Konstantin Stanislavski

Konstantin Stanislavski is a wealthy Russian theatrical director who was born in 1863 and died in 1938. He started working in the theatre from when he was a young teenager. He was a method actor and developed his acting skills as time went by performing with different acting groups not only in Russia but in the United states as well. He believed that actors had to really get into their roles by drawing own their own experiences to make it  seem more believable to watch. 

His family was descended from serfs ( which are slaves) they had prospered during the Industrial Revolution as producers and sellers of gold and silver thread.His father, Sergei Alekseev, was a rich Russian merchant and his mother, Elisaveta Vasilevna  was in fact a French-Russian and his grandmother was a  actress in Paris amazing right? Young Stanislavski grew up in a bilingual environment. He was very  fond of  Konstantin and how he grew up in luxury.  Konstantin  and his nine siblings were often taken to theatrical performances and concerts, and the family numbered famous Russian actors and dancers among their friends. Stanislavski supported the Russian Revolution of 1917, which put the  government of Vladimir Lenin in power in the new Soviet Union. Lenin in turn respected Stanislavski installing him in a small house next to the Moscow Art Theatre. 




Konstantin had a few known quotes but the one that caught my eye the most is '' There a no small parts only actors'' and if you think about it its true! A part can only be small if you yourself do not know how to develop it to make it big.

In 1898 Stanislavski along with his partner,  founded the Moscow Art Theatre, that  made an  influence on theatrical art all over the world. They opened with staging of "Tsar Feodor" a play by Aleksei Tolstoy, then staged "The Seagull" written by Anton Chekhov specially for the Moscow Art Theatre.He did not go to university but he worked in his family's business, in the early stages of his life Konstantin became a well known amatuer actor and with his families resources he decided to invite some of the most creative people in the area to establish a society of professional actors and artists.

Stanislavsky system requires that an actor should utilize, among other things such as  his emotional memory. The actor’s entrance onto the stage is considered to be not a beginning of the action or of his life as the character but a continuation of the set. The actor has trained his concentration and his senses so that he may respond freely to the total stage environment which is called method acting. Through  observation of people in many different situations, he attempts to develop a wide emotional range so that his onstage actions and reactions appear as if they were a part of the real world rather than a make-believe one.