This article is written with some terminology that is fully explained in the section of key terms at the end of the page

Konstantin Stanislavski was a Russian playwright, actor and theatre practitioner that developed the style of naturalism in theatre. His main principle was simply to show life as accurately as possible through his art by focusing in on the character one was playing. He lived from 1863-1938 and was the co-artistic director of the Moscow Art Theatre, and during this time he trained many actors in his methods that are still used prevalently today, and have led to other practitioners such as Brecht developing his style, and to other acting styles, such as method acting (a more extreme naturalism in which an actor immerses themself in the role to truly believe they are the character they are playing.)

When Stanislavski entered the theatre scene, he saw a messy system with poor acting - settings were inaccurate and actors were simply performing and not living their characters - he sought to reform this with realism and a unity of all parts of a production, particularly the actors and the director. 

Stanislavski lived through a time of huge change - the finale of the Industrial Revolution, the First World War, the end of colonialism and immense change in our understanding of science, including the discovery of psychology as a subject. This was fronted by Sigmund Freud, who lived almost parallel to Stanislavski, from 1856 to 1939. The founder of psychoanalysis, his life marked the biggest advance in the understanding of the human mind ever. His method of treatment involved discussion with the patient about their thoughts and feelings to try and diagnose their case and help them. Freud described the mind as having three main parts - the Ego (the rational part of the mind negotiating between the other two parts), the Superego (the moral part of the mind, subconscious thoughts that influence us and have the power to create anxiety) and the Id (the irrational and emotional part of the mind).

 Stanislavski's aim to show human behaviour as accurately as possible therefore closely ties in with this understanding of how the mind works to play a character well - his system relies on a complete knowledge of one's character. Moreover, in times of conflict and the ensuing censorship, Stanislavski's method could be returned to as a safe form of drama without too strong of a political point, such as after each World War.

Stanislavski's theatre provided entertainment and a powerful emotional attachment of the audience to a character as they were played so accurately. It is described as theatre for the heart, indicating that the audience may be lost totally in the action and forgetting the action is actually a performance. It is also a clear example of art imitating life (and less obviously vice versa).

Stanislavski directed plays written by other period naturalistic playwrights such as Chekov, Tolstoy, and in part Ibsen, although the latter may better be defined as a realist. Realism focused more on the everyday life of the upper and middle class, with a more positive view of society, and a focus on moral and social realism whereas naturalism was more pessimistic, focused on the lower class, and leant into determinism and Darwinian views that stated people were the product of their environment and inheritance, as well as sociology.

Chekov's play, 'The Seagull,' is a clear example of a naturalistic play. It spans a few days, and takes place on a single Russian country estate, with realistic and truthful characters. The play discusses themes of art, love, and unfulfilled dreams, and shows a group of actors, actresses and a playwright in discussion to portray their own characters.

Ibsen's classic play 'A Doll's House,' is another example that focuses deeply on the complex characters of Nora and Torvald, a married couple who split up by the end of the play. Ibsen aims to document this as closely as possible.

THE STANISLAVSKI SYSTEM

Stanislavski has extremely precise techniques and exercises used to perform a character in his style. To prepare the actor and achieve a free-body state, actors can begin by various exercises. By lying down on the floor, focusing on your breath and relaxing each part of the body individually in a meditation-like exercise, an actor may then focus on using their imagination to become a character. Using the magic 'if' question, actors may transport themselves to another character, place, time and more. Stanislavski also relies on the concentration of an actor to be very focused in order to focus completely on the character - this can be improved with warm-up exercises like games or memory exercises.

Before acting or after an initial practical read of the script, actors must go through a process to describe and get to know their characters and the scene extremely well. Firstly, thinking about the scene, actors may split the scene into units. This breaks down the text and makes it easier to understand the scene and how the character changes through out. Actors can then aim to understand the events, objectives, actions, reactions, motivations and obstacles within each of these units, and consequently the whole scene or play. The actor should also list the given circumstances using the seven questions to better understand the context.

The actor must then describe their own character as a whole to place them within the scene that they have already described. A character consists of a germ that provides motivations for a super-objective - this means that the character's conscious and subconscious mind work together to have desires that result in the character wanting to achieve something. For example, take Macbeth as a character. His conscious mind may say he wants to be an honourable leader - his subconscious may be calling for him to gain power and prove himself to his wife. His germ is therefore an ambitious and insecure personality. This provides motivation for him to achieve his super-objective, of achieving and maintaining power.

Finally the actor can begin to understand their character and perform. The actor will use emotional memory to personally relate and understand the experiences of their character. They can do this through their understanding of the given circumstances, which they immerse themselves in with the magic 'if' question. The character is then performed through their vocal, physical and spatial skills naturally.

An extract from 'A View from The Bridge' by Arthur Miller, Act 1, Page 32 to 35, dialogue between Eddie and Alfieri

Here is an example of a nearly completed script, annotated to help an actor think about these aforementioned techniques. In this case, the notes are written from the perspective of Alfieri. The lines through the text show the unit blocks, labelled with the number of the unit and a small title about the action in a scene written to the right of the text. At the top of the page, there is listed a brief explanation of when and where the scene is taking place, along with a description of the units and a scene and super objective for the character. Objectives for each unit are then written to the left of the text in capitals. It could be improved by writing on character motives, obstacles and more about the given circumstances (defined by the seven questions), and completing the rest of the annotations.