{"title":"Emotion memory: “A dangerous reputation”","authors":"Eric Hetzler","doi":"10.1080/09603123.2019.1708619","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2019.1708619","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In October of 2018, Backstage published an article by Alex Yates called “The Definitive Guide to the Stanislavski Acting Technique”. This was a very cursory and superficial description of his life and some of his ideas. It was certainly in no way “definitive”. In fact, it perpetuated some common misconceptions about his work. For instance, it says he merely “dabbled in the performing arts as an amateur actor, opera singer, producer, and director”, with no mention of the Moscow Art Theatre and the years he spent there. However, as the author talks of the merging of the System of Stanislavski with the Method of Strasberg, he notes that emotion memory has a “dangerous reputation” and that “Some high-profile actors have merged their personal lives with that of their characters’ lives in psychologically unhealthy ways”. In this paper, I aim to trace the lineage of this notion of the danger inherent in studying Stanislavski and attempt to find actual evidence.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"11 1","pages":"87 - 96"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83623278","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 system: mimesis, truth and verisimilitude","authors":"Vicki Ann Cremona","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2019.1700735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2019.1700735","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Although the title “Building a Character”, may not have been coined by Stanislavski himself, certainly, the idea of construction may be linked to his work. His system may be viewed in terms of a giant artistic edifice that is still alive today. This essay will therefore establish links between Stanislavski’s vision of theatre, as expressed mainly through his writings, and architecture, focusing mainly on the writings of three contemporary architects, the Swiss-French Bernard Tschumi, the Finnish Juhani Pallasmaa and the Maltese Richard England. The choice of these three architects is due to the fact that each of them has questioned prevailing practice and has searched for paths that focus on the here-and-now spatial experience of the body in movement. Stanislavski’s idea of the truth of experiencing can be linked to the importance given in architecture to the “experiencing” of space by its users. The common element of experiencing therefore, will serve as a guide to trace the idea of truth, verisimilitude and mimesis in theatre and in his work.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"61 1","pages":"23 - 32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84029749","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":"Simon John Trussler: 11.06.1942 – 30.12.2019","authors":"N. Jones","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1738045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1738045","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A memorial piece for our late colleague Professor Simon Trussler, editorial advisory board member, Emeritus Professor, Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance (UK).","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"3 - 6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78788100","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":"By means of études: Boris Kulnev in an advanced actor training class in Beijing, 1955-1956","authors":"Hanyang Jiang","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2019.1700731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2019.1700731","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT From January 1955 to April 1956, the Soviet acting teacher Boris Grigorievich Kulnev (1904–1990) conducted an Advanced Actor Training Class at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. This programme was caught up in a larger agenda, which aimed at diffusing the Stanislavsky System of acting throughout the newly established theatres and dramatic schools in the People’s Republic of China. The participants were carefully chosen from all regions of the country and had to take entrance exams for admission. The year-and-half training programme encompassed all classical Stanislavskian exercises from concentration of attention to the method of étude. All in all, the students rehearsed four plays, including an adaptation of the Chinese novel Baofeng zhouyu (The Hurricane). Once the head of the Boris Shchukin Higher Drama School at the Vakhtangov Theatre, Kulnev was steeped in the Vakhtangov school of stage art, a prestigious lineage traceable to Evgeny Vakhtangov, a protégé of Stanislavsky and Leopold Sulerzhitsky who had adopted the étude technique as one of his staple training practices. By analysing the transcripts of the Advanced Class, this article zooms in on the exercises coached by Kulnev at the stage of basic actor-training and the thematic études he used in devising The Hurricane. I argue that by introducing études, Kulnev enabled the actors to adapt to changing conditions onstage, with improvisation erupting into their performance time and again. Unless otherwise noted, all translations in this paper are the author’s own.