Konstantin Stanislavsky: The Moscow Art Theater

Konstantin Stanislavsky was a wealthy Russian businessman turned stage actor and director who co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre, and developed the naturalistic performance technique known as the "Stanislavsky method," or method acting. which was spread over the world by his students, such as Michael Chekhov, Aleksei Dikij, Stella Adler, Viktor Tourjansky, and Richard Boleslawski among many others

Figure 1: Stanislavsky (Anon, 2014) (Biography.com, 2014) (IMDb, 2014).

Constantin Stanislavsky was born Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseyev in Moscow, Russia, in January 1863 (Biography.com, 2014). In 1885 he studied acting and directing at the Maly Theatre in Moscow, and took a stage name Stanislavsky—the name of a fellow actor he'd met (IMDb, 2014).

After Stanislavsky's death his original theatrical productions were adapted to black and white films, where Stanislavsky is credited as the original theatrical director. He died of a heart failure on August 7, 1938, in Moscow and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia (Biography.com,

Famous Russian psychologists Pavlov and Sechenov confirmed the correctness of Stanislavsky’s thesis that the whole complex of the inner life of moods, desires, reactions and feelings is expressed through simple physical actions (Moore, 1965). The emotion is a natural byproduct of the action (Acting-world.com, 2014).

Method of Physical Action

Relaxation is the foundation upon which rests the “house of method” (Anon, 2014). Stanislavsky strongly believed that in order to achieve control of all motor and intellectual faculties, the actor needed to relax his muscles (Theatrgroup.com, 2014). Through numerous exercises the actor would identify unwanted tension in the muscles of the body and release that tension through an act of will (Anon, 2014). Hidden tension specifically in the neck and the face where mental tension manifests itself are particular areas that are targeted by such exercises as the Strasberg's Relaxation Exercise (Theatrgroup.com, 2014).

Imagination is required by all the different aspects of the Stanislavsky System (Moore, 1965). The richer the actors imagination the more interesting his choices are in terms of objectives, physical action and creating the given circumstances around the