essay explores key theoretical issues in the evolution of Brecht’s understanding of Stanislavsky’s approach to the training of actors. The closest he came to experimenting with Stanislavskian “methods” was in his 1953 production of Erwin Strittmatter’s Katzgraben at the Berliner Ensemble. The documentation of rehearsals and discussions shows how Brecht used this as an opportunity to explore the affinities between the mature approaches of these two directors.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"41 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91277563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Approaching Stanislavski’s work at the Opera-Dramatic Studio. Part 1.","authors":"Diego Moschkovich","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1758446","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1758446","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This is the first of a series of two articles written as an investigation of the Opera-Dramatic Studio (1935–1938) unpublished files, held at the Moscow Art Theatre Museum, between November 2017 and February 2018. In it, I try to present an analysis of some new aspects of Stanislavski’s preparation of the Studio’s faculty and his practice with the pupils. After a short introduction to the research, I present, in this firt part, the period of the faculty’s preparation (Jun-Oct 1935). Subsequently, in the second part, I will present the training work conducted with the pupils (Nov-Dec 1935), and an analysis of three aspects of Stanislavski’s practice during his last years: the étude, the physical actions and the subconscious moment. These, as I argue functioned as a triple basic-training structure used in the preparation for the future work on the play and the role. To finish, I present a short conclusion on the analysed material.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"26 1","pages":"223 - 236"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78732321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stanislavski and The Theatre of The Absurd","authors":"Julian Jones","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1814554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1814554","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper is based on a lecture/workshop I gave at the S-Word Symposium, held at the University of Malta in April 2019. The original lecture comprised of a PowerPoint presentation, outlining some of the most common problems faced by my BA Hons Acting and Actor Musician students at Rose Bruford College at the beginning of their second year of training. During this initial block of work in semester one they find themselves grappling with a variety of texts written by those playwrights, grouped together by Martin Esslin in his seminal study of 1961, as the key representatives of what he famously termed The Theatre of The Absurd. 1 Opening with an introductory summation of my developing practice at RBC, followed by an outline of some of the theory involved – and some contextual framing relating to the philosophical underpinning that runs through Esslin’s interpretation of these plays 2 – I worked with a trio of Theatre Studies students from the University of Malta, in an attempt to demonstrate some of the key ideas I have been exploring in practice over the past few years. My premise is that, while an attempt to apply certain foundational aspects of Stanislavski’s “system” to these Absurdist texts is clearly problematic – particularly any attempt to create a psychologically coherent through-line-of-action, rooted in a detailed backstory or character biography – other Stanislavskian concepts, such as the magic if for example, when utilized discretely, can still prove useful. Key terminology is written in italics.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"54 1","pages":"247 - 264"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82109117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}