NAT IONAL QUALIFICAT IONS CURRICULUM SUPPORT
Drama
Twentieth-Century Theatre:
Konstantin Stanislavski
Annotated Bibliography
[ADVANCED HIGHER]
Elizabeth Cooper
Charles Barron

IN T RO D UC T IO N
First published 2000
Electronic version 2001
© Learning and Teaching Scotland 2000
This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part for educational
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HIST O RY
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CONTENTS
Introduction
1
Section 1:
Recommended sources
3
Section 2:
Background sources
9
Section 3:
Playtexts
13
Section 4:
Websites
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HIST O RY
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INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Konstantin Stanislavski (1863–1938)
Born in 1863 into one of the wealthiest families in Russia, Konstantin
Sergeievich Alexeiev would eventually take the stage name of Stanislavski
and become one of the twentieth century’s most famous theatre practitioners.
In order to begin your study of this practitioner it is important to consider the
context.
Theatre in Russia developed at the start of the nineteenth century, heavily
censored and under police control. By the end of the nineteenth century when
Stanislavski became involved in professional theatre, it was in a very
disorganised state. Actors would declaim lines out-front centre-stage, without
reacting to other actors. There was no attempt to provide appropriate designs
for each production. Sets and furniture would be drawn from stock and placed
on stage wherever convenient. Costumes were f requently unrealistic, often
just what the actor himself could provide. Theatre discipline was poor. Actors
felt no need to be punctual, well-organised, or sober. These were all factors
Stanislavski wished to challenge and change, and he devoted his life t o this
work. He was influenced by the Meininger company and their radical
production style.
In 1897 he co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre with Nemirovich -Danchenko,
acting in and directing new plays by Anton Chekhov. There he developed the
practice of extensive pre-production preparation and rehearsal.
For over thirty years he worked on theories to develop a ‘system’ for actors,
aiming to allow them a route in to achieving the truth of feeling and
authenticity for a part. He tried to eliminate over -acting clichés, stereotyped
characterisation and mannerisms. He spent his life searching for a perfect
acting technique and often revised and rejected ideas he had previously
considered correct. Stanislavski gave the actor the means to build upon his
own physical and mental resources in order to create a credible human being
on stage.
Stanislavski’s system was used and adapted by the American actor and
director, Lee Strasberg, to develop the style of acting which became known as
‘Method’ and which is still in evidence today.
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SECTION 1
Bentley, E, The Brecht Commentaries, New York: Grove Press, 1987
Although this book is primarily a resource for the study of Bertolt Brecht,
the chapter on his stagecraft (pages 56–71) provides useful comparisons
between Stanislavski’s work and Brecht’s.
Cole, Toby (ed.), Acting: A Handbook of the Stanislavski Method.
Introduction by Lee Strasberg, New York: Crown Publishers, 1955
This book is similar in approach to Moore’s An Actor’s Training but has
the advantage of containing extracts from Stanislavski himself. It
concentrates on providing information on acting techniques and on that old
Stanislavski favourite – the actor’s responsibility in preparing for a role. It
also contains practical exercises for the actor.
Pages 130–138
This chapter is an account by Stanislavski of his production of Othello.
Act 1 Scene 1 is discussed in great detail. Gives an insight into
Stanislavski’s use of extensive commentaries to help the actor understand
his part and think himself into it. Stanislavski expected the actor to believe
that he ‘became’ the character he was playing so that his reactions would
be instinctive.
Pages 151–166
This is an account of the rehearsals for Gogol’s Dead Souls, directed by
Stanislavski in 1932. A first-hand account by one of the actors in the
Moscow Art Theatre, it describes the rehearsal techniques used, the
questions put to actors and points about interpretation made by
Stanislavski.
Cooper, Simon and Mackey, Sally, Theatre Studies: An Approach for
Advanced Level, Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes, 1995
Pages 218–225
These pages give a detailed chronology and brief biography of
Stanislavski.
