Welcome To My Homepage
THE LANGUAGE OF MY HEART(This website is only for Theatre,T.V. and The Film world related people)
I creat the site,because from my childhood,i charm in the heavenly world of acting.In the first stage of my life the acting was my passion.But gradually i deeply loved it,and as a result,it becomed my proffession.But the money is not everything to me.I extremely want to express my acting skill infront the door of the whole world.I want to share the golden moment of my acting experience with you and i really wish to become you a nearest and dearest person through my acting causeway.So,for make a original and natural relationship,i built this site.
THE SECRET WAY OF ACTING
Every great actor must feel and certainly does feel what he is portraying.....An ability to feel is what distinguishes the true artist.An actor must feel,he must experience emotion.
Every pose,every gesture will have an inner justification.The crafstman does not on the stage,hemerely open life,human feelings and characters by means of established play-acting techniques.An actor has got to believe.Each emotion has got to be or at least to appear genuine.
Whereas on the acting place it consists of something that is not actually in existence but which could happen.On the acting place everything must be real in the imaginary life of the actor.
After you have learned how to observe life around you and draw on it for your work you will turn to the study of the most necessary,important and living emotional meterial on which your main creativeness in based.
Reason-will-feeling,feeling-will-reason,will-feeling-reason...We have three impelling movers in our psychic life,three masters who play on the instruments of our soul. Creative imagination will help an actor to execute action naturally and spontaneously--this is the key to his emotions. Creativeness is first of all the complete concentration of the entire nature of the actor. The actor's inner experience and the inner world of the play must..... be shown in action.In every physical action there is always some thing psychological,..And,in a phychological action there is always something physical. I know there are lies or illusion,but if the were true,then i would do this and this and i would behave in this manner and this way towards this and this event. Inspiration can't be taught,nor can it be expected to materialize itself just when the actors need it. We are helpless in our conciousness when we attain it.It is that miracle without which there can be no true art,and which is served by the concious technique of the actor which we tried to established.
Born in Moscow in 1863, Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky had a more profound effect on the process of acting than anyone else in the twentieth century. At age 14, Stanislavsky joined a theatrical group organized by his family, and soon became its central figure. Throughout the late 1800s he improved as an actor and began to produce and direct plays. It was his assertion that if the theater was going to be meaningful it needed to move beyond the external representation that acting had primarily been. Over forty years he created an approach that forefronted the psychological and emotional aspects of acting. The Stanislavsky System, or "the method," as it has become known, held that an actor’s main responsibility was to be believed (rather than recognized or understood). To reach this "believable truth", Stanislavsky first employed methods such as "emotional memory." To prepare for a role that involves fear, the actor must remember something frightening, and attempt to act the part in the emotional space of that fear they once felt. Stanislavsky believed that an actor needed to take his or her own personality onto the stage when they began to play a character. This was a clear break from previous modes of acting that held that the actor's job was to become the character and leave their own emotions behind. Later Stanislavsky concerned himself with the creation of physical entries into these emotional states, believing that the repetition of certain acts and exercises could bridge the gap between life on and off the stage.
In his travels throughout the world with the Moscow Arts Theater, Stanislovsky earned international acclaim as an actor, director, and coach. Among his collaborators were the writers Tolstoy and Chekov. While Stanislavsky’s new method of acting supported actors in breaking from the exact lines and actions of the script, it also demanded that they pay closer attention to the important unsaid messages within the writing. This prompted writers such as Chekov to make subtler emotionally alive work.
