Konstantin Stanislavski
Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski (né Alexeiev; Russian: Константи́н Серге́евич Станисла́вский; 17 January [O.S. 5 January] 1863 – 7 August 1938) was a seminal Russian theatre practitioner.[2] He was widely known as an outstanding character actor and the many productions that he directed created a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation.[3] His principal fame and influence, however, rests on his 'system' of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique.[4]
Konstantin Stanislavski | |
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 | |
| Born | Konstantin Sergeievich Alekseiev 17 January [O.S. 5 January] 1863[1] Moscow, Russian Empire |
| Died | 7 August 1938 (aged 75) Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Occupation | Actor Theatre director Theatre theorist |
| Literary movement | Naturalism Symbolism Psychological realism Socialist realism |
| Notable works | Founder of the MAT Stanislavski's 'system' An Actor's Work An Actor's Work on a Role My Life in Art |
| Spouse | Maria Petrovna Perevostchikova (stage name: Maria Lilina) |
Konstantin Stanislavski Media
Diagram of Stanislavski's system, based on his "Plan of Experiencing" (1935), showing the inner (left) and outer (right) aspects of a role uniting in the pursuit of a character's overall "supertask" (top) in the drama.
Glikeriya Fedotova, a student of Shchepkin, encouraged Stanislavski to reject inspiration, embrace training and observation, and to "look your partner straight in the eyes, read his thoughts in his eyes, and reply to him in accordance with the expression of his eyes and face."
Stanislavski as Othello in 1896.
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, co-founder of the MAT, in 1916.
Vsevolod Meyerhold prepares for his role as Konstantin to Stanislavski's Trigorin in the MAT's 1898 production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull.
Anton Chekhov (left), who in 1900 introduced Stanislavski to Maxim Gorky (right).
Design (by Nikolai Ulyanov) for Meyerhold's planned 1905 production of Hauptmann's Schluck and Jau at the Theatre-Studio he founded with Stanislavski, which relocated the play to a stylised abstraction of France under Louis XIV. Around the edge of the stage, ladies-in-waiting embroider an improbably long scarf with huge ivory needles.
Sugar and Mytyl from Stanislavski's production of The Blue Bird (1908).
Stanislavski and Olga Knipper as Rakitin and Natalya in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country (1909).
Notes
- ↑ For dates before the Soviet state's switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in February 1918, this article gives the date in the New Style (Gregorian) date-format first, followed by the same day in the Old Style (Julian) date-format (which appears in square brackets and slightly smaller); this is to facilitate comparison between primary and secondary sources. The difference between the two is 12 days for Julian dates prior to 1 March 1900 [Gregorian 14 March] and 13 days for Julian dates on or after 1 March 1900. Thus, Stanislavski was born on the 17 January according to the Gregorian calendar that is in use today, while his birthday was 5 January according to the Julian calendar that was in use at the time. For more information on the difference between the two systems, see the article Adoption of the Gregorian calendar. Dates after 1 February 1918 are presented as normal.
- ↑ Stanislavski's first name is also transliterated as "Constantin", while his surname is also transliterated as "Stanislavsky" and "Stanislavskii". As discussed below, "Stanislavski" is a stage name.
- ↑ Benedetti (1999b, 254), Carnicke (2000, 12), Leach (2004, 14), and Milling and Ley (2001, 1).
- ↑ Carnicke (2000, 16), Golub (1998a, 1032), and Milling and Ley (2001, 1). Stanislavski began developing a 'grammar' of acting in 1906; his initial choice to call it his System struck him as too dogmatic, so he wrote it as his 'system' (without the capital letter and in inverted commas) to indicate the provisional nature of the results of his investigations—modern scholarship and the standard edition of Stanislavski's works follow that practice; see Benedetti (1999a, 169), Gauss (1999, 3—4), Milling and Ley (2001, 1), and Stanislavski (1938) and (1957).