61 pages • 2 hours read
Constantin StanislavskiAn Actor Prepares
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1936A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Work and Process
Perhaps the most oft-repeated through line in the text is Stanislavski’s emphasis on the work and process of learning to act. Although there are serendipitous moments of inspiration that come on suddenly, the vast majority of the method requires the actor to train through practice and discipline. The purpose of the system is to teach the actor how to reliably and consistently perform, regardless of that which he cannot control. At the beginning of the text, Kostya demonstrates the unreliability of his art. He finds what he feels are moments of brilliance while practicing in his room but cannot recreate them when he performs for an audience. By thoroughly working through the acting system, however, he learns how to repeat a performance so that it’s fresh each time. Tortsov also teaches students how to mine those moments of inspiration in order to recreate them. The system requires dedication and perseverance over talent, which seems to be an elusive and unreliable quality.
Not only does the process require repetition and rehearsal, but it is a progressive method in which certain aspects do not become clear until later stages of learning. For instance, when Kostya discovers that his imagination is working to fill in his given circumstances in the money-burning scene, Tortsov reminds him that this is because he began sowing the seeds of imagination a month earlier. Tortsov frequently teaches them concepts or has them complete exercises that he tells them that they won’t understand or perform correctly just yet. The concept of the process contradicts the commonly-held belief that acting is easy, or simply a matter of beauty and talent. Near the end of the lessons, Kostya expresses his disappointment that although he has learned valuable lessons about acting, he isn’t feeling inspired by the classes. Tortsov points out that the process is not about anything as sudden or flashy or unpredictable as inspiration, but about doing the work. Eventually, inspiration might come, but the actor must continue to focus on the process.
Truth in Art
Tortsov distinguishes between truth in art and truth in life. In life, much of truth is external, based on the circumstances of science and the world. In art, truth is about what can be believed within the given and imagined circumstances of the play. Theatrical truth depends on internal logic that may or may not be consistent with the real world but must be consistent within the world of the play. The ultimate goal of the method is to act truthfully, which should result in the audience believing the performance. Most of the acting that Tortsov speaks against involves untruthful performances, in which the actor has motives outside of his or her objective, such as pleasing and entertaining the audience or inflating a sense of self-importance. Tortsov suggests that the technical elements, such as the set, lighting, costumes, and sound effects serve primarily to contribute to the actor’s sense of truth, rather than the audience’s amazement. Tortsov tells the students that their responses and emotions must be real and organic, as many actors fall into the trap of simply imitating what they think these responses and emotions look like.
Ironically, the truth that Tortsov teaches them is borne out of fabrication. Most of the given and imagined circumstances arise from fiction, as the actor must make up the details of the story and the world around him. In fact, when Tortsov’s tragic actor friend tells the class stories from his career, Tortsov muses that he embellishes quite a bit, because an actor learns to do a lot of lying. However, much of the actors lies are adapted from his or her experience, either through personally-lived moments or from those that he or she witnessed. At the root of those lies is the actor’s real, personal truth. When the actor experiences emotions, he or she learns to explore those emotions in order to adapt and reproduce them again in different circumstances. By creating truth onstage, actors must create entire worlds in which their truth becomes real.
The Socratic Method
Tortsov, as a stand-in for Stanislavski himself, uses the Socratic method in class to teach his acting system. The text utilizes multiple types of students. Kostya, the narrator and also a stand-in for Stanislavski, is the receptive student who believes in the lessons and embodies them in order to improve. Grisha is an argumentative student who constantly doubts Tortsov and forces him to explain and address these doubts. Since the class is formatted as a fictional journal, Stanislavski is able to create students who produce the right questions in the moments that those questions need to be asked. The students also learn through trial and error, as they respond to Tortsov’s questions and put his lessons into practice. Rather than simply offering readers an instruction manual, Stanislavski simulates a master class so that students outside of the text can learn and practice along, while having some of the most pressing questions and challenges answered for them.
The Socratic method mimics Stanislavski’s method in that actors must continually be in dialogue with their own minds, asking questions and feeling their own responses. The relay between created circumstances and the mind and body’s stimulus response is, in a sense, dialectic in nature. Similarly, Stanislavski’s model for communion between actors functions in a dialectic manner, even when that dialogue is silent or carried out through “rays” and nonverbal communication. In order to work through the process, the actor must practice feeding his or her subconscious and observing the response so as to recreate that response when desired. The actor also carries out a dialectic with the audience, even as he or she strives to focus only on what occurs onstage. The audience’s responses affect the actor’s performance, which in turn further affects the audience and how they continue to respond. This give-and-take is at the heart of the process.
