Constantin Stanislavski

As the first theorist that was presented to the class, Constantin Stanislavski and his theories appealed to me and seemed quite interesting. He was a Russian actor and theatre director that was born on January 17, 1863 and died on August 7, 1938 at age 75. His teachings have remained at the core of western performance/theatre training. Many other theorists that we have studied such as: Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, and Uta Hagen have developed their own theories through Stanislavki's ideas.

At age 25 he created his own Society of Art and Literature which taught dramatic art, the history of costume, make-up, drama, Russian literature, aesthetics, fencing, and dancing. He later then continued by creating the Moscow Art Theatre which brought this higher quality of theatre to surrounding towns. In order to avoid alarming authorities of its connection with the popular theatre movement, he called it "open" theatre.

Stanislavski wanted the actors to display this sense of artistic/theatrical truth onstage so that they could naturally portray the characters. His theory was to have actors "live the part" which could be applied to all types of theatre: melodrama or opera. This was clearly demonstrated in the exercise with the scenario of the dating game. Each candidate was given a character to embody such as an elf, Hermione from Harry Potter, and a farmer. Then when the dater came in, she was to determine what each candidate was supposed to have represented. And so each specific candidate responded to quesitons or acted as how these characters would be portrayed so that the farmer took on a southern accent and the elf a high-pitched voice.