My Life in Art
Encyclopedia
My Life in Art is the autobiography of the Russian director Constantin Stanislavski. It was first commissioned while Stanislavski was in the United States
on tour with the Moscow Art Theatre
, and was first published in Boston, Massachusetts in English in 1924. It was later revised and published in a Russian-language edition in Moscow
under the title Моя жизнь в искусстве. It is divided into 4 sections entitled: 1-Artistic Childhood, 2-Artistic Youth, 3-Artistic Adolescence and 4-Artistic Adulthood.
, the Italian opera
, the ballet
and his introduction to the Russian theatre. He describes the professional Puppet Show, which he and his siblings put on at home, as well as other events that shaped him early on as an artist. He describes his first experience acting, his experience as a director of the Moscow Musical Society and his brief and unsatisfying experience in the Maly Theatre
drama school, from which he dropped out within three weeks.
and the group of actors Fedotov had put together, which included Stanislavski. Fedotov had directed Stanislavski in a play by Nikolai Gogol
, called "The Players". Stanislavski considered Fedotov the first "truly talented director" he had ever worked with. In the first half of this section Stanislavski describes many of the plays put on by the group, beginning with their debut and ending with the events that led to the foundation of the Moscow Art Theatre on October 14, 1897. He discusses his breakthroughs in the art of acting that he achieved in those ten years, through his experience as an actor and a director. He also tells about his acquaintance and relationship with Lev Tolstoy. One of the events that led to the founding of the Moscow Art Theatre was Stanislavski's acquaintance with the theatre's co-director and co-founder Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
, who at the time was a well-known Russian playwright and director of the drama school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. Among the schools graduates in the class of 1898 were Olga Knipper
and Vsevolod Meyerhold
. At the Moscow Art Theatre Stanislavski was in charge of the directing side of all productions and Nemirovich-Danchenko was in charge of the literary side. At least they agreed that each of them would have the power of veto
in their area of expertise, whenever an agreement could not be made on a particular subject.
The second half of section three describes the first nine years of the Moscow Art Theatre's existence up until their first international tour in 1906, when they traveled to Berlin. Stanislavski spends most of this section describing in dramatic detail his relationship with Anton Chekhov
and the productions of Chekhov's plays, beginning with their first production of "The Seagull
", which had been originally staged in St. Petersburg, and ending with their production of "The Cherry Orchard
" in 1904 and Chekhov's death that same year. He describes what it was like staging these plays with the aid of Chekhov himself, often through correspondence due to his tuberculosis
which forced him to spend the winters in the Crimea
. He discusses his breakthroughs in the art of acting that were found through working on these plays, which laid the foundations for "realism" in the theatre. Stanislavski felt that the reason why other contemporary theatre groups had no success with Chekhov's plays is because they were trying to perform them using the old school of acting, which consisted grand gestures and loud declamations that overpowered the simplicity in Chekhov's works. Stanislavski discovered that Chekhov's plays were most effective when the actors utilized stillness and silence on stage.