Pages 226–239
This chapter covers the theory and practice of stage production, with
particular emphasis on Realism and Naturalism. The easy-to-follow text
has important points highlighted. Activities to develop practical work are
set out clearly.
Pages 230–233
These pages describe three occasions when Stanislavski interrupted
rehearsals in order to evaluate his work. His self-analysis had a significant
effect on his subsequent directing. Generally, though, he met his actors for
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the first rehearsal with his whole production planned in detail. As an actor,
he prepared his part equally thoroughly, making copious note s on his
script about interpretation, motivation, gestures and vocal variation.
(Fortunately, he was usually his own director when he acted. Otherwise,
the collision between the actor and the director, each with firmly set ideas
on the interpretation of the role, would have been spectacular.)
Pages 239–242
This section deals with some of the influences on Stanislavski, including:
Mikhail Shchepkin: acknowledged as one of Russia’s greatest actors, he
was born a serf and his career only really took off af ter sympathetic
theatrical friends purchased his freedom from his master. He believed
passionately in a realistic approach to characterisation, based on careful
observation of how people behave in real life. His autobiography was one
of the sources for our knowledge about Stanislavski’s work.
Nikolai Gogol: writer and dramatist. He argued in favour of supporting a
native Russian drama, rather than relying upon imported classics.
Stanislavski dramatised his novel Dead Souls and directed it at the
Moscow Art Theatre in 1932.
The Meiningen Company: famous for detailed, realistic productions and a
powerful influence not only on Stanislavski but on André Antoine who
was introducing theatrical naturalism in France at the same time.
Anton Chekhov: playwright and founder member of the Moscow Art
Theatre.
Jacques Dalcroze: in L’Oeuvre d’Art Vivant he expounded (at great
length) his theory that all art must be based upon rhythm. Nothing must be
left to the inspiration of the moment but the actor must control the shape
of his body, his movements and his gestures, relating them all exactly to
the lines of the setting so that he and the set become fused into a complete,
rhythmic pattern. He decreed that the stage lighting must be constantly
varied to match the rhythms of the actors’ movements. Taken to extremes,
as they sometimes were in the early decades of the twentieth century, these
ideas could lead to actors being treated as mere puppets, allowed to
contribute nothing to the play’s interpretation. Although attra cted by the
idea of rhythm, Stanislavski rejected Dalcroze’s more extreme views.
Hartnoll, Phyllis (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1972
Pages 123–124
A brief account of the life of Anton Chekhov, and his wor ks. The influence
of the Moscow Art Theatre is emphasised. Without the subtlety and
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sensitivity of the acting style being developed there, the quality of
Chekhov’s plays would not have been recognised.
Pages 523–524
A description of the Meiningen Players, a company which greatly
influenced the Moscow Art Theatre and Stanislavski. Their style included
a new emphasis on design and on using varying stage levels. They insisted
on historically correct costumes. They made the crowd an important part
of the drama, and this in turn demanded a highly disciplined control of
stage movement. Because they toured all over Europe and into Russia their
influence was very widespread. Stanislavski recognised that their success
was due to the leadership of one man, their founder, the Duke of SaxeMeiningen, and this inspired him to set himself up as a firm, even
dictatorial, stage director.
Pages 545–546
Information on the founding and the development of the Moscow Art
Theatre. Its success in overcoming early suspicion and establishing itself
as the leading centre of naturalistic theatre was remarkable. It even
survived the Communist Revolution, unlike most other cultural institutions
associated with the previous regime. A world tour in the 1920s spread the
Stanislavski influence throughout Europe and, crucially, into America.
Pages 769–770
A concise breakdown of Stanislavski’s life, education, training and
influences. It lists important productions and traces some of the changes
which he brought about in both acting and production styles.
Hartnoll, Phyllis, A Concise History of the Theatre, London: Thames and
Hudson, 1968
Chapter 11
‘Ibsen, Chekhov and the Theatre of Ideas’
This is a very readable chapter that puts Stanislavski into context
alongside such names as Ibsen, Strindberg and Shaw. The author probably
leans the wrong way in deciding whether Chekhov was more important to
Stanislavski than vice versa. Contemporary photographs are helpful in
showing the development of staging and costume. To some extent the
unnatural poses of the actors are an indication of the acting style.
