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An actor's work : a student's diary / Konstantin Stanislavski ; translated and edited by Jean Benedetti.

By: Stanislavsky, Konstantin, 1863-1938.
Contributor(s): Benedetti, Jean.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: London ; New York : Routledge, 2008Description: xxviii, 693 p. ; 25 cm. + pbk.ISBN: 9780415422239 ; 041542223X ; 9780415551205 ; 041555120X ; 9780203936153 ; 0203936159 .Subject(s): Method actingDDC classification: 792.028
Contents:
Year one: Experiencing -- An actor's work, introduction -- Amateurism -- The stage as art and stock-in-trade -- Action, 'if', 'given circumstances' -- Imagination -- Concentration and attention -- Muscular release -- Bits and tasks -- Belief and the sense of truth -- Emotion memory -- Communication -- An actor's adaptations and other elements, qualities, aptitudes and gifts -- Inner psychological drives -- Inner psychological drives in action -- The actor's inner creative state -- The supertask, throughaction -- The subconscious and the actor's creative state -- Year two: Embodiment -- Transition to physical embodiment -- Physical education -- Voice and speech -- Perspective of the actor and the role -- Tempo-rhythm -- Logic and sequence -- Physical characteristics -- The finishing touches -- Charisma -- Ethics and discipline -- The external creative state in performance -- General creative state in performance -- The 'system'.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Barcode
General lending MTU Cork School of Music Library Lending 792.028 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00164618
General lending MTU Cork School of Music Library Lending 792.028 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00168230
General lending MTU Cork School of Music Library Lending 792.028 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00175253
General lending MTU Cork School of Music Library Lending 792.028 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00175252
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Stanislavski's 'system' has dominated actor-training in the West since his writings were first translated into English in the 1920s and 30s. His systematic attempt to outline a psycho-physical technique for acting single-handedly revolutionized standards of acting in the theatre.

Until now, readers and students have had to contend with inaccurate, misleading and difficult-to-read English-language versions. Some of the mistranslations have resulted in profound distortions in the way his system has been interpreted and taught. At last, Jean Benedetti has succeeded in translating Stanislavski's huge manual into a lively, fascinating and accurate text in English. He has remained faithful to the author's original intentions, putting the two books previously known as An Actor Prepares and Building A Character back together into one volume, and in a colloquial and readable style for today's actors.

The result is a major contribution to the theatre, and a service to one of the great innovators of the twentieth century.

This translation originally published: 2008.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Year one: Experiencing -- An actor's work, introduction -- Amateurism -- The stage as art and stock-in-trade -- Action, 'if', 'given circumstances' -- Imagination -- Concentration and attention -- Muscular release -- Bits and tasks -- Belief and the sense of truth -- Emotion memory -- Communication -- An actor's adaptations and other elements, qualities, aptitudes and gifts -- Inner psychological drives -- Inner psychological drives in action -- The actor's inner creative state -- The supertask, throughaction -- The subconscious and the actor's creative state -- Year two: Embodiment -- Transition to physical embodiment -- Physical education -- Voice and speech -- Perspective of the actor and the role -- Tempo-rhythm -- Logic and sequence -- Physical characteristics -- The finishing touches -- Charisma -- Ethics and discipline -- The external creative state in performance -- General creative state in performance -- The 'system'.

Translated from the Russian.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Introduction
  • Translator's Foreword
  • Preface
  • Year One
  • 1 Amateurism
  • 2 The stage as art and stock-in-trade
  • 3 Action
  • 4 Imagination
  • 5 Concentration
  • 6 Muscular release
  • 7 Bits and tasks
  • 8 Belief and the sense of truth
  • 9 Emotion memory
  • 10 Contact and communication
  • 11 Adaptation
  • 12 Psychological drives
  • 13 Psychological drives in action
  • 14 The Actor's creative state
  • 15 The Supertask, through-action
  • 16 The subconscious and the Actor
  • Year Two
  • 17 Transition to physical embodiment
  • 18 Physical education
  • 19 Voice and speech
  • 20 Perspective
  • 21 Tempo-rhyth
  • 22 Logic
  • 23 Physical characteristics
  • 24 Finishing touches
  • 25 Charisma
  • 26 Ethics and discipline
  • 27 External creative state
  • 28 General creative state
  • 29 The system Appendices
  • Glossary of Key Terms
  • Afterword

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This new translation by Benedetti of Stanislavski's famous works An Actor Prepares and Building a Character will be greeted with excitement by actors everywhere. The actor training system developed by Stanislavski in the early 20th century for the Moscow Art Theatre had a profound impact on acting styles around the world and forms the basis for nearly all contemporary actor training. The original English translations that appeared in the 1930s gave rise to several different American interpretations, the best known of which is method acting. For decades, the translations by Elizabeth Hapgood have been the standard text for actors interested in the Stanislavski system. Benedetti, the author of several previous books on Stanislavski, has both improved and expanded upon the Hapgood editions, and the result is a longer yet much more readable text. Essential for all theater collections and highly recommended for all public libraries.-Katherine Litwin, Pierre Berton Resource Lib., Woodbridge, Ont. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Russian actor-director Konstantin Stanislavski was the most important analyst of the process of acting of the 20th century. But though he was hugely influential in professional and academic theater training worldwide, confusion has arisen because the two volumes in which he promulgated his ideas, An Actor Prepares and Building a Character, were published in incomplete editions in Russia and the US. Benedetti's fresh translation combines those two works and sets forth the integrated two-year program Stanislavski intended. Since Stanislavski kept rewriting from his days in prerevolutionary Russia to the time he was under virtual house arrest in Soviet Russia, Benedetti had to sift through many versions of the material and much else that was not published (a daunting task described in the foreword). British theater director Declan Donnellan provides an insightful introduction. An afterword by Anatoly Smeliansky, rector of the Studio School of the Moscow Art Theatre and editor in chief of the collected works of Stanislavski, describes the complex historical epoch in which Stanislavski worked. Including several appendixes, this volume is a must for theater collections. Summing Up: Essential. All readers, all levels. R. Sugarman Southern Vermont College