", "Building a Character" and "Creating a Role". These books make up volumes 2, 3 and 4 of Stanislavski's Complete Works, which is an 8-volume set, published in Russia in 1954. "My Life in Art" is, of course, the first volume. Stanislavski's "system" was built on a compilation of material he had gathered over the course of two decades of work in the theatre, and was in a great effort to find the answers his many unanswered questions about the nature of acting as an art form. Work on this system, according to Stanislavski, started during the 1906/07 season of the Moscow Art Theatre. He began by experimenting on himself and other actors during rehearsals for plays and ended up using the actual productions for his experiments in using new techniques, such as relaxation and concentration on stage. It was in this period that he developed his principles of the "magic if" (when actors asks themselves the question, "If I, as the character, were in a particular situation, what would I do?) and "a sense of truth" (a sense that actors must develop that allows them sense whether or not their words and actions are believable). But Stanislavski eventually came to the conclusion that the theatre was not the place for such experiments, as it distracted from much of the work that needed to be done. This conclusion led him to open up the first Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre, which still exists today. The section also describes some of the Moscow Art Theatre's productions of various plays, including Ivan Turgenev
's "A Month in the Country
". He also talks about the Russian Revolution of 1917
and its effects on the Theatre. He ends the book with a chapter entitled "Conclusions and the Future", in which he discusses several of his conclusions about the art of acting and his "system", which as he states, consists of two parts: 1-an actor's internal and external work on himself ("An Actor Prepares"), 2- an actor's internal and external work on a role ("Building a Character" and "Creating a Role"). He ends by stating that he will divulge on this in his next book, which he does in the three volumes. Interestingly, having written those three volumes, he continued to reinvent his "system" and reformulate many of his opinions on acting. It seems as though he never found the answers to all of his questions. But he certainly got closer than most people before him and after. He laid the foundation for many of those who came after him, namely teachers like Stella Adler
, Lee Strasberg
, and Sanford Meisner
, who passed on his legacy to the next generation of stage and film actors.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on tour with the Moscow Art Theatre
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
, and was first published in Boston, Massachusetts in English in 1924. It was later revised and published in a Russian-language edition in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
under the title Моя жизнь в искусстве. It is divided into 4 sections entitled: 1-Artistic Childhood, 2-Artistic Youth, 3-Artistic Adolescence and 4-Artistic Adulthood.
Section One - Artistic Childhood
This section, containing 11 chapters, begins with Stanislavski's birth in 1863 and ends in his early twenties. He first describes his family life and upbringing, discussing his early trips to the circusCircus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
, the Italian opera
Italian opera
Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...
, the ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
and his introduction to the Russian theatre. He describes the professional Puppet Show, which he and his siblings put on at home, as well as other events that shaped him early on as an artist. He describes his first experience acting, his experience as a director of the Moscow Musical Society and his brief and unsatisfying experience in the Maly Theatre
Maly Theatre (Moscow)
Maly Theatre is a drama theater in Moscow, Russia. Established in 1806 and operating on its present site on the Theatre Square since 1824, the theatre traces its history to the Moscow University drama company, established in 1756...
drama school, from which he dropped out within three weeks.
Section Two - Artistic Adolescence
In this very brief section, consisting of 3 chapters, Stanislavski describes his fleeting endeavors with an amateur theatrical group called The Alekseyev Circle (Alekseyev was Stanislavski's real last name) put together by him and his siblings in the summer of 1884. Their goal was to put on operettas which were very popular at the time in Moscow. These endeavors lead him on to the beginning of his acting career. In this section he also talks about his obsession with ballet and his ambitions to become an opera singer, which were both short-lived.Section Three - Artistic Youth
This is the largest section of his autobiography and consists of 41 chapters. It begins with the foundation of the Moscow Society of Art and Literature in the winter of 1888, which he founded at the age of 25 along with Russian director Alexander FedotovAlexander Filippovich Fedotov
Alexander Filippovich Fedotov was a Russian actor, theater director, and playwright affiliated with the Maly Theater and one of the founders of Moscow's Society of Art and Literature in 1887....
and the group of actors Fedotov had put together, which included Stanislavski. Fedotov had directed Stanislavski in a play by Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
, called "The Players". Stanislavski considered Fedotov the first "truly talented director" he had ever worked with. In the first half of this section Stanislavski describes many of the plays put on by the group, beginning with their debut and ending with the events that led to the foundation of the Moscow Art Theatre on October 14, 1897. He discusses his breakthroughs in the art of acting that he achieved in those ten years, through his experience as an actor and a director. He also tells about his acquaintance and relationship with Lev Tolstoy. One of the events that led to the founding of the Moscow Art Theatre was Stanislavski's acquaintance with the theatre's co-director and co-founder Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko was a Georgian-born Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue, playwright, producer and theatre organizer, who founded the Moscow Art Theatre with his colleague, Konstantin Stanislavsky, in 1898.-Biography:Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko was born...
