STANISLAVSKI RESEARCH

Russian practitioner, Konstantin Stanislavski had impeccable ideas. He believed in naturalistic performances that were as realistic as possible, and invented techniques we actors can use today.

Stanislavski was born in 1863 to a life of considerable comfort as a member of one of the most affluent families in Russia, he died in 1938 at the age of 75. His family loved the theatre and he was able to indulge in amateur theatricals as a boy. But when he took a stage name it was to conceal his theatrical work from his family. However, in 1887 he had his father’s approval and eventually became an established figure. He then co-founded the Moscow Arts theatre in 1898 with help from Vladimir Nemirovich Danchenko. He worked in the theatre through the Russian Revolution in 1917

Stanislavski believed that the actors should really inhabit the role that they are playing. So the actor shouldn’t only know what lines he needs to say and the motivation for those lines, but also every detail of that character’s life offstage as well as onstage. In this way we can establish Stanislavski as a director and practitioner whose productions are naturalistic.


Throughout his time, Stanislavski developed created and developed different techniques such as "the system". This was a technique to help actors merely inhabit their roles, this term refers to the methods used by Stanislavski to foster a good performance in his actors. It focuses mainly on helping an actor recall the emotions needed for a role.