An Actor Prepares - Constantin Stanislavski

Stanislavski is one of the only people ever to devise a comprehensive system of acting. Many of his techniques were adopted by the so-called method actors such as Brando, De Niro, and Hoffman. He sets out his System in three books, of which this is the first (before and ). In this book, he discusses a process of internal characterisation. The actor is encouraged to draw on his/her own life experiences in order to access the emotional state of the character to be played. Personally, I find his writing style (or, possibly, the writing style of the translator) a little turgid; but many of his ... more

An Actor Prepares is a book which is advisable to anybody wishing to create a character for any piece of theatre, Stanislavskis methods are globaly aknowlegede and some of the best characters i have created have been influenced by him. Stanislavski, beleives in creating a Believable scene on stage. and all the questions he asks are always. WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY? When an actor enters onto a stage, he has to say to himself, why i am here, who am i, what is my goal, who am i with. its about constantly asking yourself questions. one of my personal favourites in the book is the emotion ... more