The photographs illustrating this chapter are excellent, particularly those
on page 222 (a scene from the Moscow Art Theatre production of The
Lower Depths, by Maxim Gorki, directed by Stanislavski in 1902) and
page 224 (the Moscow Art Theatre Company listening to Chekhov reading
his play The Seagull, which they presented in 1899. The photograph
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includes Stanislavski who was to play Trigorin and Nemirovich Danchenko who had co-founded the Theatre with Stanislavski the previous
year.)
Chapter 12
Pages 244–245
A useful account of the development of the role of the director in
twentieth-century theatre. Stanislavski was primarily an actor and it was
his ideas on creating a character that were most influential on later
generations. However, in order to put his ideas into practice, he had to take
on a kind of executive function as well. This in turn helped to establish the
role of director in European and American theatre.
Moore, Sonia, The Stanislavski System: The Professional Training of An
Actor: Digested from the Teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski,
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984 (second edition)
This book dates from the time when Stanislavski’s methods were
developing a new following, mostly because of the work of acting coaches
in America. The internal, naturalistic realisation of character works well in
cinema and appealed to Hollywood actors who regarded their acting as
more important than their celebrity. (They were lucky. The ‘M ethod’
acquired cult status and soon they had both kudos and fame.)
The book considers Stanislavski’s methods from the point of view of
acting in the 1960s, analysing their underlying philosophy and suggesting
more modern exercises and improvisations for students to try.
Stanislavski, Konstantin, An Actor Prepares, London: Methuen, 1996
This is a seminal work, written in 1926. Its influence on modern theatre
can hardly be exaggerated. The book covers in great detail the various
ways in which an actor can explore a role through an inner imaginative
process. There are practical exercises, based on the work which
Stanislavski did with his fellow actors during the intensive preparation
period. (He would refuse to announce the opening date for a play until he
felt the rehearsal period had achieved the best possible results.)
An Actor Prepares provides the most detailed source of information on the
inner technique. Interestingly, initially Stanislavski had wished to publish
it together with Building a Character which describes the actor’s work on
the body. This is because he regarded his system as a psycho -physical one
in which the mind and body were closely intertwined. However, for
practical reasons, such as the sheer size of the proposed volume, he
reluctantly abandoned this plan and agreed to two separate books. An
Actor Prepares, with its emphasis on the psychological side of acting, was
the first book to be published in translation in America, and had a
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considerable impact on the development of the Act ors Studio in New York
and consequently on ‘Method’ acting. Creating a Role is a compilation of
incomplete manuscripts that deal with the actor’s work on the texts.
The exercises include:
• the ‘magic if’. The actor must ask himself ‘What would I, the c haracter
I am portraying, do if these circumstances were real?’
• asking the ‘given circumstances’: who? what? where? when? and why?
to build up the detail of a social, physical and emotional character
profile
• discovering motivation for the character’s a ctions
• breaking the play into a series of ‘units’ and analysing the objectives of
each unit in detail
• drawing on personal experience, recalling past emotions and memories
of traumatic moments. Stanislavski believed that if the actor sought
parallels between his own experience and that of the character he would
have a better, a more instinctive, understanding of his role
• visualising the ‘fourth wall’ between the stage and the auditorium
• concentrating on the release of physical and vocal tension throu gh
relaxation techniques.
The book also examines theories about the subconscious since,
Stanislavski argues, a character’s motivation and behaviour can only be
fully understood when the workings of his subconscious are taken into
account.
Stanislavski died on the eve of the Russian publication of this book.
Stanislavski, Konstantin, Building a Character, London: Methuen, 1996
Stanislavski died before completing this book which was compiled after
his death from his manuscripts, prompt copies and rehearsal diaries. It
continues on from An Actor Prepares, following the same set of ‘students’
through the process of realising a character particularly by the use of
physical skills – voice and movement.
