An Actor's Work: A Student's Diary

by Stanislavski,Konstantin

• ISBN13: 9780415422239
• ISBN10: 041542223X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-10
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

a??scrupulously precisea?? a?? Marie-Christine Autant-Mathieu, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris a??a far more authentic Stanislavskya? a valuable new translation, which is fuller and more readable than anything else previously attempteda?? - Laurence Senelick, Tufts University, Boston a??very readablea? a vast improvementa?? a?? Bella Merlin, University of Exeter, UK a??Jean Benedetti has brought his usual extensive scholarship and thorough knowledge of Russian to provide a version that is more complete, much more accurate, and more readable a?? - Richard Hornby, University of California, Riverside Stanislavskia??s a??systema?? has dominated actor-training in the West since his writings were first translated into English in the 1920s and 30s. His systematic attempt to outline a psycho-physical technique for actingsingle-handedly revolutionised standards of acting in the theatre. Until now, readers and students have had to contend with inaccurate, misleading and difficult-to-read English-language versions. Some of the mistranslations have resulted in profound distortions in the way his system has been interpreted and taught. At last, Jean Benedetti has succeeded in translating Stanislavskia??s huge manual into a lively, fascinating and accurate text in English. He has remained faithful to the author's original intentions, putting the two books previously known as An Actor Prepares and Building A Character back together into one volume, and in a colloquial and readable style for today's actors. The result is a major contribution to the theatre, and a service to one of the great innovators of the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Translator's Foreword

Preface

Year One

Amateurism

The stage as art and stock-in-trade

Action

Imagination

Concentration

Muscular release

Bits and tasks

Belief and the sense of truth

Emotion memory

Contact and communication

Adaptation

Psychological drives

Psychological drives in action

The Actor's creative state

The Supertask, through-action

The subconscious and the Actor

Year Two

Transition to physical embodiment

Physical education

Voice and speech

Perspective

Tempo-rhyth

Logic

Physical characteristics

Finishing touches

Charisma

Ethics and discipline

External creative state

General creative state

The system Appendices

Glossary of Key Terms

Afterword

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