Editing Stanislavski's system (section)

==Experiencing the role==
{{cquote|A rediscovery of the 'system' must begin with the realization that it is the questions which are important, the logic of their sequence and the consequent logic of the answers. A ritualistic repetition of the exercises contained in the published books, a solemn analysis of a text into bits and tasks will not ensure artistic success, let alone creative vitality. It is the Why? and What for? that matter and the acknowledgement that with every new play and every new role the process begins again.|author=Jean Benedetti, acting teacher and [[Konstantin Stanislavski|Stanislavski]]'s biographer.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 376–377).</ref>}}
This system is based on "experiencing a role."<ref>Milling and Ley (2001, 7) and Stanislavski (1938, 16–36).</ref> This principle demands that as an actor, you should "experience feelings analogous" to those that the [[Character (arts)|character]] experiences "each and every time you do it."<ref name="s19">Stanislavski (1938, 19)</ref> Stanislavski approvingly quotes [[Tommaso Salvini]] when he insists that actors should really feel what they portray "at every performance, be it the first or the thousandth."<ref name="s19"/>

Not all emotional experiences are appropriate, therefore, since the actor's feelings  must be relevant and parallel to the character's experience.<ref>Stanslavski (1938, 27).</ref> Stanislavski identified Salvini, whose performance of [[Othello]] he had admired in 1882, as the finest representative of the art of experiencing approach.<ref>Stanislavski (1938, 19) and Benedetti (1999a, 18).</ref> Salvini had disagreed with the French actor [[Benoît-Constant Coquelin|Cocquelin]] over the role emotion ought to play—whether it should be experienced only in rehearsals when preparing the role (Cocquelin's position) or whether it ought to be felt in performance (Salvini's position).

On this basis, Stanislavski contrasts his own "art of experiencing" approach with what he calls the "[[art of representation]]" practised by Cocquelin (in which experiencing forms one of the preparatory stages only) and "hack" acting (in which experiencing plays no part).<ref>Counsell (1996, 25–26). Despite this distinction, however, Stanislavskian theatre, in which actors "experience" their roles, remains "[[Representation (arts)|representational]]" in the broader critical sense; see Stanislavski (1938, 22–27) and the article [[Presentational acting and Representational acting]] for a fuller discussion of the different uses of these terms. In addition, for Stanislavski's conception of "experiencing the role" see Carnicke (1998), especially chapter five. While Stanislavski recognises the [[art of representation]] as being capable of the creation of genuine works of art, he rejects its technique as "either too showy or too superficial" to be capable of the "expression of deep passions" and the "subtlety and depth of human feelings"; see Stanislavski (1938, 26–27).</ref> Stanislavski defines the actor's "experiencing" as playing "credibly", by which he means "thinking, wanting, striving, behaving truthfully, in logical sequence in a human way, within the character, and in complete parallel to it", such that the actor begins to feel "as one with" the role.<ref name="s19"/>

[[File:Tommaso Salvini Otello.jpg|thumb|[[Konstantin Stanislavski|Stanislavski]] considered the Italian [[Tragedy|tragedian]] [[Tommaso Salvini|Salvini]] (pictured as [[Othello]]) to be the finest example of the "art of experiencing".<ref name="s19"/>]]
Stanislavski's approach seeks to stimulate the [[Will (philosophy)|will]] to create afresh and to activate [[Subconscious mind|subconscious]] processes sympathetically and indirectly by means of [[Consciousness|conscious]] techniques.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 169) and Counsell (1996, 27). Many scholars of Stanislavski's work stress that his conception of the "[[Unconscious mind|unconscious]]" (or "[[subconscious]]", "superconscious") is pre-[[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]]; Benedetti, for example, explains that "Stanislavski merely meant those regions of the mind which are not accessible to [[Consciousness|conscious]] recall or the [[Will (philosophy)|will]]. It had nothing to do with notions of latent content advanced by Freud, whose works he did not know" (1999a, 169).</ref> In this way, it attempts to recreate in the actor the inner, psychological [[Causality|causes]] of behaviour, rather than to present a [[simulacrum]] of their effects.<ref>Benedetti (2005, 124) and Counsell (1996, 27).</ref> Stanislavski recognised that in practice a performance is usually a mixture of the three trends (experiencing, representation, hack) but felt that experiencing should predominate.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 202, 342).</ref>

The range of training exercises and rehearsal practices that are designed to encourage and support "experiencing the role" resulted from many years of sustained inquiry and experiment. Many may be discerned as early as 1905 in Stanislavski's letter of advice to Vera Kotlyarevskaya on how to approach the role of Charlotta in [[Anton Chekhov]]'s ''[[The Cherry Orchard]]'':
<blockquote>First of all you must live the role without spoiling the words or making them commonplace. Shut yourself off and play whatever goes through your head. Imagine the following scene: Pishchik has proposed to Charlotta, now she is his bride... How will she behave? Or: Charlotta has been dismissed but finds other employment in a [[circus]] of a [[café-chantant]]. How does she do gymnastics or sing little songs? Do your hair in various ways and try to find in yourself things which remind you of Charlotta. You will be reduced to despair twenty times in your search but don't give up. Make this German woman you love so much speak Russian and observe how she pronounces words and what are the special characteristics of her speech. Remember to play Charlotta in a dramatic moment of her life. Try to make her weep sincerely over her life. Through such an image you will discover all the whole range of notes you need.<ref>Letter to Vera Kotlyarevskaya, {{OldStyleDate|13 July|1905|1 July}}; quoted by Benedetti (1999a, 168).</ref></blockquote>

Exercises such as these, though never seen directly onstage or screen, prepare the actor for a performance based on experiencing the role. Experiencing constitutes the inner, psychological aspect of a role, which is endowed with the actor's individual feelings and own personality.<ref name="s19"/> Stanislavski argues that this creation of an inner life should be the actor's first concern.<ref>Counsell (1996, 26–27) and Stanislavski (1938, 19)</ref> He groups together the training exercises intended to support the emergence of experiencing under the general term "[[psychotechnique]]".