The exercises include:
• exploring ways of making the body fully expressive
• finding motivation to energise appropriate character movement
• being aware of personal gestures and characteristics which could detract
from character gesture
• developing vocal exercises and techniques for intonation, vocal
expression and speech rhythm.
Stanislavski, Konstantin, My Life in Art, New York: Theatre Arts Books,
1974
This is the most autobiographical of Stanislavski’s own works, published as
early as 1924. It establishes the basis of his theories of drama, laying down
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criteria for judging the effectiveness of techniques used by actors for
preparing a part. Because he is able to draw on experience as both an actor
and a director, Stanislavski can see the processes from within as well as
without.
Toporkov, Vasily Osipovich (trans. Christine Edwards), Stanislavski in
Rehearsal, London: Routledge, 1998
Toporkov was an actor who worked with Stanislavski in the later years of
the latter’s life. He gives a clear view of what it was like to be trained by
Stanislavski, analysing the techniques from the point of view of the
professional actor. He was clearly in awe of the master’s constant search
for better and better ways of helping the actor prepare and of his passion
for constant revision.
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SECTION 2
Banks, Ron and Marson, Pauline, Drama and Theatre Arts, London:
Hodder and Stoughton Educational, 1998
A useful book on directing in general.
Pages 296 – 300
This chapter considers how Stanislavski’s theory and practice influenced
the British and American stage.
Pages 335 – 338.
This section considers particularly the relationship between director and
actors.
Benedetti, Jean, Stanislavski, His Life and Art, London: Methuen, 1999
Over the years there have been a number of biographies of Stanislavski,
ranging from the respectful to the iconoclastic. Benedetti is somewhere in
between, offering the facts of Stanislavski’s life as they are now
established and giving a comprehensive coverage of his work. This new
edition explores the collaboration and often bitter disputes with
Nemirovich-Danchenko, co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre, and traces
further Stanislavski’s often troubled relationship with the company he led.
It gives a new account of the difficulties and tensions that lay behind the
highly influential 1922–24 American tour. Benedetti also gives us fuller
versions of key moments in Stanislavski’s career: his arbitrary arrest in
1919 and his troubled relationship with the Soviet regime over artistic
differences; a greater understanding of how Stanislavski’s seminal books
on acting came to be written, edited and translated into English only to
lead to gross misunderstanding of his work; plus the best understanding
yet of the evolution of Stanislavski’s revolutionary acting ‘system’.
Benedetti, Jean, Stanislavski, An Introduction, London: Methuen, 1985
Benedetti again but concentrating this time on the philosophy behind the
so-called ‘system’ which Stanislavski devised as a method of creating
character and which developed into something more like a life -style.
Naturally, the ‘system’ changed over the years and Benedetti gives a good
account of the maturing process.
Braun, Edward, The Director and the Stage, London: Methuen, 1982
Ranging widely over a number of theatrical practitioners, Braun provides a
careful and workman-like analysis of their strengths and their differences.
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Leacroft, Richard and Helen, Theatre and Playhouse, an Illustrated
Survey of Theatre Building from Ancient Greece to the Present Day ,
London: Methuen, 1984
What an actor or a director can do for an audi ence is always constrained
by the building in which he is operating. Changing fashions in theatre
design dictate changes in acting style. The declamatory style of the
nineteenth-century actor was necessary because theatres were large and
there was no amplification. The small, intimate off-Broadway studio
theatre allows the actor to develop a naturalistic, mumbling delivery.
These authors discuss such changes over the last 3,000 years. An excellent
resource book for historical research.
Mackey, Sally, Practical Theatre. A post-16 approach, Cheltenham:
Stanley Thornes, 1997
Pages 31–32
This book looks at methods of actor training in the twentieth century and
includes a very brief idiot’s guide to Stanislavski’s acting theory. It is
certainly easy to read, since it is bullet pointed. It is also a useable
resource for practical ideas in acting, directing and devising.