Today in the United States, Stanislavsky’s theories are the primary source of study for many actors. Among the many great actors and teachers to use his work are Stella Adler, Marlon Brando, Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman, and Gregory Peck. Many of these artists have continued experimentation with Stanislavsky’s ideas. Among the best known of these proponents is the Actor’s Studio, an organization that has been home to some of the most talented and successful actors of our time. [ PBS ]
Stanislavsky
"The real lesson that Stanislavsky taught does not lie in any of the theories and training methods that bear his name. He knew there were no shortcuts to truthfulness. After the actor has assembled all the external facts about a character and used his imagination to feel what it is like to live within those boundaries, there still remains the difficult task of using these insights to better understand the human condition. The rules are irrelevant. The process is all." Stanislavsky on Home Ground, JOHN ELSOM
The origins of Stanislavsky' System are in naturalism, positivism, even marxism, photography, Darwin, electricity... Realism became "natural" -- the subtext idea promiced that we can discover everything within the ordinary. Everybody as predicted by Christ became a hero. The "immortal soul" could be brought out by the camera! The turn of the century Theatrical Revolution was anti-theatrical, as Meyerhold understood it after a decade of being a revolutionary; he revolted against The Method (with a new one, Theatrical Theatre). Stanislavsky's gift was to small, studio, theatre -- which is a sound stage, with the professional spectators only. It took fifty years for Method to find its true domain -- the screen...July 2003. More I work on acting and directing pages, stronger the desire to defend the legacy of Stanislavsky, who doesn't need my or anybody else defence. Did you read "True and False" by Mamet? Read and you can see that even a brilliant man could talk nonsense. So, what is the matter with this "Method Acting"?First, there is no one techniques of acting and before Stanislavsky there was no system at all. Period. If you do not understand Chekhov and took place in drama of the 20th century, unlikely you can see the need for the new approach in acting. From inside, artistic, psychological. For a change Stanislavsky thought of actors as artists, no less than writers or philosophers. Do we understand it today? I don't think so. We still stress the craft -- and actors themselves do not equate acting with writing...
Actors do not respect themselves. Even in the age of cinema, where their art could be recorded and preserved, they do not behave as authors. The movies, fame and fortune, turn them into celebraties -- when do they have time to think about the art of acting. What could you do with it?
Perhaps the whole thing came to us too early. Another century or two and maybe we will be ready. Look how complicated the theory of musical composition -- and look at actors! Actor is the biggest orchestra one can imagine, but how primitive is acting theories!
Look back at the twenty five centuries of theatre -- what do you see? The history of drama! The true history of theatre is ahead of us -- the history of acting! Do you still question that a performer is the heart of theatre?
You do not want to use the System? Don't. Do whatever you want in hope that somehow one day you will get it. They say that thousand monkeys could type a Shakespeare' sonnet if they keep typing for one thousand years. Go ahead.
In my film classes students often ask my opinion about our movie actors -- the question itself tells me how little they know about filmmaking ... and acting. Fourty years from today, get the best movies of your youth and watch them again. You will understand how bad is the acting of our best. Camera is close and camera is merciless -- it records, and fourty years from now it won't possible to watch them without a smile...
How do I know? Even my favorites (Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, see Film & Movies) can stand as directorial discoveries, but acting -- no comments!
I didn't teach Stanislavsky fifteen years ago. I teach Method now because of the fifteen years of experience of teaching acting. They need it -- the system. Why should I invent some new theories and techniques? I simply use what Stanislavsky (and Meyerhold) discovered. There are many things which are still not explored in Stanislavsky (yoga connections, for one); all you need is start here and go further. Please, do.
If I will have time, I want to work on Method, but in Virtual Theatre and The Book of Spectator directions. But this is not a place to talk about it...
He is not a director (read Chekhov's letters). He is a head-actor, master-actor -- the old tradition, when the most experienced and smartest does teach the new ones. There are no directors in cirus. Stanislavsky developed his system the under house arrest at the time when Moscow Art Theatre couldn't do anything besides socialist realism. a lot of Russian artists uder Stalin turned to theory in order to stay alive.
Stanislavsky (Alexeyev) wasn't an artist, but a craftsman. His method is not an invention but a discovery of what was used from the beginning of time. "Psychological realism" makes sense because only feelings are the reality. The only material I, the spectator, can use -- my own feelings, memories, experiences. So, Stanislavsky advises actor to do the same.
My dear actor!
Don't wait for your luck -- learn directing to manage yourself in order to direct others -- the public. That is what I do, when I direct shows -- I direct my feelings and thoughts.When I write plays, I use the same method -- I become a character without forgetting myself. Of course, the character is "me" -- and more. "Identification" is a long word, but the only ground for dramatic experience. It's ME, who must be in the middle of action, I am on stage! Actor uses a role to extend his natural status of being a spectator. He makes an extra step by becoming a new being.
I wish I could have time to translate the best of the century's philosophy into theatrical terms. The existentialists defined it all -- being and becoming, becoming as being an so on. Theatre folks are too busy to read fat books, othewise they would know the philosophy behind the techniques.
