“Almost all the acting we see today, on stage or screen, is either an endorsement of, or reaction against, his principles.”

Theatre Critic Michael Billington

Well that just about covers it. Konstantin Stanislavski, founder of the Moscow Art Theatre and for theatre critic Michael Billington ‘the greatest influence on modern acting,” was a big deal.

He shook the world of acting, and his revolutionary approach flew in the face of what he called “artificial pathos and declamation” and “affectation on the stage.”

Stanislavski’s groundbreaking ideas appeared at a time of general enlightenment in the second half of the nineteenth century, when accepted ideas were being challenged in all fields – psychology, science, anthropology. As thinkers of the day were finding new ways to look at human behaviour why, Stanislavski asked, couldn’t we find a new way to look at acting?

He developed a ‘System’ whereby actors could develop their skills to be able to recreate emotional life in moving and naturalistic performances. He encouraged actors to rely on their own emotional experiences to recreate the motivations driving their characters – to ‘experience the part.’

He was the pioneer of bringing truth into performance, and laid the foundations for what we know, and teach, as method acting.

The System

“The great actor should be full of feeling, and especially he should feel the thing he is portraying. He must feel an emotion not only once or twice… but every time he plays it, no matter whether it is the first or the thousandth time.”

Konstantin Stanislavski

Stanislavski’s ‘system’ was the first road map available to actors to find their way to the subconscious, to conjure affective and sensual memories to channel their characters – one that no actor working today, on stage or screen, can afford leave home without.

“Instead of self-conscious, theatrical acting, Stanislavski’s System was designed to help actors to use the conscious self to access the subconscious, in order to produce genuine emotion.”

The Ultimate Guide to Method Acting

He recognised the power of ‘sense memory’ – how a smell, a taste, a sound can bridge the gap between actor and character and how emotional memory could take an actor’s dramatic imagination to new heights. His ‘System’ was a series of techniques to ensure that the actor’s feelings on stage would always be authentic, no matter how many times they reproduced them. Behavioural psychology and improvisation were at the heart of a blueprint for authentic acting applicable to any situation.

Brian Timoney is one of the world’s leading authorities on method acting and has written The Ultimate Guide to Method Acting . He currently delivers a range of method acting courses at the Brian Timoney Actors’ Studio in London & LA, & is author of “The Ultimate Guide to Method Acting”.