Nicoll, Allardyce, The Development of the Theatre, a Study of Theatrical
Art from the Beginners to the Present Day, London: Harrap & Co., 1996
Nicoll was the first of the modern theatrical historians. The broad sweep of
this book makes it ideal for dipping into to check a fact or to trace a
development. A useful resource, well illustrated. Pictures frequently make
a point more quickly than yards of text. Theatre is a visual medium and the
pictures here tell their own story of fashion changes in set and costume
design.
Redgrave, Michael, The Actor’s Ways and Means, London: Nick Hern
Books, 1984
One of Britain’s finest actors looks at Stanislavski fr om the professional’s
point of view. He shows that the Method is entirely practical, based as it is
on Stanislavski’s own experience as a working actor. Moreover, he argues
persuasively that it has not dated but is as useful today as it was almost
100 years ago. The 1995 edition has a new Introduction by Vanessa
Redgrave.
Stanislavski, Konstantin, An Actor’s Handbook, London:Vintage/Ebury,
1990
This is a handy, short paperback that distils much of Stanislavski’s
thoughts about acting. It takes the form of a number of short statements
that could be the basis for discussion and further exploration of
Stanislavski’s ideas. It lacks the depth of his other books.
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Stanislavski, Konstantin (trans. Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood),
Stanislavski on Opera, London: Routledge, 1998
Opera can be regarded as the most complete form of theatre, including as
it does music and often dance as well as drama. Stanislavski regarded the
elements of music and movement as crucially important in his stage work
and was naturally drawn to opera. Although the demands of singing
constrain some of the more physical aspects of performing in the
Stanislavski Method, nonetheless many of his theories apply well to opera.
In this book he writes about several operas from the point of view of
applying his directorial approach to them. Naturally he writes about
Russian operas – Boris Godunov and The Queen of Spades – but not
exclusively. His comments on La Bohème as a piece of drama are
enlightening.
Strasberg, Lee, Strasberg at the Actors Studio, London: Nick Hern Books,
1984
Transcriptions of actual tuition sessions by the originator of Method
Acting. The techniques have clearly undergone considerable development
since Stanislavski’s time but the essence is preserved. The exercises that
Strasberg devises for students at the Actors Studio in New York are hardly
distinguishable from those that Stanislavski was using with the members
of the Moscow Art Theatre.
Also of interest
Benedetti, Jean (trans.), Stanislavski and the Actor, London: Methuen
Drama, 1998
Cole, Toby (ed.), Acting: A Handbook of the Stanislavski Method, 2nd
edition, New York: Bonanza Books, 1955
Gorchakov, Nikolai M, Stanislavsky Directs, trans. Miriam Goldina,
Westport: Greenwood Press, 1954
Jones, David Richard, Great Directors at Work. Stanislavsky, Brecht,
Kazan, Brook, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986
Mitter, Shomit, Systems of Rehearsal: Stanislavski, Brecht, Grotowski and
Brook, London and New York: Routledge, 1992
Stanislavski, C, Stanislavski’s Legacy (2nd edn), (trans. E R Hapgood),
London: Eyre Methuen, 1958
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Stanislavsky, Konstantin, Selected Works, (ed. Oksana Korneva),
Moscow: Raduga Publishers, 1984
Stanislavsky, Konstantin, Stanislavsky on the Art of the Stage (trans.
David Magarshack), London: Faber, 1967
Stanislavsky, Konstantin, Stanislavsky Produces ‘Othello’ (trans. Helen
Nowak), London: Geoffrey Bles, 1948
Wiles, Timothy J, The Theater Event: Modern Theories of Performance ,
Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1980
Articles
Jean Benedetti, ‘A History of Stanislavski in Translation’, New Theatre
Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 23, (1990), 266–278
Jean Benedetti, ‘Brecht, Stanislavski and the Art of Acting’, The Brecht
Yearbook, vol. 20, 1995, 101–111
Margaret Eddershaw, ‘Brecht and Stanislavski’ etc. in Performing
Brecht: Forty years of British performance, London and New York:
Routledge, 1966, pp 18–25
Paul Gray, ‘Stanislavski and America: A Critical Chronology’, Tulane
Drama Review, vol. 9, no. 2 (1964), 28–32
Michael Morley, ‘Brecht and Stanislavski: Polarities or Proximities?’,
The Brecht Yearbook, vol. 22, 1997, 195–204
Meg Mumford, ‘Brecht Studies Stanislavski: Just a Tactical Move?’, New
Theatre Quaterly, vol. 11, no. 43, 1995, 241–258
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SECTION 3
Stanislavski worked on these plays either as an actor or as a director and they
could be used for workshop activities based on Stanislavski’s methods.