Stanislavsky himself didn't read much and had no idea what Heidegger was writing. But all Russians read Nietzsche and a lot in the Russian Thought follows the tradition of the revolt against modernity and humanity.
Stanislavsky directed Chekhov's plays, didn't he? Chekhov is the great nihilist of all times, the one Nietzsche tried to fight. Chekhov is a demonstration of Neitzsche's paradox -- the conflict between Will To Power and the Eternal Return concept.
The Return annihilates TIME and paralizes WILL. It turns each of us in a babble, when we live in one and only world of SELF.
Obviously, Stanislavsky teaches to study this territory -- the self. Being is Becoming, nothing else. Only Becoming is Being. And here is where "will" is coming into action. It's Self-Willing, getting control over your own Self, known in acting theory is a mastery of emotions, body, voice, etc.
Theatre like everything else is about CONTROL and as every power it starts with the power over yourself. Actor is a master of his own moods! He is happy, when he commands himself to be happy. He is angry when he willing so. He is a creator of his feelings!
What a picture! What a spectacle to watch!
"What exercises resemling solfeggi are needed by him? What scales, what arpeggi for development of creative feeling and experience are required by the actor? They must be given numbers... for systematic exercises in the school and at home. All books and works of the theatre are silent on this score. There is no practical textbook." (My Life in Art, 166-67)
The connection with Yoga (late Stanislavsky) I will explore in Biomechanics. Here, in Method directory, a few words must be said about connections with Freud.
3 parts/levels: important for many Stanislavsky's concepts. Emotional Recall and Supression.
Also, application for drama theraphy!
"Preconscious" is the less understood term. Maybe, this is place for IDENTIFICATION (where actor meets his character)....
[ Left -- Moscow Art Theatre? ]
"The revolution thundered in and made its demands on us. There began a period of new explorations, of reappraisal of the old and the search for new ways. At a time when the new for the sake of the new and the negation of everything that had come before held sway in the theatre, we could not reject out of hand all that was fine in the past ... This link with the past and the eagerness to move to an unknown future, the searching quests of the new theatre - all this helped to keep us from succumbing to the dangerous 'charms' of formalism ... We did not succumb; instead we began our quest for new ways, cautiously but doggedly." - Stanislavsky
biblio on russian lit Duke *
"Let the wisdom of the old guide the buoyancy and vitality of the youth; let the buoyancy and vitality of the youth sustain the wisdom of the old." - Stanislavsky
Of course, Bulgakov was making fun of the old man ("Black Snow," I lost the fragments I had on my pages), but he rediculed Meyerhold even more. It's well written and in good spirits (Teatralyny Roman, the original title is better) Besides, Bulgakov has his earned right to parody the "System" -- his play "White Guards" gave a new life to the stagnant in the twenties Moscow Art Theatre. Black Snow -- I do not know if itg's as good as in Russian.
Read other (more known) Bulgakov's books and plays.
Read Anatoly Smelyansky's book on Bulgakov and Moscow Art Theatre...
Using the Moscow Art Theatre as his conduit, Stanislavski developed his own unique system of training wherein actors would research the situation created by the script, break down the text according to their character's motivations and recall their own experiences, thereby causing actions and reactions according to these motivations. The actor would ideally make his motivations for acting identical to those of the character in the script. He could then replay these emotions and experiences in the role of the character in order to achieve a more genuine performance. The 17th Century melodrama Tsar Fyodor was the first production in which these techniques were showcased.
Uncle Vanya (photo): "This structurally and psychologically compact drama takes place on an estate in 19th-century Russia, exploring the complex interrelationships between a retired professor, his second wife, and the daughter and brother-in-law from his first marriage. Interwoven themes of weakness, delusion, and despair–balanced by an underlying message of courage and hope–make this one of the most expressive of Chekhov’s works." Amazon
Chekhov Pages in script.vtheatre.net
December 2, 2001 (NYT) "For Russians, Theater Is a Process of Constant Rediscovery" By LAWRENCE SACHAROW
... Stanislavsky said: "There is no system. There is only nature. My lifelong concern has been how to get ever closer to the so-called system, that is, to get ever closer to the nature of creativity."
