Stanislavski System: what is it, characteristics and how is it used in acting?

The Stanislavski system is used by actors and actresses to "get into the role". Let's see how it is.

It is said that Stanislavski's favorite words to his pupil actors were "I don't believe you, you don't convince me". His way of seeing and understanding how theatrical artists should act was demanding but also meticulous. So much so that it became his own method: the Stanislavski system.

His systematic approach to acting not only revolutionized the way acting was done in the Russia of his time, but also managed to cross borders and change the course of Western theater.

This method has been crucial in making plays, serials and films the way we know them today, and here's why.

What is the Stanislavski system?

Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseyev (Moscow 1863 - 1938), better known as Stanislavski, was a prolific Russian actor, stage director and theatrical pedagogue, known for being the author of one of the most important methods in the history of the performing arts: the Stanislavski system known for being the author of one of the most important methods in the history of the performing arts: the Stanislavski system. The product of many years of effort, his method was intended to enable actors to control the most intangible and uncontrollable aspects of human behavior while on stage, such as emotions and artistic inspiration.

Stanislavski studied what actors did who were able to naturally get into character. From his observations and experiences, this Russian director created a system that all actors, both novices and veterans in the profession, could apply in their works, achieving a cleaner, more real and natural performance. This method was so revolutionary at the time of its appearance that it marked a before and after in the world of acting, establishing standards that demarcated the line between a convincing performance and an artificial and poorly represented one.

He formulated this method at a time when the performing arts in his native Russia were characterized by conventional and stereotyped clichés. Actors acted artificially, even histrionically. The plays were bathed in a halo of false emotionality and little preparation on the part of the actors, so little that they even found out what they had to say when they were already on stage. Little or no attention was paid to the librettos in which what they were supposed to have memorized came out.

Stanislavski carried out meticulous research to make his actors work from the beginning with something that they perceived as real. People, elements and objects seen not as mere elements of a stage, but as parts of a real, mundane scene, part of life itself. People are not actors in our lives, we are part of them, we live them rather than act them.

To get the actor into the scene he or she is acting, Stanislavski advocates the use of emotional memory. The actor or actress must remember a personal experience similar to the one he or she is trying to represent, helping him or her to feel more immersed and involved in what he or she is trying to represent on stage. He or she should look for a situation in his or her life history in which he or she felt an emotion analogous to that of his or her character.

But this is not only achieved by evoking a sincere emotion. It is also necessary to have some external support, to modify our appearance and behavior in order to give life to the character we want to represent or, better said, to modify our appearance and behavior in order to give life to the character we want to represent that we intend to represent or, better said, bring to life. Make up, dress, walk, in short, behave like the character since the external physical acts help to trigger the desired emotion, following the principle that if you start crying, you end up being sad.

The principles of the Stanislavski system

The Stanislavski system is quite complex and cannot be said to be static precisely because of how much it has evolved since it was conceptualized in the early twentieth century. However, it is possible to highlight some of its most important principles, which have contributed to mark a before and after in the way in which theater artists and, later, films and series represented their characters:

1. Concentration on the character

The actor must respond to the imagination learning to think like the character, concentrating on being what he/she is playing.

Sense of truth

By sense of truth we could say that one of the ideas of this method is to differentiate between the organic and the artificial. Stanislavski was a firm believer that there were natural laws to be followed in the performing arts, which, if they were not followed, could not be followed. These laws, in case of being respected, differentiated a good work, natural and harmonious, from a bad one, artificial and overacted.

3. Acting according to the given circumstances

The actor must be skillful in the use and handling of the circumstances that are given to him in the text, but by means of the truth and resorting to organic means. It is a matter of to stick to the script but freeing himself by means of representing his emotionality. The acting is faithful to what appears in the libretto but the performance has personality and naturalness.

4. The physical method

Stanislavski saw that many of his pupils had deep emotional tensions and psychic problems. Through his method, he could help remove the physical and emotional tension from the actors, making them relax their muscles while performing and act in a much more liberated way.

Added to this, the Russian director gave an extraordinary importance to the physical factor that not only served to relax but also to stage more reliably. It is because of this that his system has also been referred to as the physical action method because of its great emphasis on the relaxation of the muscles while performing.

5. Spheres of attention

Spheres of attention is what Stanislavski referred to as working with sensations. The actor must discover the sensory basis of the work. His task is to learn to memorize and remember the sensations that his character feels, sensations that modulate his state of mind and his way of behaving with the other characters in the play and with the audience.

6. Communication and contact

The actor must be able to interact with other characters spontaneously, without violating the content of the play, but without seeming forced or artificially prepared. Communication and contact with other actors is essential in the course of rehearsals and final performances.

7. Roles segmented into units and objectives

Artists must learn to divide the role of their protagonists into sensible units that can work separately. It is the actor's and actress's task to define each unit of the role by feeling it as their own desire rather than understanding it as a literary idea arising from the director's libretto.

8. Creativity in acting and thinking

You cannot be an actor without being creative. Creativity manifests itself both in a creative state of mind and in the way you act.

9. Work with the text of the script

This principle may sound like a no-brainer, since it is difficult to perform a play faithfully while completely ignoring what it says in the libretto. However, in Russia at the beginning of the last century this was not so taken for granted by some Russian artists, since it often happened that they did not read the librettos and trusted that they would be told their lines while acting.

The actor must respect what is written in the libretto, memorizing and internalizing its lines, but not learning it to "vomit" it at the moment of the play. The actor must discover the social, political and artistic meaning of the text. The actor must understand the ideas that the director has immortalized in the play's libretto. As an artist, the actor or actress must serve as a medium to entrust these values and visions to the audience that has come to see the play.

The importance of the stanislavski system today

The Stanislavski system has evolved over time. In the beginning, what the actors and actresses had to do was to find the truth of the character, to treat it as a real entity. However, with the passage of time the practice of finding in her own experience the resources that allow her to feel what her character feels in any situation in any situation.

Today it is understood that the actor must not only understand what is happening to his character in the play, but must also know the vital situation in which he finds himself and what circumstances surround him. Knowing this and living it in their own flesh, the actor will be able to react in the same way as one would expect his character to do, making the performance as natural as possible.

This has gone a long way, to the point that today many artists live in their day-to-day many performers live in their day-to-day lives as they believe their character would for example, that his character is a farmer who lives in the countryside, then the actor goes to a farm for a while and lives as if that were his real life profession. As the years went by, different acting schools added certain practices to the Stanislavski system, becoming over time what is known in the acting world as "the method".