Editing Stanislavski's system (section)

==Method of Physical Action==
[[File:Othello Production Plan Sketches by Stanislavski 1938.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Sketches by [[Konstantin Stanislavski|Stanislavski]] in his 1929—1930 production plan for ''[[Othello]]'', which offers the first exposition of what came to be known as his Method of Physical Action rehearsal process.]]
Stanislavski further elaborated his system with a more physically grounded rehearsal process that came to be known after his death as the "Method of Physical Action".<ref name=MOPA>Benedetti (1999a, 325, 360) and (2005, 121) and Roach (1985, 197—198, 205, 211—215).</ref> Stanislavski had developed it since 1916, he first explored it practically in the early 1930s.<ref>Benedetti (1998, 104) and (1999a, 356, 358). Gordon argues the shift in working-method happened during the 1920s (2006, 49—55). Vasili Toporkov, an actor who trained under Stanislavski in this approach, provides in his ''Stanislavski in Rehearsal'' (2004) a detailed account of the Method of Physical Action at work in Stanislavski's rehearsals.</ref> The roots of the Method of Physical Action stretch back to Stanislavski's earliest work as a director (in which he focused consistently on a play's action) and the techniques he explored with [[Vsevolod Meyerhold]] and later with the First Studio of the [[Moscow Art Theatre|MAT]] before the [[World War I|First World War]] (such as the experiments with [[improvisation]] and the practice of anatomising scripts in terms of bits and tasks).<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 360).</ref>

Benedetti emphasises the continuity of the Method of Physical Action with Stanislavski's earlier approaches; Whyman argues that "there is no justification in Stanislavsky's [''sic''] writings for the assertion that the ''method of physical actions'' represents a rejection of his previous work".<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 360) and Whyman (2008, 247).</ref> Stanislavski first explored the approach practically in his rehearsals for ''[[Three Sisters (play)|Three Sisters]]'' and ''[[Carmen]]'' in 1934 and ''Molière'' in 1935.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 356, 358).</ref>

Minimising at-the-table discussions, he now encouraged an "active analysis", in which the sequence of dramatic situations are [[Improvisation|improvised]].<ref name="Benedetti 2000"/> "The best analysis of a play", Stanislavski argued, "is to take action in the [[given circumstances]]."<ref name="ANALYSIS"/> He continues:
<blockquote>For in the process of action the actor gradually obtains the mastery over the inner incentives of the actions of the character he is representing, evoking in himself the emotions and thoughts which resulted in those actions. In such a case, an actor not only understands his part, but also feels it, and that is the most important thing in creative work on the stage.<ref>Stanislavski, quoted by Magarshack (1950, 375).</ref></blockquote>

Just as the First Studio, led by his assistant and close friend [[Leopold Sulerzhitsky]], had provided the forum in which he developed his initial ideas for his system during the 1910s, he hoped to secure his final legacy by opening another studio in 1935, in which the Method of Physical Action would be taught.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 359—360), Golub (1998, 1033), Magarshack (1950, 387—391), and Whyman (2008, 136).</ref> The Opera-Dramatic Studio embodied the most complete implementation of the training exercises described in his manuals.<ref name=ODS>Benedetti (1998, xii) and (1999a, 359—363) and Magarshack (1950, 387—391), and Whyman (2008, 136). Benedetti argues that the course at the Opera-Dramatic Studio is "Stanislavski's true testament". His book ''Stanislavski and the Actor'' (1998) offers a reconstruction of the studio's course.</ref> Meanwhile, the transmission of his earlier work via the students of the First Studio was revolutionising acting in the [[Western culture|West]].<ref>Carnicke (1998, 1, 167) and (2000, 14), Counsell (1996, 24—25), Golub (1998, 1032), Gordon (2006, 71—72), Leach (2004, 29), and Milling and Ley (2001, 1—2).</ref> With the arrival of [[Socialist realism]] in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], the [[Moscow Art Theatre|MAT]] and Stanislavski's system were enthroned as exemplary models.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 354—355), Carnicke (1998, 78, 80) and (2000, 14), and Milling and Ley (2001, 2).</ref>

Many actors routinely equate his system with the American [[Method acting|Method]], although the latter's exclusively psychological techniques contrast sharply with the multivariant, holistic and [[Psychophysiology|psychophysical]] approach of the "system", which explores character and action both from the 'inside out' and the 'outside in' and treats the actor's mind and body as parts of a continuum.<ref>Benedetti (2005, 147–148), Carnicke (1998, 1, 8) and Whyman (2008, 119–120). Not only actors are subject to this confusion; [[Lee Strasberg]]'s [[obituary]] in ''[[The New York Times]]'' credited Stanislavski with the invention of [[Method acting|the Method]]: "Mr. Strasberg adapted it to the American theatre, imposing his refinements, but always crediting Stanislavsky as his source" (Quoted by Carnicke 1998, 9). Carnicke argues that this "robs Strasberg of the originality in his thinking, while simultaneously obscuring Stanislavsky's ideas" (1997, 9). Neither the tradition that formed in the USSR nor the American Method, Carnicke argues, "integrated the mind and body of the actor, the corporal and the spiritual, the text and the performance as thoroughly or as insistently as did Stanislavsky himself" (1998, 2). For evidence of Strasberg's misunderstanding of this aspect of Stanislavski's work, see Strasberg (2010, 150–151).</ref> In response to his [[characterisation]] work on Argan in [[Molière]]'s ''[[The Imaginary Invalid]]'' in 1913, Stanislavski concluded that "a character is sometimes formed psychologically, i.e. from the inner image of the role, but at other times it is discovered through purely external exploration."<ref>From a note in the Stanislavski archive, quoted by Benedetti (1999a, 216).</ref> In fact Stanislavski found that many of his students who were "method acting" were having many mental problems, and instead encouraged his students to shake off the character after rehearsing.