[ the full article, recomm. ]
Next: method
"What we need is a new kind of theatre... We need new forms.... I don't want to show life how it is, or the way it should be, but the way it is in dreams." Treplyov/Meyerhold, The Seagull (1898) -- read Chekhov Pages *
"Whatever thread one takes up in the history of twentieth-century drama leads back to Stanislavsky." James Roose-Evans
"Stanislavsky and Meyerhold, the two great Russian theatrical innovators of the twentieth century, had a curious relationship. They first worked together in 1898 at the inception of the Moscow Art Theatre. Stanislavsky was the 37 years old co-founder of the Art Theatre, and Meyerhold at 24 was one of the young actors invited to join the troupe. Meyerhold, amid controversy, left the group in 1902 and formed his own company in the provinces where he attempted new symbolist staging along with the more conventional theatrical techniques he had learned at the MAT." Stanislavsky and Meyerhold: Art and Politics in the Russian Theatre, 1898-1938
"Stanislavsky was the great innovator of the pre-Revolutionary era. His work as a director and acting theorist may be considered the theatrical culmination of the Russia's Golden Age of Art begun in the mid-nineteenth century, combining realism with a progressive social message. He was a descendent of Gogal, Ostrovsky, Shchepkin, and Tolstoy - an artistic heritage manipulated,distorted and made grotesque by the socialist realists in the 1930's. He was able to achieve great artistic heights in an era of alternating lifting and pressing of tzarist oppression at the beginning of the century. His art was an art of subtlety and nuance. He and his artistic theories were able to survive under the Imperial,the Revolutionary and the Soviet systems.
Meyerhold, the great innovator of the 1920's, brought to fruition the goals of the Russian aesthetic movement begun in the 1890's, Russia's Silver Age of Art." http://rutheater.home.att.net/stana.htm
more on Russian Theatre @ rutheater.home.att.net: "There have been only a handful of periods in world cultural history when the theater was the leading form-Athens of the 5th century BC, Elizabethan England, and Russia/the Soviet Union from the 1890s to the 1930s. This web site is dedicated to the Russian theater of Stanislavsky and Meyerhold, Chekhov, Mayakovsky and Bulgakov, Malevich and Tatlin, Stravinsky and Shostakovich." [ Commentary: Andrew Wachtel, Northwestern University + Developer: Michael Denner, Stetson University ]
"It was with a feeling of deep emotion and joy that we entered Stanislavski's house: a tall old man with snow white hair rose from the arm chair to greet us. It was enough for us to converse with Stanislavski just 5- 10 minutes to come away feeling like a new born person, cleansed of all that might be 'bad' in art." - Khmelyov
Although most filmgoers readily form opinions about acting, the subject of performance is one of the least analyzed aspects of film aesthetics. What exactly do actors contribute to film artistry, and how do they do it? Lee Strasberg (1899-1982), a teacher and theorist of acting and a leader of the Actors Studio, suggested that the most effective film performers were those who did not act. “They try not to act but to be themselves, to respond or react,” he said. This may be a debatable proposition in the sense that performers' images and roles are invariably constructed by such factors as studio publicity and genre codes, but it does relate to a central tenet of the Stanislavski Method: actors were not to emote in the traditional manner of stage conventions, but to speak and gesture in a manner one would use in private life. Konstantin Stanislavski, who was, director at the Moscow Art Theater, wrote a number of books on acting, the first of which, An Actor Prepares, was published in English translation in 1936. Before then, however, one of his students, Richard Boleslawsky (1889-1937), opened an acting school in New York and began teaching Stanislavskian principles (Boleslavsky went on to Hollywood and directed a number of films in the 1930s)”
The first significant performance work drawing on Stanislavski's ideas was carried Out by the Group Theater, formed in New York in 1931. The Group's most famous Production was a play expressing the militant radical spirit of the 1930s, “Waiting for Lefty” (1935), by Clifford Odets (1903-1963), who became a Hollywood scriptwriter and occasional director. The Group did not last beyond the 1930s, but its influence continued in Hollywood and through the formation of the Actors Studio.
