Creating A Role

by Constantin Stanislavski

Creating a Role is the culmination of Stanislavski's masterful trilogy on the art of acting. An Actor Prepares focused on the inner training of an actor's imagination. Building a Character detailed how the actor's body and voice could be tuned for the great roles he might fill.
This third volume examines the development of a character from the viewpoint of three widely contrasting plays: Griboyedov's Woe from Wit, Shakespeare's Othello, and Gogol's The Inspector General. Building on the first two books, Stanislavski demonstrates how a fully realized character is born in three stages: "studying it; establishing the life of the role; putting it into physical form."
Tracing the actor's process from the first reading to production, he explores how to approach roles from inside and outside simultaneously. He shows how to recount the story in actor's terms, how to create an inner life that will give substance to the author's words, and how to search into one's own experiences to connect with the character's situation. Finally, he speaks of the physical expression of the character in gestures, sounds, intonation, and speech. Throughout, a picture of a real artist at work emerges, sometimes failing, but always seeking truthful answers.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, Drama, Film, Art, Education, Plays

271 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 2013

About the author

Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski (russian:Константин Сергеевич Станиславский) was a Russian actor and theatre director.

Stanislavski's innovative contribution to modern European and American realistic acting has remained at the core of mainstream western performance training for much of the last century. Building on the directorially-unified aesthetic and ensemble playing of the Meiningen company and the naturalistic staging of Antoine and the independent theatre movement, Stanislavski organized his realistic techniques into a coherent and usable 'system'. Thanks to its promotion and development by acting teachers who were former students and the many translations of his theoretical writings, Stanislavski's system acquired an unprecedented ability to cross cultural boundaries and developed an international reach, dominating debates about acting in the West. That many of the precepts of his 'system' seem to be common sense and self-evident testifies to its hegemonic success. Actors frequently employ his basic concepts without knowing they do so.

Stanislavski treated theatre-making as a serious endeavour, requiring dedication, discipline and integrity, and the work of the actor as an artistic undertaking. Throughout his life, he subjected his own acting to a process of rigorous artistic self-analysis and reflection. His 'system' resulted from a persistent struggle to remove the blocks he encountered. His development of a theorized praxis—in which practice is used as a mode of inquiry and theory as a catalyst for creative development—identifies him as the first great theatre practitioner. Stanislavski believed that after seeing young actors at Aquinas College in Moscow he could see why theatre needed to change to a more disciplined endeavour.

Stanislavski's work was as important to the development of socialist realism in the USSR as it was to that of psychological realism in the United States. Many actors routinely identify his 'system' with the American Method, although the latter's exclusively psychological techniques contrast sharply with Stanislavski's multivariant, holistic and psychophysical approach, which explores character and action both from the 'inside out' and the 'outside in'. Stanislavski's work draws on a wide range of influences and ideas, including his study of the modernist and avant-garde developments of his time (naturalism, symbolism and Meyerhold's constructivism), Russian formalism, Yoga, Pavlovian behaviourist psychology, James-Lange (via Ribot) psychophysiology and the aesthetics of Pushkin, Gogol, and Tolstoy. He described his approach as 'spiritual Realism'.

Associated Names:
Konstantin Stanislavski (Alternative spelling)
Константин Станиславский (Russian)
斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基 (Chinese)

Reviews

[AskHistorians]

This and An Actor Prepares and Building a Character are not academic books on theatre history. But they are far too important and influential to ignore. In the Actor Prepares Trilogy, Stanislavski defines acting as a very serious activity requiring immense discipline and integrity. He lays out a system for acting that demands a kind of psychological realism that was rarely seen in pre-19th Century acting styles. It is common for teachers of acting to regard the works of Stanislavski as the beginning of the modern era in terms of how young theatre artists are trained.

[Mark Woodland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 3 of THE classic actor's handbook, and though "Method Acting" is essentially out of style, you have to know where the art has been to understand where it is now. It's still a fascinating read, as it was written during the discovery of the technique itself.

[Caleb Philbrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stanislavsky's first in his set of three books on method acting. He breaks up a role into three parts: the study, emotional experience, and physical embodiment. Then he gives to examples, which are boring. First part is worth it.

[LeeLee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make me great. Stanney. Make me ACT.

[Salembrocolilectora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me pareció muy inspirador y lo recomendaría a todos los cantantes líricos.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this (or this translation) better than the first two of what is considered his trilogy.

[Christopher Seewah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful addition to the trilogy. Having now read all 3 books I find myself much more drawn to this one in particular. Loved it.

