Stanislavski's System - The System Versus The Method

The System Versus The Method

Often Stanislavski's system is associated with Method acting. The latter is an outgrowth of the American theatre scene, particularly in New York, in the 1930s and 40s. Method acting appeared when actors and directors like Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, Lee Strasberg, first in the Group Theatre and later in the Actors Studio, applied the Emotional Memory technique from Stanislavski's system. This technique made its way in American theatres because it was taught to Strasberg at the American Laboratory Theatre in the 1920s to the particular psychological needs of the American actor of their time. It has been suggested that Strasberg had access at that time only to An Actor Prepares and that if he had perhaps waited until he had also read Building A Character, which was published much later, then he might not have developed such an extreme 'method'. Other American actors, however, did not follow Strasberg's Method, like Stella Adler who visited and was taught by Stanislavski himself.

The 'system' and the Method are often confused because the Method is similar to and uses Stanislavski's 1911 concept of Emotional Memory in acting. The Method teaches to draw emotions for a character from past experiences and remembrances of the actor. Strasberg renamed Stanislavski's earlier technique to 'Affective Memory' and continued to teach it as a proper acting method long after Stanislavki discredited it as a useful acting method. Possibly the main difference between the Method and the system was that ideas behind the Method did not change as flaws were discovered. To illustrate the difference between the two methods, Stanislavski has the actor ask himself, "What would I do if I were in this circumstance" while Strasberg adopted a modification, "What would motivate me, the actor, to behave in the way the character does?" Strasberg asks the actor to replace the play's circumstances with his/her own, called a "substitution." Stanislavski had, throughout his life, no single focused project. Instead, he thought of his system as a table of contents from which the working actor could constantly draw, depending on what problems might occur from play to play.

Stanislavski's emphasis on life within moments, on psychological realism, and on emotional authenticity, seemed to attract these actors and thinkers. While much work was done with the works of playwrights like Clifford Odets, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams, the Method was eventually applied to older works like those of William Shakespeare. Indeed, controversy remains contesting the appropriateness of a Method approach to pre-Modernist plays, for while the system and Method share many characteristics, they differ immensely.