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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2022
Beginning with his introspective Finnish vacation in 1906, Stanislavski spent thirty-two years developing his work through speculation and experimentation. He was not a systematic thinker, and his books do not represent the consistent development of a single set of ideas; rather they are notes outlining the evolution of his methods. Stanislavski’s work is held together by its goal: to achieve excellence and truth in theatrical production. Because of the work of the American Lab and Group theatres, Americans are most familiar with Stanislavski’s early and middle periods. An understanding of his late work—his “method of physical actions”—would complete our grasp of his contribution.
1 This book is published in America under the title Creating a Role (1961). Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood translated the book with the editorial assistance of Hermine Isaacs Popper, making some slight rearrangement of sections within the versions which we think Stanislavski would have done.
2 Kristi is the Russian editor of Stanislavski's Complete Works; The Work of the Actor comprises volume IV of the eight-volume set. Kristi organized the notes for the German edition of The Work of the Actor on the Role (Die Arbeit des Schauspielers an der Rolle [Berlin: Henscherverlag, 1955]) from which the quotations in this essay are drawn.
3 An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, and The Work of the Actor on the Role complement each other and represent the nub of Stanislavski's evolving ideas. An Actor Prepares was begun in 1930 and published in 1936 as edited and translated by Hapgood; the more extensive Russian edition appeared in 1938. Building a Character was begun in 1930 and never finished; it was edited from various drafts, translated by Hapgood, and published in 1949.
4 Stanislavski undertook the supervision of a production of Tartuffe in 1936 (finally produced after his death in 1938) to demonstrate his method of physical actions. M. N. Kedrov was selected by Stanislavski to direct and play the title role. His account of the production was published in the Journal of the MAT (in Russian) on December 15, 1939. Kedrov notes:
Stanislavski did not think method of physical actions was a good name for his new idea; but he purposely emphasized the physical because he believed that the physical being is inextricably bound up with the inner being. Stanislavski himself chose the actors and asked me both to direct and play the title role. The problem he set up was to develop and master the method of physical actions. Up to this time no one had ever worked a full production with this method, not even Stanislavski himself. Stanislavski did not mention any production plans and forbade me to say anything about it. He felt that the director must grow along with the actors. He explained that in the past he had been wrong in drawing up production plans before he worked with the actors. He insisted that the actors have independent rehearsals as well as directed ones so that they could accomplish what they set themselves to do without the interference of the director. He said that if we learned to use the method of physical actions half our work on our roles would already be done. You may not produce with perfection, he said, but what you do will be in accord with the logic of physical actionsand fifty percent of your role is no small achievement. (Translated by Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood.)
