Stanislavski's System - Approach To Acting

Approach To Acting

There is a story of an actress who had once been in a play directed by Stanislavski. She came to him years after the performances and informed him that she had taken very copious notes on him and his technical approach during rehearsals. She wanted to know what to do with these notes and he replied, 'Burn them all.' The anecdote, whether true or not, is illustrative of Stanislavski and his approach.

Stanislavski believed throughout his life the dictum that an actor should approach a role as directly as possible and then see if it "lives." If the actor connects with the role and the role is brought to life, then a technique or a system is not necessary. In this sense, the actor does not so much become someone else as he becomes himself. This achievement in acting may only happen once or twice in one's life, so the remainder of one's performances require technique. Each individual actor, however, must decide whether or not an approach or technique to their acting 'works' for them in their performance. In essence, his constant goal in life was to formulate some codified, systematic approach that might impart to any given actor with some grip on his 'instrument', that is, himself.

Stanislavski, a man of institution, his own Moscow Art Theatre and its associated studios, was a great believer in formal (and rigorous) training for the actor. His interest in deeply analyzing the qualities of human behavior were meant to give the actor an awareness of such human behavior and how easily falsehoods, or aspects of behaviour that an audience can detect, are assumed by an untrained or inexperienced actor in performance. Stanislavski once insisted that all actions that a person must enact, such as walking, talking, even sitting on stage, must be broken down and re-learned. For example, his book, translated into English as "Building a Character," gives a description of the correct way of walking on stage. Such rigors of re-learning were probably constant throughout his life.