Drama brecht stanislavski biography

His family loved the theatre and he was able to indulge in amateur theatricals as a boy. But when he took a stage name it was to conceal his theatrical work from his family. As a serious theatrical practitioner, he made careful notes and evaluated his work, a habit he followed from the first steps in his career. While the previous style of theatre had commonly performed farces, Stanislavski looked towards classical theatre and also encouraged new writings.

The function of theatre was now considered to be to civilise, educate and instruct morals. The actors now worked for the audience in a different way. They were educators, heightening the audience's perception of events around them, but also uplifting their spirits. Stanislavski and Brecht.

Drama brecht stanislavski biography: The theatre since World War

AS and A Level Drama. Confirm Password. I agree to the terms of service and privacy policy. This is a preview of the whole essay. Because of that, it is long in scope and immense in breadth. What Stanislavski did was take all of the best bits of acting advice and methodology from practitioners and teachers alike that he could, mixed it with his own work as a director, actor and teacher, and distilled it into what he believed and what many others do too to be the core fundamentals of acting.

But even after years of rigorous training, there are still things to be learned, honed and discovered. Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski was born into a wealthy family in Moscow. Even before his professional debut, Stanislavski still managed to establish himself as a celebrated character actor; however, he best distinguished himself from his peers as a keen and constant student of his craft.

He would study with the foremost acting teachers of the time to develop his own understanding of acting, and even keep notebooks filled with criticism and recollections of his performances. These would later inform much of his teaching and writings on the subject of acting. After years of amateur and professional distinction in his career, Stanislavski cemented his place in theatre history by co-founding the Moscow At Theatre MAT in with director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.

Drama brecht stanislavski biography: Brecht wanted his theatre

They helped establish emerging Russian actors and writers, including the plays of Anton Chekhov. However, this led the MAT to tour America a number of times, where it was seen by such practitioners as Lee Strasberg who were inspired to bring naturalism to American acting and trained a generation of stage and screen juggernauts. In addition to his work as a theatre director and leader of the Moscow Art Theatre, Stanislavski constantly worked to refine his teaching methodologies.

The plan was for three volumes: one on the inner characterisation, one on the outer and one on the process of rehearsal, which Stanislavski would write and subsequently publish as they became ready. However, a heavily-abridged English translation called An Actor Prepares only covers the psychological aspects first volume of his methodology.

Even when playing or directing the classics Stanislavski was a fervent Shakespeare fanhe would bring his same process to the role, making a fake king from a distant land and time feel real. It can be difficult for us to grasp just how influential Stanislavski was; this is partially because the system that he developed is de rigeur in theatre, film and television today.

When Stanislavski toured America inhis teachings and philosophies led to the founding of the Group Theatre in New York.

Drama brecht stanislavski biography: Stanislavski was all about

The Group Theatre gave us—among a constellation of stars, directors and playwrights—the three American giants of acting teaching Lee StrasbergStella Adler and Sanford Meisner. And their students literally everybody brought naturalism to Broadway, Hollywood and then the world. When it came to acting training, Stanislavski aspired for actors to be highly-skilled blank canvases.

The whole idea was to be open and free so, when presented with a quality piece of text, the body, mind and spirit were all prepared to run wild but with fine craft. When one goes this way the other goes the same, and so on and so forth. When your mind and body are connected there is a sense of flow to your acting; when your craft is honed enough, you can simply follow your imagination wherever it wants to go.

You need physical discipline to train your body rigorously, you need imaginative discipline to colour your skill with your imaginings, and you need a sense of collective responsibility for you and your fellow castmates so no one ends up with a sword in their eye. Trust us: it happens. This one is pretty self-explanatory: how you behave in and out of the theatre, and your relationships to your other creatives.

His work has inspired generations of theatre-makers and continues to make waves in the theatrical landscape today. But who exactly was he? Why the heck was he so revolutionary? Brecht was born in in Germany. At age sixteen, World War One broke out and Brecht registered for courses at Munich University to avoid being called to service. He studied drama among other things, and wrote his first full-length play, Ball, in At one point, he wound up in Hollywood but was blacklisted as a Communist during the Red Scare.

He returned to Europe, built his own theatre company, and died at age So how did Brecht stand out from his fellow theatre-makers? Throughout his career, he wrote a series of manifestos explaining what he thought theatre should accomplish and how to accomplish it.