The Stanislavski System

Practical tips, techniques, and exercises to help you become a better actor

This essential guide to the Stanislavski method has long been a favorite among acting students and teachers. This updated edition includes a revised section on the subtext of a role, along with detailed explanations of all the methods that actors in training have found indispensable for decades, including:

• Emotional memory
• Physical actions on stage
• Imagination
• Concentration of attention
• Tempo-rhythm
• Building a character

Designed to create better actors, this guide will put individuals in touch with themselves and increase personal sensitivity.The Stanislavski SystemAuthor's Note to the Second Revised Edition

Preface by Sir John Gielgud

Foreword by Joshua Logan

Stanislavski and his System

The Method of Physical Actions

Elements of an Action

The "Magic If"
Given Circumstances
Imagination
Concentration of Attention
Truth and Belief
Communion
Adaptation
Tempop-Rhythm
Emotional Memory

Analysis through Events and Actions

The Super-Objective and the Through Line of Actions

The Actor's Physical Apparatus

Work on the Role: Building a Character

The Subtext of Behavior

The Director

Eugene Vakhtangov: The Disciple

Bibliography
Index

Sonia Moore was a theater director and an expert on Konstantin Stanislavski and his acting method. Founder and director of the American Center for Stanislavski Theater Art and the Sonia Moore Studio of the Theater, she also wrote extensively on the Stanislavski method, including The Stanislavski System and Training an Actor: The Stanislavski System in Class. Moore died in 1995.

John Gielgud (1904–2000) was a legendary English actor and director, who was recognized as one of the “great trinity of theatrical knights” with Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier that dominated the West End and Broadway in the twentieth century. He also appeared in more than 60 movies and won an Academy Award for Supporting Actor for Arthur. His writing credits include An Actor and His Time and Distinguished Company.

Joshua Logan (1908–1988) was an award-winning American director and writer. He directed the Broadway productions of Annie Get Your Gun, South Pacific, and Mister Roberts. He shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for cowriting South Pacific in 1950 with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and the Tony Award for writing Mister Roberts with Thomas Heggen in 1948. He also directed Hollywood movies and was nominated for Academy Awards for Picnic and Sayonara.