Five Approaches to Acting
GETTING TO THE TASK
Modern acting begins with a question: Why? Why am I happy? Why am I sad? Why am I doing what I do? The answer, given by Konstantin Stanislavsky, the Russian inventor of modern acting, turns out to be another question: What do I need to do?
Stanislavsky suggested actors analyze a text for tasks , not objectives (the word objective is his American translator's idea). This first volume of the Five Approaches to Acting Series, clarifies Stanislavsky's approaches for actors within the context of the time in which it was created: the then-new science of psychology and the rich inner world of fiction. Of particular interest is Stanislavsky's lifelong inspiration from yoga, mention of which was cut by Soviet censors and a racist American publisher.
When acting becomes something you do out of necessity, action onstage becomes charged with desire, passion, and deep felt emotion. The tasks performed onstage contribute to Stanislavsky's aim: communion with the audience, emotional and spiritual.
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Stanislavsky's ideas were inspired, in part, by the emphasis on depicting psychology in 19th century Russian paintings. Above and below Ilya Repin's The Unexpected Return (1884)
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