After World War II, in the context of the Actors Studio, the Stanislavski Method was shorn of its radical Political connotations (the Group Theater became a particular target of anticommunist investigators) and emphasized an individualized, psychological approach to acting- The “Method” required a performer to draw on his or her own self, on experiences, memories, and emotions that could inform a characterization and shape how a character might speak or move. Characters were thus shown to have an interior life; rather than being stereotyped figures representing a single concept (the villain, the heroine), they could become complex human beings with multiple and contradictory feelings and desires. it was the ability to convey the complexity-indeed the confusion of inner feelings that made the Actors Studio-trained Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean such emblematic figures for the Postwar era.
The most celebrated two character exchange in the history of American movies, a historian of Method acting, Steve Wineberg, has called the taxicab scene in “On the Waterfront”, with two Actors Studio alumni, Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy and Rod Steiger as Charley, his older brother. Terry discovers his brother's past betrayal, “I coulda been a contender” and Charley faces his own imminent death.Michael Mills, 1998
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Stanislavsky Exercises for actors
Konstantin Stanislavsky, one of the first directors, emphasized the psychological involvement of an actor in his book An Actor Prepares,. The Russian director was noted for his work with Anton Chekhov’s plays.
Given Circumstances: The actors imagine events and circumstances that occur offstage. E.g.: For Desire Under The Elms: Improvise the scenes of the brothers on their way to California. Improvise the scene where Abbie kills the child.
Translation Improvisation—try to replay specific scenes, but instead of following text, improvise using language that is familiar/comfortable to you.
The Magic “If”—Improvise events that don’t happen in the script. Try to keep the characters consistent with what you know. E.g.: Cabot comes back from courting drunk. Eben and Abbie try to pin the murder of the child on Cabot.
Emotional Memory Exercise: Search your own memory for experiences that caused you to feel emotions that are similar to what the actor is probably experiencing. E.g.: Simeon and Peter think that though they deserve the farm, they’ll never get any of it for themselves. Actor should try to recall a great desire that goes unrequited.
| "I dread success… I prefer a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind." - George Bernard Shaw Lion King Tickets Spamalot Tickets Wicked Tickets Odd Couple Tickets Fall 2004: The Actor at Work DIRECTACT page in thr w/anatoly In Association with Amazon.com Use Monologues and Scenes from 3 Sisters for your class assignments * Method Page method.vtheatre.net [acting3] * "Sister-page" System in Theatre Theory Directory SummaryA few words about System behind the System. "Cerridwen became known as Mnemosyne, goddess of Memory, who in Greek tradition is viewed as the first Muse. Her association with Memory has particular relevance to modern psychological theory. According to the object relations school of psychology, which has gained widespread acceptance today, a child begins to develop a sense of self as he/she gains object constancy, which results from internalizing the image or memory of a mother's nurturance and empathy. Without the necessary experiences of symbiotic oneness with the mother, a child is unable to develop the deepseated "memory" of oneness, which provides an internal stability and sense of wellbeing.In Greek mythology, the nine Muses which evolved from the Muse Mnemosyne were her daughters, the offspring of nine nights of lovemaking with Zeus, who sought ecstasy with her upon Mount Helicon. Some sources claim that three of the daughters, were worshipped as the Muses before the nine became known, and that these three were the original Triple Goddess (Meditation, Memory and Song), goddesses of the new, full and waning moon. Of the nine Muses, Calliope, Clio, Erato, Polymnia and Urania have all been regarded by different historians to be the original three." * Stanislavsky Page ... "Master-Teacher" in Fundamentals = Michail Chekhov? Notes"An actor must work all his life, cultivate his mind, train his talents systematically, develop his character; he may never despair and never relinquish this main purpose - to love his art with all his strength and love it unselfishly." Constantin StanislavskiKonstantin (Constantin) Stanislavski (January 5, 1863 - August 7, 1938) was a Russian theatre and acting innovator. "The Method" requires an actor to draw on his or her own emotions, memories, and experiences to influence their portrayal of a character...  Method: Yoga & Freud Method Acting * Stanislavsky on Stanislavsky Terminology * Stanislavsky System NPR : The Evolution of Acting [ audio/video ] The Stanislavski System: The Professional Training of an Actor; Second Revised Edition (Penguin Handbooks) (Paperback) by Sonia Moore (Author), Joshua Logan (Foreword), John Gielgud (Preface) 0140466606 biblio/books pages : Building a Character by Konstantin Stanislavsky Creating a Role  wwwilde : lib.txt
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Stanislavsky System/Method Acting
Stanislavsky: «A true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. It is exactly the same way that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theater. An actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist».