Students could find Stanislavski’s own references to the play and try to re create his approach to it. Extracts from the plays could be w ork-shopped to
explore theories of acting and directing styles, or as a basis for
improvisations to unlock aspects of the texts and characterisations.
Chekhov, Anton, The Seagull, translation by S Mulrine, London: Nick
Hern Books, 1994
The Seagull looks at the human predicament and asks what constitutes
happiness, money, health and contentment. Stanislavski directed. It was
his usual practice to prepare in great detail, compiling a heavily annotated
prompt copy that included details of stage designs, descr iptions of setting,
blocking, visualisations, movements, groupings, sound, vocal notes,
rhythm, phrasing and pausing.
Chekhov, Anton, Uncle Vanya, translation by S Mulrine, London: Nick
Hern Books, 1994
Uncle Vanya also looks at the human predicament, thi s time through the
themes of bitterness, frustration and love denied. Stanislavski directed the
play and played the character of Astrov, the doctor.
Chekhov, Anton, Three Sisters, translation by S Mulrine, London: Nick
Hern Books, 1994
Three Sisters explores feelings about the futility of life. Stanislavski
directed and gave one of his most praised performances as Vershinin.
Chekhov, Anton, The Cherry Orchard, translation by S Mulrine, London:
Nick Hern, 1994
The Cherry Orchard takes another look at human existence. What is it but
loss, compromise and ruin? Stanislavski directed, laying particular
emphasis on the psychological motivation of the characters. He took the
role of Gayev.
Gogol, Nikolai, The Government Inspector, introduction by S Mulrine,
London: Nick Hern Books, 1994
The Government Inspector is a satire on Russian provincial life, dealing
with official corruption in a small town. During the direction of this play,
which Stanislavski himself dramatised from Gogol’s novel, he
experimented with new rehearsal techniques, giving the actors greater
responsibility for their work. He also began discussing ‘emotional
memory’: actors recall a moment of deeply felt emotion in their own lives
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and use the memory to recreate the feeling on stage. An act or required to
show grief over the death of a close friend may not have personal
experience of such an event. However, he may be able to recall his grief at
the death of a pet rabbit and use that remembered emotion in his
characterisation.
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W EB S I T ES
SECTION 4
The following websites are helpful. Websites do occasionally change their
names, undergo unexpected transformations and even disappear completely.
These are all well established sites that are likely to remain reliable.
Moscow Art Theatre
www.theatre.ru/mhat/eindex.html
This page is the English-language index, leading to a history of the Moscow
Art Theatre, an extensive collection of historical photographs and information
about Stanislavski and Danchenko. (It is a well organised site with a wealth
of fascinating historical information – even more useful if you happen to read
Russian.)
The Official Strasberg Site
www.cmgww.com/historic/strasberg
This site is run by Strasberg’s estate and is very comprehensive. It is
particularly useful for its coverage of hi s theories of acting and his
philosophy of theatre in a number of articles written by Strasberg and
interviews with him.
The Actors Studio
www.actors-studio.com
Information on Lee Strasberg and on the history of the ‘Method’. Links to
recommended books and to further sites about the Actors Studio.
The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute
www.strasberg.com
A detailed site about Strasberg, his theories, his teaching and the Institute. It
has a list of recommended reading.
The Theatre Group
www.theatrgroup.com
Links to The Actors Studio, Method Acting and theatres worldwide. It has a
useful set of procedures which budding ‘Method’ actors can try for
themselves.
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