Why Is Stanislavski So Important To Acting

Jake Amador Ortiz

Professor Alan Wade

Beginning to Acting

20 March 2016

Research Paper Rough Draft

Constantin Stanislavski was a Russian stage actor and director who developed the performing technique known as method acting. Stanislavski was born Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev in Moscow, Russia in 1863. He was born into a wealthy family that had a love for acting, his grandmother was a French actress and his father constructed a stage on the family’s estate. His love for acting developed from his family passing down their passion, he was a teen when he started acting and directing. At the age of 14 he gave himself the stage name Stanislavski, which was the name of an actor he had met around that time. At this time he met who would become

Stanislavski focuses on how an actor should be within themselves, and only themselves while they were performing. He believed that during a performance nothing mattered except what was going on, on stage. In the novel he says, “In the circle of light on the state in the midst of darkness, you have the sensation of being entirely alone... This is called solitude in public... During a performance, before an audience of thousands, you can always enclose yourself in this circle, like a snail in its shell... You can carry it wherever you go.” The book begins with a fictional actor, Kostya, in his first year of acting ready to learn the system. Throughout the novel he is able to learn the necessary skills to be a successful actor.

While there are many parts to the method there are some that really make a play a large role in one being a good actor. The Method encourages actors to focus on putting their own experiences, imagination, and feelings into the role that they are taking on. Physical actions means that an actor should take on the role of their character the second that they step onto the stage. No matter what kind of practice they were in, they

Similar to Stanislavski’s books, it teaches readers how to become better stage and/or screen actors. After years since Stanislavski has published a book, Moore makes revisions even adding sections to his original teachings. The book goes into detail about the best types of acting, along with the best explanations of the most necessary methods to become a good actor. Wile Stanislavski’s method have been used for decades, Gordon goes in and starts to edit them in a way in which can be more relatable and help students understand the method better. Gordon says, “To the actors, it was startling and they were willing to being challenging the method.” This shows that while Stanislavski’s teachings did make a good actor, they were seen as drastic by more modern actors and they wanted to start exploring ways to still use the methods but at a less drastic level. After all, many actors who have really taken on full acting have done some serious harm on their mind. They have gone to such extremes causing them to become sick, unhealthy, and mentally unstable to the point where they have taken their life. There is no doubt that method acting really gives an actor a feel of how they should act and behave as a character, but in some cases it can be too much on one’s body to the point where it is