, who at the time was a well-known Russian playwright and director of the drama school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. Among the schools graduates in the class of 1898 were Olga Knipper
Olga Knipper
Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova was a Russian stage actress. She was married to Anton Chekhov.Knipper was among the 39 original members of the Moscow Art Theatre when it was formed by Constantin Stanislavski in 1898...
and Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
. At the Moscow Art Theatre Stanislavski was in charge of the directing side of all productions and Nemirovich-Danchenko was in charge of the literary side. At least they agreed that each of them would have the power of veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
in their area of expertise, whenever an agreement could not be made on a particular subject.
The second half of section three describes the first nine years of the Moscow Art Theatre's existence up until their first international tour in 1906, when they traveled to Berlin. Stanislavski spends most of this section describing in dramatic detail his relationship with Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
and the productions of Chekhov's plays, beginning with their first production of "The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
", which had been originally staged in St. Petersburg, and ending with their production of "The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
" in 1904 and Chekhov's death that same year. He describes what it was like staging these plays with the aid of Chekhov himself, often through correspondence due to his tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
which forced him to spend the winters in the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
. He discusses his breakthroughs in the art of acting that were found through working on these plays, which laid the foundations for "realism" in the theatre. Stanislavski felt that the reason why other contemporary theatre groups had no success with Chekhov's plays is because they were trying to perform them using the old school of acting, which consisted grand gestures and loud declamations that overpowered the simplicity in Chekhov's works. Stanislavski discovered that Chekhov's plays were most effective when the actors utilized stillness and silence on stage.
Section Four - Artistic Adulthood
In this section, consisting of 18 chapters, Stanislavski describes the beginnings of his work on formulating a "system" of teaching acting, which eventually led him to write his famous books on acting, which in English are called "An Actor PreparesAn Actor Prepares
An Actor Prepares is a novel that was first published in 1936. It is the first volume of the translations of Konstantin Stanislavski's books on acting, which were published as a trilogy in English, though originally meant to be published as two books in Russia...
", "Building a Character" and "Creating a Role". These books make up volumes 2, 3 and 4 of Stanislavski's Complete Works, which is an 8-volume set, published in Russia in 1954. "My Life in Art" is, of course, the first volume. Stanislavski's "system" was built on a compilation of material he had gathered over the course of two decades of work in the theatre, and was in a great effort to find the answers his many unanswered questions about the nature of acting as an art form. Work on this system, according to Stanislavski, started during the 1906/07 season of the Moscow Art Theatre. He began by experimenting on himself and other actors during rehearsals for plays and ended up using the actual productions for his experiments in using new techniques, such as relaxation and concentration on stage. It was in this period that he developed his principles of the "magic if" (when actors asks themselves the question, "If I, as the character, were in a particular situation, what would I do?) and "a sense of truth" (a sense that actors must develop that allows them sense whether or not their words and actions are believable). But Stanislavski eventually came to the conclusion that the theatre was not the place for such experiments, as it distracted from much of the work that needed to be done. This conclusion led him to open up the first Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre, which still exists today. The section also describes some of the Moscow Art Theatre's productions of various plays, including Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
's "A Month in the Country
A Month in the Country (play)
A Month in the Country is a comedy in five acts by Ivan Turgenev. It was written in France between 1848 and 1850 and was first published in 1855...
". He also talks about the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
and its effects on the Theatre. He ends the book with a chapter entitled "Conclusions and the Future", in which he discusses several of his conclusions about the art of acting and his "system", which as he states, consists of two parts: 1-an actor's internal and external work on himself ("An Actor Prepares"), 2- an actor's internal and external work on a role ("Building a Character" and "Creating a Role"). He ends by stating that he will divulge on this in his next book, which he does in the three volumes. Interestingly, having written those three volumes, he continued to reinvent his "system" and reformulate many of his opinions on acting. It seems as though he never found the answers to all of his questions. But he certainly got closer than most people before him and after. He laid the foundation for many of those who came after him, namely teachers like Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...
, Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
, and Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner , also known as Sandy, was an American actor and acting teacher who developed a form of Method acting that is now known as the Meisner technique....
, who passed on his legacy to the next generation of stage and film actors.
External references
- Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavski, My Life in Art, Routledge (1974), ISBN 0878305505 (hardcover). University Press of the Pacific (2004) ISBN 1410216926 (paperback).