[Arthur Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

🤩🤩

[Sumner · Rating 5 out of 5]

necessarily obtuse, unhelpful without praxis of course

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5ish

[Neno · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Não é sem motivo que nossa palavra “drama” é derivada da palavra grega, que significa “eu faço”.

Explorar cada vez mais sua própria natureza também é talvez, a melhor forma de multiplicar almas. Com o acaso imposto e a adaptabilidade natural, somos coagidos a exercitar essa multiplicação que vem percorrendo um longuíssimo caminho de refinamento, desde a heresia à estruturação de uma moral fugaz que batalha para descobrir as mais sublimes formas de expressar nossa escala insuficiente.
Stanislavski encerra sua coletânea submetendo suas incorporações a mais práticas psicotécnicas e as avaliando equitativamente no aspecto mais importante: atingir o momento da criação através da vivacidade. A própria vivacidade, responsável por florescer uma vertente profunda que visa suprir o sentimento de distância: A filosofia existencialista. Nietzsche, um dos pais dessa vertente diz: O que importa não é a vida eterna, mas a eterna vivacidade das alegrias sem futuro.
O diretor também reforça sobre a importância das tentações, entenda: “Uma cópia ruim de um bom modelo é pior do que um bom original de traçado medíocre”. O aguçamento da dualidade visa sintetizar a deliberada lógica de pensamento no ator para que haja poucas, senão nenhuma sugestão externa sobre a correlação de seus sentimentos pessoais e as formas escolhidas para ultrapassar de forma convincente o desafio renascentista: o controle da promiscuidade e resoluções práticas do mistério impetrado na raiz de cada expressão.
Em suma, o trabalho consiste em ajustes contínuos como autoanálise induzida, acentuação perceptível nas amálgamas, respeito à sequência criativa e o desenvolvimento do subtexto lógico nos aspectos acessíveis. Com isso, o diretor crê no florescimento do “cogito ergo sum”, ou seja, o modo de vida que amplia a paixão humana e penetra de forma indireta no reino do subconsciente para decodificar o “superobjetivo” no espetáculo. Como diz Shakespeare em Hamlet: “What a piece of work is man”.

Link para meus grifados: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kdtl...

[Ozan]

After long and meticulous reading, underlineing, studying, contemplating on this last book that Stanislavski wanted to write but was published with the help post-mortem. He didn't see the light of day. But apart from the other two books- this book kind of recapitulates all the main subjects from the other two and adding a finalization of thought.

A very good guide to actors and actresses, anyone interested in pursuing to be an actor should ready the three books chronologically. Because only ready the first two- does a lot of the things mentioned on the third makes sense and molds its soul into a form, a body.

Lots of references were made on Stanislavsky's autobiographical "My Life in Art", after reading these 3 books (1- An Actor Prepares 2- Building a Character 3- Creating a Role), I want to read this book.

A good reference for all cinema or theatre actors/actresses interested in pursuing acting.

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

از دورانی که روش و نظریه های استانیسلاوسکی در تیاتر مطرح شد، بیش از صد سالی می گذرد. دورانی تا پس از جنگ دوم، این نظریه ها "متد اکتینگ" در دنیای غرب هم مطرح بود. اما با ظهور نظریه های برشت، و سپس تیاتر مدرن، و تیاتر بی چیز "یرژی گروتوفسکی" و... از دهه ی شصت قرن بیستم به بعد، روش استانیسلاوسکی از سکه افتاد

[RF · Rating 2 out of 5]

استانیسلاوسکی تجربه‌ی شخصیش از آماده شدن گروهی محصل برای نمتیش اتلو رو نقل میکنه.
نکته‌ی منفیش اینه که مدام مثال‌ها و توضیحاتی استفاده میکنه که احتمالا برای تاکید و انتقال بهتر منظورشه ولی صرفا محتوا رو تکراری میکنه.
در کل کتاب چند نکته‌ی خوب و کاربردی داره.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creating a Role by Constantin Stanislavski (1989)

[Ivo Westerneng]

Usable exercises for any situation most applicable for actors and directors in text theatre

[Randy Babbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Belongs on every actor's shelf. Great reference book.

[Juan · Rating 5 out of 5]

MUST read in order. All three. Amazing for actors, read before any other acting book. This is the foundation, period.

[Arun Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

[Sam Gurvinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book for everyone who belongs to theatre .

[Jeff Alan-Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another must own book for all actors everywhere.