Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski was a seminal Soviet Russian theatre practitioner. He was widely recognized as an outstanding character actor and the many productions that he directed garnered him a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation.
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An Actor Prepares
An Actor Prepares is the most famous acting training book ever to have been written and the work of Stanislavski has inspired generations of actors and trainers. This translation was the first to introduce Stanislavski’s ‘system’ to the English speaking world and has stood the test of time in acting classes to this day. Stanislavski here deals with the inward preparation an actor must undergo in order to explore a role to the full. He introduces the concepts of the ‘magic if’ units and objectives, of emotion memory, of the super-objective and many more now famous rehearsal aids.
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Building a Character
In this follow up to his most famous book, An Actor Prepares, Stanislavski develop his influential ‘system’ of acting by exploring the imaginative processes at the heart of the actor’s craft. Building a Character deals with the physical realization of character on the stage through such tools as expressions, movement and speech. It is a book in which every theory is inextricably bound up with practice – a perfect handbook to the physical art of acting. The work of Stanislavski has inspired generations of actors and trainers and it remains an essential read for actors and directors at all stages of their careers.
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Creating A Role
This volume completes, with An Actor Prepares and Building a Character, the trilogy in which Stanislavski set down his life’s accomplishment.
Creating a Role describes the elaborate preparation that precedes actual performance. Stanislavski here relates the techniques he describes in his preceding books to analyzing specific plays and their roles.