Spent the afternoon with Stanislavski

Konstantin Stanislavski

I'm reading Stanislavski Directs, by Nikolai Gorchakov. Gorchakov was a young director who studied with Stanislavsky from 1924 till 1936. He was a stenographer, and kept a detailed diary of what Stanislavski said and did.

I know my way around Moscow in the early 1900's like a dog who was born there. I have read so many of the books, that I know not only this author, but the guy who wrote the foreward, and his book about observing Moscow rehearsals.

I feel like I have just stepped from the golden light and quiet dust of the Moscow Art Theatre of 1924, with Stanislavski's words still warm in my ear, and on my heart.

"The Moscow Art Theatre adheres to the precepts of Shchepkin and demands that an actor create a living human being in all the complexity of his character and behavior. When you enter the Moscow Art Theatre, you dedicate your life to serve these great precepts of Russian genius. Realize them every day and hour in your work in the theatre and outside it.

I know it is very difficult. I promise you my help, but I warn you that I will be very particular and very demanding.

The theatre begins not from the moment you make-up or from the moment of your entrance on stage. The theatre begins from the minute you awaken in the morning. You must ask yourself what you should do this day to earn the right to come to the theatre, to rehearse, to perform, or to take a lesson with a clear conscience.

You are in the theatre when you greet the doorman on the way to your dressing-room, when you ask Fyodor for a pass, and when you put your rubbers in the hall stand. You are in the theatre when you talk about it to your acquaintances, to the clerk in a bookshop, to a friend, to another actor, or to the barber who cuts your hair.

From now on, the theatre is your life, totally dedicated to one goal: the creation of great works of art which ennoble and elevate the soul of a human being, works which develop in man the great ideas of freedom, justice, love for the people, and love of country."

-- Konstantin Sergeivich Stanislavski

And:

"Please explain to all the members of our theatre, beginning with Nemirovich-Danchenko, that I am not just directing the play, but that I am using these meetings with the young actors and directors to educate them and prepare them to take our places in the future life of the theatre when you and I will be no more.

This is why I go to such lengths in discussing the general principles of actors' and directors' work.

At this point it is much more important for me to prepare the new young group who will eventually replace us older people than to put on another play. I want to pass on my knowledge, my achievements, and my power to the youngest group in our theatre."

-- Konstantin Sergeivich Stanislavski

"Stanislavski is our grandfather," I tell the actors -- the apprentice actors at the Odin, the actors at Bellevue Community College. "You must know your grandfather."



Kai Bredholdt, at the Odin Teatret, has a nomadic actor's scantness of possessions. Taped to the glass of his bureau are the only photos in his small dressing room -- four black-and-white photos of Stanislavski.

Stanislavski's way of speaking is comfortingly familiar. My theatre master, Leonid Anisimov, speaks the same way. Even, sometimes, so do I.