Much of the world has found entertainment in going to the theatre to see a play and seeing a world that was once on paper become real before their eyes. The final product that is revealed on the stage is only a bit of the work it truly takes to be involved in any area of theatre. Throughout the years, theatre has changed and developed new material as well as brought forth techniques and teachings that have been found useful to actors, directors, and others. Constantin Stanislavski was the creator of a technique known as “The System” that developed in Russia and later made its way to America. Due to his teachings influencing actors, playwrights, and other teachers, Stanislavski has had an enormous impact on American theatre since the 1920s.

The Stanislavski System is a systematic approach to training actors. Constantin developed this technique in order to fill a gap in theatre he was constantly observing. He continually saw actors that would over exaggerate their movements, voice, and overall did not act believably. Constantin never saw a performance that spoke truthfully towards human behavior and served as a relatable story. Allen and Fallow state, “He felt acutely the absence of any system or method.” This hole he found then created the main goal of the System which was to portray believable, natural people on stage (Bradford). “The Stanislavski ‘system’ emerged from his own practice and struggles as an actor and a director” (Allen and Fallow). His teachings created an entirely different outlook on what it meant to “act.” Stanislavski created the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. Here, he taught his developed techniques as well as found new obstacles to overcome and provide solutions to. It was in 1922 that Stanislavski took his Moscow Art Theatre on tour, and in 1923 MAT graced America and brought a whole new perspective on acting. “Nowhere outside Russia itself have [Constantin] Stanislavski’s acting theories been more popular than in the United States…,” states Richard Hornby. America had not achieved much in the area of theatre, especially in playwriting, until in 1915 when the “new theatre” movement hit New York. It was mainly due to his realism, that Stanislavski’s company conjured so much fascination with American audiences. At the time, American audiences began backlash against productions of Macbeth due to a contrast between the representation of cultured English actors and the rugged American actors. As stated by Hornby, “Stanislavski, presenting a system of acting based on honest emotion rather than on beautiful speech and movement, unwittingly fed the longstanding American bias.” In late 1923, Richard Boleslavski and Maria Ouspenskaya, two former students of Stanislavski, started the American Laboratory Theatre in New York. This Theatre went on to create actors and more teachers, some of which took their own spin on some of the techniques Stanislavski developed as well as creating their own.

Stanislavski created many tools within his technique to create a believable performance and encouraged actors portraying characters to reacted in the most natural ways. Robert W. Corrigan claims, “Stanislavski teaches actors to live on the stage and not to act on stage.” The ‘magic if’ was a simple tool created for actors to use their imagination and ask themselves, “What would I do if I were in this situation?” This allows the actor to give a true response to the situation at hand in the scene. Re-Education is a way for actors to rethink and take into account how they carry themselves and speak while onstage. Wade Bradford, a playwright and English professor, points out that theatre began in Ancient Greece with masks and choreographed sequences which led to an actor’s over-emphasis. In real life, we do not act as such therefore Stanislavski made it a point to create ways for actors display honest human nature while also projecting the voice. Emotional memory is a tool in which the actor recalls a memory of when they felt true emotion and then they attach that memory to the moment in which the character is experiencing the same emotion. This tool helps to create authentic emotion on stage for actors who have a difficultly relating to the character’s emotional state. “[Stanislavski] wanted his actors to actually feel the emotion” (Bradford). Observation was extremely important to Stanislavski and his teaching methods. This tool was highly encouraged for actors to examine others and identify both physical and personality traits. As noted by Bradford, every person has unique characteristics therefore every character does as well. Observation served as a way to inspire actors to create these unique traits for the characters they portray. Motivation allows the actor to back up the action they exhibit on stage. Often times this is described as the characters justification. This tool adds another layer that helps to create a believable performance. In real life, there is always a reason or an underlying meaning behind the things we do. Creating this for a character takes it one step further into making the character into someone the audience and claim is real.

