About Stanislavski

Konstantin Stanislavski was born in Moscow in 1863 shortly after the formal emancipation of the serfs in Russia. He was born into a wealthy family and acted from an early age. He co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre in 1897 which went on to premier many of Chekhov’s works. Stanislavski is perhaps best known for his ‘system,’ a set of conventions which actors can use in order to create a character.

Stanislavski’s system focuses on actors’ development of realistic characters, where actors use their ‘Affective Memory’ in order to portray a character realistically. Actors break down the text they are working with and then, in order to tap into their Affective Memory, are instructed to think of a moment in their own lives when they had felt the same emotion as their character at each point in the play and then replay the emotion in character in order to acheive a more authentic performance.

Stanislavski’s system encourages actors to work from the inside outward. Stanislavski proposed that actors study and experience emotions and manifest them to audiences by physical and vocal means, in what has become known as Theatre Language.

Stanislavski took many of the leading roles in Chekhov’s plays when they were originally produced, and indeed the Moscow Art Theatre, which Stanislavski co-founded was the venue for many premieres of Chekhov’s work. Stanislavski’s system is particularly relevant to Chekhov’s plays. Russian theatre at the time leaned largely towards melodrama, and Chekhov’s use of realism in his plays was something of a departure from the norm. This effectively was the beginnign of naturalism ni theatre.

In 1918 Stanislavski established the First Studio, a school for young actors. During his lifetime he wrote several books, including An Actor Prepares, Building A Character, Creating A Role, and his autobiography My Life In Art.

Stanislavski died in 1938, aged 73.