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"112 1","pages":"33 - 50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79353164","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":"(Re)Animating Stanislavsky: realizing aliveness in the virtual actor","authors":"Jon Weinbren","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1726086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1726086","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper describes my initial attempts to create a believable Virtual Actor: an autonomous computer graphic character depiction that can convincingly portray actions and emotions in-the-moment, in real-time response to given circumstances of a dramatic context. The focus here is on the journey so far; and on some of the discoveries and realizations that have emerged from research and creative processes which have been brought into play. Konstantin Stanislavsky soon emerges in this process as a critical point of reference and inspiration – not only because of his own lifelong quest for means and methods to create ‘life in art’, but also as a compelling subject upon which to base the virtual actor’s likeness. We are thus placed in a dialogue with Stanislavsky’s legacy, and I am able to extend his notion of life in art on the stage to a more generalized ‘beyond life’ concept of aliveness. This is useful as it applies to character portrayal both in theatre and in in mediated forms such as animation, film and autonomously driven real-time computer graphic imagery. Along the way we also encounter historic and contemporary approaches to emotion, animation practice, and Artificial Intelligence in the form of Machine Learning. Graphical Abstract","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"354 1","pages":"123 - 142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82611012","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 versus Evreinov: on stage realism and theatricality","authors":"Inga Romantsova","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1733221","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1733221","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The theatrical Avant-Garde at the beginning of the 20th century in Russian culture produced many practitioners and theories which changed the theatre industry and influenced the development of world theatre for generations. Among them, Stanislavski’s Method of Physical Actions and Active Analysis are widely used, while Evreinov’s unique Monodrama still remains relatively unknown. This paper examines the differences and similarities between Evreinov and Stanislavski and specifically their approach to Scenic (Stage) Realism, the understanding of Theatricality, and instigation of modern theatre and performance practices of the 21st century. Evreinov’s theatrical career was overshadowed by his countryman, Konstantin Stanislavski as a result of social changes in Russia at that time. Evreinov’s hostility towards realism was well known. Evreinov particularly enjoyed criticizing Stanislavski’s detailed direction for Chekhov plays. In New Theatrical Inventions, Evreinov engages in polemics against contemporary theatre practitioners, attacking the naturalism of Stanislavski’s staging. In general, professional theatre for Evreinov was a prison to Theatricality, which in his opinion is the cornerstone of Scenic Art. For Stanislavski, Theatricality was exaggeration when juxtaposed with what should be the realistic truth of the stage. Nikolai Evreinov claimed through his theoretical work that life is full of theatrical conventions; that theatre is a universal symbol of existence, an organic urge to transformation, as basic as hunger or sex. Referring to this urge as Theatricality, or the Instinct of Transformation, Evreinov brought the theatre into life, and insisted that life borrows from theatre.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"119 1","pages":"59 - 69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77465492","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":"“Я есмь“ – Stanislavski and Solovyov","authors":"M. Musilová","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2019.1700733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2019.1700733","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The paper discusses the cultural context of the expression „Я есмь“/”I am being” in Stanislavski system and his book An Actor’s Work: A Student’s Diary – part 1. It explains the relation of this term to the concepts of acting of experiencing (переживание) and supertask (сверхзадача) and Vladimir Solovyov’s philosophy. The connection between Stanislavski’s system, the acting of experiencing and orthodox liturgy can be understood through the perspective of Vladimir Solovyov’s book Lectures on Godmanhood (1878–1881) which might have been known to Stanislavski as Solovyov played a crucial role in Russian culture at the end of the 19th century.","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"84 1","pages":"51 - 57"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74964056","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":"Notes on a part. Stanislavski’s influences as detected on Dimitris Kataleifos’s theatrical notebooks on David Mamet’s plays","authors":"M. Antoniou","doi":"10.1080/20567790.2020.1719615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2020.1719615","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article presents the acting method that the important Greek actor Dimitris Kataleifos uses when approaching a role by presenting and analysing his work process as it is presented in the theatrical notebooks that he keeps. These notebooks concentrate the way that he analyses, synthesizes and approaches each character. They comprise notes on the role’s history, his background, his habits and so on. They follow Stanislavski’s key concepts, such as, “who”, “why”, “what”, “for what reason”, and notions, such as, “fantasy” and “imagination”. The notebooks will be reviewed in relation to the five David Mamet plays in which Kataleifos has appeared, namely, American Buffalo (1992), The Cryptogram (1996), A Life in the Theatre (1999), Glengarry Glen Ross (2001) and Oleanna (2013).","PeriodicalId":40821,"journal":{"name":"Stanislavski Studies","volume":"69 1","pages":"113 - 122"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80368284","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}