Even if you never read Stanislavsky, but spent some time doing theatre, you know his famous line like "Actor must die in his character" or "Director must die in his actors" -- this what we call Method (in America) and System (in Russia).See method-in-action -- subscribe to 3 Sisters -- Electronic Discussion Group!
On Method Acting: from my posts on Electronic Three Sisters Discussion List
...One the myths is that Stanislavsky asks actors for so much work for nothing and that's why Biomechanics (Meyerhold) actors called the Method "emotional masturbation" -- but if you did follow my advise and imagined yourself writing your character's words, you should discover that most of it won't be on paper. Remember that subtext is 9/10 and only 1/10 of the iceberg is above the water, but the body of the iceberg must be there for this 1/10 to exist (Papa Hem image). No, it should be seen, the audience should have their guesses (interpretations), but they will get some signs from you (actor's choices/your interpretation). For you, who later will get a big part in film -- you have to have some help in situation, when there is practically no rehearsals and very little interacting with your fellow actors -- and almost no words in the screenplay (next to Playscript) to "express" your character... Any play looks like Shakespeare next to the film script -- with no talking. [One of the reasons why after all I do prefer to write plays, not screen-plays, because I am more in control as an author, while directing film I have all the control.]
I had very limited experience acting for the camera. While a freshman many thought that I look good on the screen, but after two-three projects I knew why I didn't like acting -- you have to be born actor to stand this tyranny of manipulation by so many. That was the time when I finally accepted Stanislavsky whom I didn't like so much for being writer-idiot and anti-writer -- I got the sense of Method by being in actor's shoes. What do you do for hours while they running around fixing light, camera, makeup on you -- just for a few seconds shot?
Well, to guard myself from this constant destruction I would go inside (stay in character) and would do all this inner monologue as if I am not there and only register it as if in a dream when they call -- Roll the camera! Action! -- and even after the "Cut!" I wouldn't step out, because I know that they will go another take no matter what.
At first they didn't like that I wouldn't interact with the crew or even a director, but I got myself a policy: if you want to talk to me about the character or scene, talk before we go for the shoot. Now it's too late -- don't talk to me when I am jumping! We can go back and do more training, but not now!There is another myth -- about the ensemble acting. Do you know why I do need to know so much about other characters/actors? Because I do not have time for them on stage during the performance. There is nothing matters but me! The role is a MONOLOGUE. I don't understand actors who take blocking while they are not comfortable: I rather get it right -- and FORGET about it, because I have no time to think about it in the show.
I worked with professional actors but only in Russia I worked with a few big stage stars. I learned that there is moment when they about to stop hearing you at all. I understood that a director must leave them alone to WORK and there is time and space where they must be on their own and not disturbed. And only when they are done with THEIR flight, they will seek me -- because they didn't see what they did, I saw! It is a sleepwalking -- they do not know what they are doing and they shouldn't! When I paint I do not know why I put this color here -- I will think about it later, not now, I have to go with the flow in me and to make all the mistakes, because I wasn't trained and prepare -- I see it , but not when I do paint.
This self-concentration Stanislavky turned into the core of his system. Take it to its natural limit and you will discover a shaman, who is in trans; his trip outside of this world.
Only after that experience I began to appreciate Brechtian style of acting at the Taganka Theatre where the actors knew how to come in and out in one second. How could they throw the switch so fast? They all were trained in traditional schools (Stanislavsky) and many became film stars, but the material they play was different. One of them said to me -- I won't able to do it with Chekhov. (Only once they did one Chekhov's play -- The Three Sisters -- under the great director Anatoly Effros, we have his book in the library "Rehearsals, My Love" but in Russian and I don't know if the English translation exists -- they never stage Chekhov again, the show didn't work).This is the only thing I took from Stanislavsky -- how to work with actors, or how to help them to work with themselves. Nothing more. The rest is Meyerhold.
PS
Yes, there is system in this madness.