Due to his desire to create believable performances, he tried to find ways to assist actors in understanding and adopting a character’s mindset. Stanislavski enjoyed asking more questions than answering them in order to figure out everything he could about a character. Actors can gain more knowledge about their characters by analyzing their scripts and asking themselves, who am I, where am I, what do I want, why do I want it, how do I get what I want, and what do I need to overcome. Answering these questions in the mind of the character assists the actor in acquiring a sense of the characters mind and behavior. Learning what a character says about themselves versus what others say about them gives a double perspective on how a character justifies their actions and how their actions can be perceived. People act differently based on their location. If someone is in a place they feel more comfortable in, that can affect what they say, how they say it, and what actions they take. Understanding what a character wants in a scene is something that was heavily emphasized by Stanislavski. This aligns with a character’s motivation and was also described as a character’s objective. This often times is also called a super-objective, in which the character has an overall goal they are trying to accomplish (Skvortsov). As Helen Kantilaftis states, “All actions should be executed with the goal of getting what you want from the other characters in the scene.” The actions you take to try and accomplish your objective should all be motivated by your objective. Having obstacles to face makes for tension within a scene and often times makes the actor fight harder for what they want or are trying to accomplish, and this creates an even more enjoyable performance for the audience watching. The simple questions were the most important to Stanislavski because it created work for the actor to put their time and focus into, and the end product was a greater actor with an astonishing skill set and performance value.

The idea of realism that Stanislavski introduced to the world began a snowball effect that caused existing playwrights to begin writing more meaningful simplistic stories. He also created and inspired new playwrights who studied his teachings at theatres such as MAT and ALT. Not only did Stanislavski inspire playwrights to create new material, he was able to bring fame to already established playwrights such as Chekhov. It was the MAT tour to America that brought in audiences to see Chekhov’s The Sea Gull. The characters in the show were brought to life by Stanislavski’s MAT actors who worked so very hard to indulge in the System and become their characters. Due to the attention of Stanislavski’s new approach to theatre and acting, it was inevitable that Chekhov’s work would be gain some of the lime light as well. Stanislavski’s company went on to produce more of Chekhov’s pieces of work.

Stanislavski’s teachings influence actors and encourages them to take their craft a step further to present authentic, enjoyable performances for audiences. The Stanislavski System was created to benefit the actors’ performances and create a realistic connection to the story being told on stage. Many actors began using Stanislavski’s System because of the response the public had on this new perspective of theatre. Embracing this technique brought forth a new generation of actors who truly embodied their characters. When an actor experiences a role, Stanislavski believed, the fully realized personality of the character so dominates the occasion that the actor’s own personality virtually disappears (Hobgood). In 1927, Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, both renowned actors and teachers, began attending the American Laboratory Theatre that was started by Boleslavski and Ouspenskaya (Gray). It was through their education of the Stanislavski System, that they both went on to use his techniques and develop their own. It was because of his techniques and teachings that we were able to discover actors and teachers such as Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and Uta Hagen.

As a teacher, Stanislavski taught and influenced many minds that later began to create their own methods and/or elaborate on his teachings. Stanislavski had many pupils throughout his time teaching and from these young minds created new theatres. Two of the most prominent pupils that Stanislavski had were Richard Boleslavski and Maria Ouspenskaya. As previously mentioned, “[They] established the American Laboratory Theatre in New York in late 1923, which they hoped would become the American MAT” (Hornby). In 1930, three of Bole[slavski]’s students-Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman, and Cheryl Crawford-formed the Group Theatre in New York as an alternative to the ALT (Hornby). Both of these theatre groups had wonderful runs and through teaching Stanislavski’s work, they produced actors, playwrights, and others who contributed to theatre. Hornby explains, “Boleslavski outlined his teaching methods in his 1933 book, Acting: The First Six Lessons. Although he does not mention Stanislavski, the topics of the six lessons show the Stanislavskian influence: Concentration, Memory of Emotion, Dramatic Action, Characterization, Observation, and Rhythm.”

While Stanislavski’s methods can be noted as influential and ground-breaking for his time, claims have been made that while Stanislavski created amazing actors, he had little regard to the playwright. Stanislavski often misunderstood the art and meaning behind the playwright’s work (Corrigan). However, this claim has been directly attached to the playwright Chekhov and it was the MAT’s performance of his work The Sea Gull that put Stanislavski’s System on the map as well as highly increased the fame of Chekhov. From that production onward, Chekhov had many more pieces of his work performed by MAT with his permission such as The Cherry Orchard. It was Stanislavski who brought Chekhov’s stories and characters into the stage lights and created something for audiences to enjoy.

Due to his teachings influencing actors, playwrights, and other teachers, Stanislavski has had an enormous impact on American theatre since the 1920s. Stanislavski created a new outlook on Theatre and graciously brought it to America where it continues to thrive today. If it were not for his work we very well may be still observing over dramatic actors and stories that would become unbearable to watch.
