How Did Stanislavski React to All These New Ideas?
At first, a “war” broke out. It began when he was confronted with the idea that the real cause of failures in teaching at the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) studios and school was neither haste nor a lack of professionalism or talent among the students. When he was invited to experiment with a completely new […]
Mikhail Chekhov vs. Yevgeny Vakhtangov
Topic: Training The first known publication on Stanislavski-based training dates back to 1919. At that time, the magazine Gorn, published by Proletkult (Proletariat and Culture), featured two articles by Mikhail Chekhov about the system, describing some of its exercises. Mikhail Chekhov, then a brilliant actor at the Moscow Art Theatre, was deeply influenced by Nietzsche, […]
The Usefulness of Mistakes
It is not a good sign when a student performs all exercises flawlessly and rarely makes mistakes. This means that they are not giving the green light to many things emerging within them—they are keeping themselves in a moderate, safe valley, where they can walk comfortably with their eyes closed, knowing there are no holes, […]