Homework
"Who are the nine Muses? Calliope, "she of the beautiful voice," is considered to be head of the Muses, associated with the full moon. She is known for heroic poetry and literature, as well as eloquence in writing and speech. Erato, "awakener of desire," plays the lyre, and is the Muse of romantic and erotic poetry and of mime - nonverbal communication. Clio, "the giver of fame," rules history, and can be considered today to be the source of inspiration for public and professional success.Euterpe, "giver of joy," plays the flute, and is the Muse of lyric poetry and music. Terpsichore, "she who enjoys dancing,"inspires all dance and creative movement. Polyhymnia, "she of the many hymns," is known for sacred songs, sacred poetry and storytelling. Of all the Muses, she is most attuned to women's quest for transcendent experience.
Urania, "the heavenly" is the Muse of astronomy, which in ancient times encompassed astrology, and the various arts, sciences and religious practices related to metaphysics, divination and psychology. Melpomene, "the singer", acknowledges and respects the dark side of life, which she honors through her rulership of elegies and tragedies; she knows the opening of the heart we experience when we willingly penetrate the depths of sadness. Finally, Thalia, "the festive," originally bucolic in nature, rules comedy, and awakens the spirit of playfulness, humor and celebration...
... Yet according to Robert Graves, "Apollo, though the God of Poetry and the leader of the Muses, did not, however, claim to inspire poems: the inspiration was still held to come to the poet from the Muse or Muses." (3) Greek mythology still attests to the awe-inspiring power the Muses had upon the gods, as well as humankind. When they sang, everything stood still, transfixed by their melodious voices. At such times, their winged horse Pegasus struck the mountain with his hooves, fountains sprang forth, and Mt. Helicon rose even higher toward heaven.
"They are all of one mind, their hearts are set upon song, and their spirit is free from care," Hesiod wrote of the Muses.
The Muses were not virgin goddesses; the presence of Erato, and their association with ecstasy attest to their sensuality. Calliope, loved by Apollo, bore his son Linus, inventor of melody and rhythm. When Linus unwisely challenged his father to a singing contest, Apollo killed him. Calliope later married Oeagrus, with whom she bore Orpheus.
Melpomene, who lay with the river god Achelous, gave birth to the Sirens. Because Clio reproached Aphrodite for her passion for Adonis, Aphrodite punished Clio by rousing in her an overpowering desire for King Pierus, who then fathered her son Hyacinthus. Patriarchal Greek mythology mentions the sons of the Muses, but not their daughters.
Although the Muses are most often remembered for inspiring poets and musicians, they are also known for sparking the genius and inventiveness of scientists, and for guiding politicians. They accompanied kings and queens, inspiring them with eloquence and imparting to them the gift of gentleness, which enabled them to settle quarrels and maintain peace..."
- Anatoly, what are you talking about? What is our homework?
You have to discover your muses, friends. You have to bring them to class next time... Yes, yes, I am serious.
You have to know your partners...
[ ... ]
Next: method
And our panel again:Simposia, Discussion, Feedback
Dionysos: There is no "system" in acting!@1999-2003 *Apollo: There is no acting without SYSTEM!
Meyerhold: Are you talking about my system?
Stanislavsky: No, about my system!
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The Moscow Art Theatre''s stepdaughter: Stanislavsky and Olga Gzovskaya.
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Publication: Theatre History Studies
Publication Date: 01-JUN-02
Format: Online - approximately 6041 words
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Ignatieva, Maria
Article Excerpt
Enamored by the actresses' talents, Stanislavsky did not trust them. "They all deceived me," he used to say, and he counted the names of the actresses who had abandoned him.
Vladimir Volkenstein (1)
A forty-four-year-old Stanislavsky met Olga Gzovskaya at the resort in Kislovodsk during his summer vacation, in 1907. (See Fig. 1) At the age of twenty-four, Gzovskaya was a rising star of the Russian theatre. Upon her graduation from the Imperial Drama School in 1905, she had become an actress at the Moscow Maly Theatre, and during the first year of her professional career, was already serenaded by critics and audiences. "A certain glow encircled her, in her manner of carrying herself, in her exquisite taste, in the witty irony with which she enveloped all of her characters." (2)
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
If there are "well-made" plays, Gzovskaya was born a "well-made" actress. She had a perfect stage appearance, deep voice, clear diction, and graceful movement. Coquettish and feminine, she was all-too-aware of her irresistible charm. Unlike in the Moscow Art Theatre, where directors had always guided actors, the Imperial actors were trained traditionally and so took care of their stage characters. (Thus, acting was "their own business"). Artistic style of the Maly Theatre, where in the eighteen-thirties and forties Mikhail Shchepkin had advocated "natural" acting, looked very conventional at the end of the century, especially if compared to the lifelike acting style of the Moscow Art Theatre. While the Maly Theatre actors performed, the MAT actors played as if they were not acting at all. Olga Gzovskaya mastered her Maly Theatre technique very quickly. Pavel Markov wrote that she was rhythmical and musical, with a sense of balance and striking stage entrances. In the Maly Theatre, she performed in contemporary plays and "brought in a spicy contemporary aesthetic." (3) But Gzovskaya dreamed of finding another dimension in theatre.
