An actor's work on a role

268 Pages·2010·5.01 MB·English

by  Konstantin Stanislavsky

An Actor’s Work on a Role
An Actor’s Work on a Role is Konstantin Stanislavski’s classic exploration of
the rehearsal process, applying the techniques of his seminal actor training
system to the task of bringing life and truth to one’s role.
Originally published over half a century ago as Creating a Role, this book
became the third in a trilogy – after An Actor Prepares and Building a Char-
acter, which are now combined in a newly translated volume called An Actor’s
Work. In these books, now foundational texts for actors, Stanislavski sets out
his psychological, physical and practical vision of actor training.
This new translation from renowned writer and critic Jean Benedetti not
only includes Stanislavski’s original teachings, but is also furnished with
invaluable supplementary material in the shape of transcripts and notes from
the rehearsals themselves, reconfirming The System as the cornerstone of
actor training.

Konstantin
Stanislavski
An Actor’s Work on a Role
Translated and edited by Jean Benedetti
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
Translation © 2010 Routledge
Translator’s preface and editorial matter © 2010 Jean Benedetti
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stanislavsky, Konstantin, 1863–1938.
[Rabota aktera nad rol′iu. English]
An actor’s work on a role / by Konstantin Stanislavski ; translated and
edited by Jean Benedetti.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.
1. Method acting. 2. Acting. I. Benedetti, Jean. II. Title.
PN2062.S7513 2009
792.02′8—dc22 2009010080
ISBN 0-203-87092-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–46129–4 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–87092–1 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–46129–0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–87092–1 (ebk)
C
ONTENTS
Translator’s preface by Jean Benedetti vii
PART I: DRAFTS 1929–1937
1 Othello 1930–1932 3
2 The Government Inspector 1936–1937 44
3 Notebooks 1936–1937 78
4 Approach to a Role 88
PART II: HISTORIC DOCUMENTS 1885–1923
5 Notebooks 1885, 1911 93
6 Work on a Role: Salieri 1915 95
7 Woe from Wit 1916–1920 98

8 The Story of a Production 1923 188
Notes 257

T
RANSLATOR’S PREFACE
An Actor’s Work on a Role outlines the final year of the three-year course on
acting Stanislavski planned, the first two years of which are described in An
Actor’s Work.
The Russian edition clearly describes it as Material for a Book since all we
possess is a series of first, uncorrected, unedited drafts in diary form,
written between 1929 and 1936. They deal with classes on Othello and The
Government Inspector. They show Tortsov/Stanislavski initiating his students
into the Method of Physical Action. Other supporting material is derived
from the production plan Stanislavski drew up in 1929–1930 for Othello
and extracts from the Notebooks contemporaneous with the class on The
Government Inspector. Since we are dealing with drafts, there are a number of
variants, different versions of the same material contained within the
texts, which I have left as they stand.

The order in which the material is presented, however, is a matter of
editorial choice.
The first Russian edition appeared in 1957 and was translated, with
cuts, by Elizabeth Hapgood as Creating a Role (1961). This is roughly,
though not totally chronological in order and starts with an unfinished
article on Woe from Wit drafted between 1916 and 1920, followed by the
classes on Othello and The Government Inspector. Extracts from the Othello
production plan were also included.
A revised and expanded Russian edition appeared in 1991 which
included extracts from the Notebooks and other material. It is that edition
which provides the basis of this translation although some of the new
material is not accessible to English-speaking readers and has, therefore,
viii preface
after consultation been omitted. I have also added in some further material
from the Notebooks and the Othello production plan. I have not, however,
followed the roughly chronological order in which the material is
presented.
One of the aims of the Routledge edition is to give readers a sense of the
‘system’ as a coherent whole as Stanislavski conceived it. It is intended for
two distinct readerships: students in training and professional actors on
the one hand and academics and scholars on the other. The priorities of
both were served in An Actor’s Work by presenting the diary as Stanislavski
wrote it for students with additional material of interest to scholars in the
Appendices. That was the strategy of the Russian edition.
I have followed a similar approach with An Actor’s Work on a Role.
Stanislavski intended An Actor’s Work and An Actor’s Work on a Role primarily
as a course of study for students. It is therefore important for them to see
An Actor’s Work on a Role as a direct continuation of An Actor’s Work, as the third
year of a planned course.
Academics and scholars exploring the history and development of the
‘system’ and its theory may be more interested in the basic material from
which the book arose.
I have, therefore, divided the book into two parts.
Part One contains the draft chapters, in diary form, which follow dir-
ectly on from An Actor’s Work. These are supplemented by extracts from the
Notebooks of 1935 and 1936 written at the same time as the chapters on
The Government Inspector. I have also included extracts from the Othello produc-
tion plan (1929–1930) which are essentially intended for Leonidov and
other members of the cast, teaching them how to approach a role, with a
crucial breakdown of Act III scene iii into Bits and Tasks.
Part Two, intended for scholars, contains material dating from 1885 to
1930 which shows the development of Stanislavski’s ideas and rehearsal

methods prior to the emergence of the Method of Physical Action, which
he taught in the last years of his life at the Opera-Dramatic Studio
(1935–1938). It also shows the transition from straight exposition, via
the semi-fictional form of The Story of a Production to the diary form
Stanislavski ultimately selected.
Readers may, of course, read the two sections in any order they choose.
Jean Benedetti
London-Les Fontenelles 2008–2009
Part I
1929 1937
Drafts –