Stanislavski

• Full name - Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski
• Russian actor and theatre director
• Born on 5th January 1863 in Moscow and died on 7th August 1938
• Famous for his uses of naturalism and symbolism in theatre
• Grew up as a part of one of the richest families in Russia
• Is also very famous for his developments of 'Stanislavski's System,' a way of approaching acting
• It is still an extremely common thing used today as objectives are always widely used when acting. This is what his system was based on: the idea that the script could be broken down into objectives for each of the characters in each scene and that in would work in a cyclical way. This meant one objective lead to another and each objective may not be achieved due to obstacles but is still shown through the dialogue.
• The system is similar but also different to method acting as you mainly concentrate on the character's wishes rather than their thoughts or feelings however these can overlap to a certain extent
• The system encouraged actors to 'live the part' of a character by forgetting about every part of themselves and only thinking and doing like that character
• The system therefore, was a highly significant point in the development of the approach to acting
• It is said that Stan Islavski went through plays on a different way as instead of looking for explanations through the language and important speeches, he focused on thoughts, feelings and the environment
• Stanislavski also had his own theatre called 'The Moscow Art Theatre'