Stanislavsky in Focus: An Acting Master for the Twenty-First Century

by Sharon Marie Carnicke

Stanislavsky in Focus brilliantly examines the history and actual premises of Stanislavsky's 'System', separating myth from fact with forensic skill.

The first edition of this now classic study showed conclusively how the 'System' was gradually transformed into the Method, popularised in the 1950s by Lee Strasberg and the Actor's Studio. It looked at the gap between the original Russian texts and what most English-speaking practitioners still imagine to be Stanislavsky's ideas.

This thoroughly revised new edition also delves even deeper into:

the mythical depiction of Stanislavsky as a tyrannical director and teacher
yoga, the mind-body-spirit continuum and its role in the ‘System’
how Stanislavsky used subtexts to hide many of his ideas from Soviet censors.

The text has been updated to address all of the relevant scholarship, particularly in Russia, since the first edition was published. It also features an expanded glossary on the System's terminology and its historical exercises, as well as more on the political context of Stanislavsky's work, its links with cognitive science, and the System's relation to contemporary developments in actor-training. It will be a vital part of every practitioner's and historian's library.

Genres: Theatre

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant analysis of some of Stanislavski's key concepts. The author also explains how these concepts have become distorted in the United States by inadequate translations and by teachers imposing their own neo-Freudian agendas, and in the Soviet union by Stalinist censorship. Some of the ideas were discussed in less detail than I would have liked, but the book provides an excellent foundation for further exploration.

[Stephan P Zacharias]

Comes sometime this week...looking forward to this totally new approach to Stanislavsky then I have ever been taught before. Finally someone who translates his ideas the right way as my new acting coach has been teaching us...amazing new fact that I haven't known in all the years I have been learning this technique (going back to 1994) apparently Stanislavsky thought sense-memory was BS too!! How cool is that??

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply outstanding, not only laying out a clear image of how Stanislavsky saw his System and clarifying its differences from modern interpretations, but tracing the history of the System and its transmission. Carnicke's writing style is engaging and keeps the material compelling at all times.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent third-person account of Stanislavsky. It gets right to the heart of what he was trying to teach without wasting any time.