{"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}
{"title":"Phillip B. Zarrilli: a personal memoir","authors":"Bella Merlin","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1790886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1790886","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"141 1","pages":"165 - 166"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77237139","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":"Theories of labour: physically scoring Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children with Stanislavski, viewpoints, and composition","authors":"Matt Saltzberg","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1806617","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1806617","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay discusses my direction of Tony Kushner’s translation of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children and the ways in which I transposed my understanding of Stanislavski’s Method of Physical Action and my practice of Viewpoints to work with actors to make tangible the play’s anti-capitalist philosophy: by having them score their scripts with “payment” and “profit” rather than the typical Stanislavskian terms “tactic” and “objective,” and by using Viewpoints to craft character and scenic gestus, a term Brecht used to define physical actions and stage compositions that conveyed social meaning.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"273 2 1","pages":"237 - 245"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72866652","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":"It is useless to refrain the wave: the need for Brecht and Stanislavski in the hybridity of the epic theatrical forms of the Brazilian scene","authors":"L. Romano","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1806432","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1806432","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article proposes to observe the relationship between the legacy of Constantin Stanislavski and Bertolt Brecht in Brazil, from the 1950s to the present, demarking the influences of both in the transformation of acting practices in the country as established from two moments: first, the construction of an inaugural epic mode of acting in the left-wing experience of the theatre company Teatro de Arena in São Paulo from 1953 to 1972; and second, the ”new” acting of performers in contemporary variations on a public, democratic, and experimental theatre in dialogue with the social and political dilemmas of Brazil, specifically in Cia Livre, Cia Bartolomeu, and Cia São Jorge. This analysis will enable us to discuss how the arrival of Brecht merged with the dissemination of Stanislavski’s newly introduced practices in the country, in a conjunction that led to the invention of a hybridized and particularly Brazilian way of acting. We will also examine how the re-emergence of a political theatre, after the slow reopening of the country in the late 1980s that succeeded the Brazilian Civilian-Military Coup in 1964, brought back the “need for Brecht” as well as the “need for Stanislavski”, both of which were embraced by the young artists of the national theatre without prejudice towards specific acting styles. Thereafter, we can glimpse contributions of what we consider to be the inherent plasticity of Brecht and Stanislavski’s legacies to the mutability of the art of acting.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"167 - 177"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79701102","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 and Michael Chekhov: tracing the two practitioners’ “lures” for emotional activation","authors":"Aphrodite Evangelatou","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1772550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1772550","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Konstantin Stanislavski points out that emotions are like wild animals that can only be lured rather than approached directly; he urges his students not to try to force emotions to arrive, as feelings are independent of the will and cannot be manipulated. Like a whisperer, the actor should lure emotions, gently invite them in, approach them indirectly, instead of “going after” them and scaring them away. During his extensive and revolutionary research on the actor’s craft, the Russian pioneer discovered various such indirect “lures” for emotional activation. This article reviews the tangible points of entry to the unruly feelings as identified by Stanislavski, as well as those explored by his pupil, Michael Chekhov. The two practitioners’ approach to emotion is examined here, with emphasis on two key publications respectively: Stanislavski’s An Actor’s Work and Chekhov’s To the Actor. The article discusses the lures of concentration, imagination, “well-founded, apt and productive” actions, emotion memory, tempo-rhythm, empathy (fellow-feeling), external stimuli such as lighting and props, and the actor’s focus on that which is specific, tangible, and detailed. The review of Stanislavski’s lures is followed by a discussion of Michael Chekhov’s insights on artistically-induced emotion and the pathways he identified for stirring the performer’s inner life, emphasizing the exploration of qualities of movement, objective atmospheres, and the actor’s embodied imagination.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"73 1","pages":"21 - 39"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83964519","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":"Objectives, obstacles and tactics in practice: perspectives on activating the actor","authors":"Julian Jones","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1781751","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1781751","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"28 1","pages":"265 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73827278","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":"Approaches to understanding and using Katie Mitchell’s Events technique in professional and pedagogical contexts","authors":"D. Barnard","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1771667","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1771667","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article discusses Katie Mitchell’s Events technique. I locate the technique within the Stanislavskian tradition and identify the ways in which it differs from the approach of other practitioners, analysing the advantages and disadvantages of Mitchell’s approach. Katie Mitchell’s significance as a pedagogue of directors and actors in addition to her role as one of Britain’s leading theatre directors is established. Different approaches to identifying and naming Events from practitioners such as Mike Alfreds, Tatiana Olear, Bella Merlin, Elen Bowman, Sam Kogan and Stanislavski himself are considered. I argue for an approach that allows different characters to have Events at different times and that involves giving Events subjective names. I then discuss some practical approaches that I have developed in my professional and pedagogical practice to applying Events in the rehearsal room and the university classroom.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"298 1","pages":"209 - 221"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79653426","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":"Teaching Stanislavsky: periodization and the formation of theatre canons","authors":"Stefan Aquilina","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1718862","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1718862","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Using Stanislavsky’s pre-System work as a case-study, this essay documents a recent experiment in “practice-based theatre histories”, where the teaching and research of historical material is treated as an embodied experience, lived through in the practice of the studio or performance. The core of the essay provides some suggestions for practice which draw attention to a number of techniques which Stanislavsky adopted during the years of the Alekseev Circle, the Society of Arts and Literature, and the early phase of the Moscow Art Theatre. While initially used to reinvigorate a history-based Stanislavsky class, the essay shows how these exercises developed into a broader historiographical engagement with periodization and the formation of theatre canons.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"91 1","pages":"193 - 208"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82384660","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’s creative state on the stage. A spiritual approach to the “system” through practice as research","authors":"Gabriela Curpan","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2019.1710057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2019.1710057","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article is a continuation of a previously published one and talks about my own research project, with a focus on various meditation techniques, used as un underlying principle of breath to observe possible spiritual ways of preparing the actor towards what Stanislavski defines as the creative state or as experiencing “the life of the human soul” on the stage. Following the odyssey of the artist from being oneself to becoming the character, my practice as research looks upon how certain spiritual ways (such as meditation) might contribute to their artistic development. It also draws attention on the strange similarities between Christian Orthodox ideas, the Zen Buddhist state of “enlightenment”/“zanmai”, and the Stanislavskian creative state.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"132 30","pages":"71 - 85"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20567790.2019.1710057","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72370429","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}