By the time he met Gzovskaya, Stanislavsky had become preoccupied by the ideas of renewing the famous Moscow Art Theatre acting style and bringing up a new generation of actors. After Chekhov's death, both directing and acting started to interest Stanislavsky in conjunction with pedagogy. His pedagogical efforts, especially at an early phase of the System development, had met strong resistance from actors-founders of the Moscow Art Theatre. Not quitting his attempts to improve the acting skills of the famous founders, Stanislavsky at the same time placed his emphasis upon training the younger actors and actresses who met the System with great enthusiasm. In January 1913, the First Studio of the Art Theatre was born. However, Stanislavsky filled those "in-between" years (1906-1913) with very important daily pedagogical work, which helped him to test the forthcoming System. Among the students with whom he worked the most intensively, were four actresses: Olga Gzovskaya, Alyssa Koonen, Lidia Koreneva, and Vera Baranovskaya. All four women witnessed the development of the System; all of them tried upon themselves Stanislavsky's new ideas and exercises, some of which he eliminated in the future. The young actresses became his beloved artistic daughters, and Stanislavsky looked forward to renewing the female leads of the Art Theatre. (In 1907, Olga Knipper and Maria Lilina, the best actresses of the Art Theatre, were nearing forty; Maria Andreeva had left the Art Theatre in 1906.) With the exception of Lidia Koreneva, they all deserted Stanislavsky. Lidia Koreneva remained at the Moscow Art Theatre, and her name was almost forgotten after Stanislavsky's death. Many years later, in the sixties, she became "famous" again, portrayed as a fake and hysterical actress, Ludmila Priakhina, in Michael Bulgakov's Theatre Novel.
In 1907, while taking the waters at the Kislovodsk spa, Gzovskaya asked Stanislavsky to teach her real acting, as if she were just a novice. Her trust flattered him, and he began his lessons immediately (free of charge, indeed). This was a rare and perfect opportunity for Stanislavsky to be Pygmalion while she offered herself as his Galathea. Stanislavsky immediately envisioned rescuing Gzovskaya from theatrical routine and the Maly Theatre cliches.
According to him, not only her acting habits, but also her whole personality needed to be reshaped. The first matter to correct was her looks. The Maly Theatre paid her a good salary, which allowed her to indulge in expensive perfume, fancy frocks and hats. The actress remembered Stanislavsky's paternalism:
That summer he scolded me for one of my dresses. It was an ethereal, light blue dress. He said: "Don't wear this, you look like a `cutsie blonde' in it." I was reprimanded for one of my hats, too: "You see, you have not been long on stage yet, but you already want everyone to conclude, simply by observing your hat, that you are an actress! You are my pupil; you have to set an example of taste and modesty." (4)
Modesty, in his view, was one of the fundamental qualities for an actor. In the nineteen-twenties, Stanislavsky reprimanded his other student, Olga Sobolevskaya, for wearing rings on her fingers during a solo-concert. ("Because of your shining rings, I simply could not understand what you were singing about.") (5)
During their Kislovodsk vacation, Stanislavsky gave Gzovskaya private lessons every day during one month. Their sessions were dedicated to speech and voice exercises, movement, and psycho-technique, as it is known today. One task, for example, was to start with laughter, gradually evolving it into tears, and then bringing laughter back. (6) While teaching Gzovskaya, Stanislavsky was investigating the ties between physical and emotional conditions in an actor. Gzovskaya caught on and embodied the master's suggestions in no time. Besides exercises, Stanislavsky worked with her on the role of...
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