Stanislavski Background

Constantin Stanislavski was a Russian stage actor and director who developed the naturalistic performance technique known as the "Stanislavsky method," or method acting. Stanislavski’s real name was Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev but he adopted the stage name of Stanislavski in 1884. He adopted the stage name "Stanislavski" in 1884 to keep his performance activities secret from his parents. He was born in 1863 to a life of considerable comfort as a member of one of the most affluent families in Russia, he died in 1938 at the age of 75. Up until the communist revolution  in 1917, Stanislavski often used his inherited wealth to fund his experiments in acting and directing. His family's discouragement meant that he appeared only as an amateur until he was thirty three.

In 1888, Stanislavski founded the Society of Art and Literature, with which he performed and directed productions for almost a decade. Then, in June 1897, he and playwright/director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko decided to open the Moscow Art Theatre, which would be an alternative to standard theatrical aesthetics of the day. This allowed actors to use their personal histories to express authentic emotion and create rich characters. Continually honing his theories throughout his career, he died in Moscow in 1938.

The company opened in October 1898 with 'Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich' by Aleksey K. Tolstoy. The theatre's subsequent production of The Seagull was a landmark achievement and reignited the career of its writer Anton Chekhov, who went on to craft plays specifically for the company.

The Moscow Art Theatre developed a primary domestic and international reputation with works like The Petty Bourgeois, An Enemy of the People and The Blue Bird. Stanislavski co-directed productions with Nemirovich-Danchenko and had outstanding roles in several works, including The Cherry Orchard and The Lower Depths.

In 1910, Stanislavski took a sabbatical and travelled to Italy, where he studied the performances of Eleanora Duse and Tommaso Salvini. Their particular style of performance, which felt free and naturalistic in comparison to Stanislavski's perception of his own efforts, would greatly inspire his theories on acting. In 1912, Stanislavski created First Studio, which served as a training ground for young thespians. A decade later, he directed Eugene Onegin, an opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

During the Moscow Art Theatre's early years, Stanislavski worked on providing a guiding structure for actors to consistently achieve deep, meaningful and disciplined performances. He believed that actors needed to inhabit authentic emotion while on stage and, to do so, they could draw upon feelings they'd experienced in their own lives. Stanislavski also developed exercises that encouraged actors to explore character motivations, giving performances depth and an unassuming realism while still paying attention to the parameters of the production. This technique would come to be known as the "Stanislavski method" or "the Method."

After the 1917 Russian Revolution, Stanislavski faced some criticism for not producing communist works, yet he was able to maintain his company's unique perspective and not contend with an imposed artistic vision. During a performance to commemorate the Moscow Art Theatre's 30th anniversary, Stanislavski suffered a heart attack.
Stanislavski spent his later years focusing on his writing, directing and teaching.

The method that was created and used by Constantin Stanislavski from 1911 to 1916 was based on the concept of emotional memory for which an actor focuses internally to portray a character's emotions onstage. The actor shouldn’t only know what lines he needs to say and the motivation for those lines, but also every detail of that character’s life offstage as well as onstage. In this way we can establish Stanislavski as a director and practitioner whose productions are naturalistic.

In my own work on Greek theatre, I used emotional memory from The Method with my character Ismene and her sister Antigone. I used my own experience of my relationship with my sister to embody our connection and I used my memory of when we have had a disagreement in the past to feel the emotional truthfully in the scene. This made the piece more realistic and natural. Moreover, I discovered my objective of the scene at the beginning of rehearsals (which was to stop Antigone from burying our brother), which then helped me figure out what I was trying to achieve out of the situation.  I also used the 'Magic If', in which I asked myself ''What would I do if I was in this situation?" and this put myself into the character’s shoes to then stimulate the motivation to enable to myself to play the role.

Improvisation is a crucial part of the rehearsal process and Stanislavski wanted the actor to reach far into themselves in creating the role. My partner and I used improvisation before our performance to explore our relationship ten years before our disagreement. We imagined our lives when we were happy with our brother and bonded as sisters naturally would do, which helped us to understand our background and what bought us together in the present time.