Editing Stanislavski's system (section)

==Theatre studios and the development of Stanislavski's system==
[[File:Student's studio 1915.jpg|thumb|250px|Members of [[Konstantin Stanislavski|Stanislavski's]] First Studio in 1915, a [[Pedagogy|pedagogical]] institution in which elements of the system were first developed and taught.]]
{{cquote|I may add that it is my firm conviction that it is impossible today for anyone to become an actor worthy of the time in which he is living, an actor on whom such great demands are made, without going through a course of study in a studio.|author=[[Konstantin Stanislavski]].<ref>Stanislavski (1950, 91).</ref>}}

===First Studio===
The First Studio of the [[Moscow Art Theatre]] (MAT) was a theatre studio that [[Konstantin Stanislavski|Stanislavski]] created in 1898 in order to [[Practice research|research]] and develop his system.<ref>Gauss (1999, 34), Whymann (2008, 31), and Benedetti (1999, 209—11).</ref> It was conceived as a space in which [[Pedagogy|pedagogical]] and exploratory work could be undertaken in isolation from the public, in order to develop new forms and techniques.<ref>Benedetti (1999, 155–156, 209) and Gauss (1999, 111–112).</ref> Stanislavski later defined a theatre studio as "neither a [[Studio theatre|theatre]] nor a [[Drama school|dramatic school]] for beginners, but a laboratory for the [[Experimental theatre|experiments]] of more or less trained actors."<ref>Stanislavski, quoted by Magarshack (1950, 78); see also Benedetti (1999, 209).</ref> The First Studio's founding members included [[Yevgeny Vakhtangov]], [[Michael Chekhov]], [[Richard Boleslavsky]], and [[Maria Ouspenskaya]], all of whom would exert a considerable influence on the subsequent [[history of theatre]].<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 210) and Gauss (1999, 32).</ref>

[[Leopold Sulerzhitsky]], who had been Stanislavski's [[personal assistant]] since 1905 and whom [[Maxim Gorky]] had nicknamed "Suler", was selected to lead the studio.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 209) and Leach (2004, 17—18).</ref> In a focused, intense atmosphere, its work emphasised experimentation, improvisation, and self-discovery.<ref>Leach (1994, 18).</ref> Until his death in 1938, Suler taught the elements of Stanislavski's system in its germinal form: relaxation, concentration of attention, imagination, communication, and emotion memory.<ref>Chamberlain (2000, 80).</ref> On becoming independent from the MAT in 1923, the company re-named itself the Second Moscow Art Theatre, though Stanislavski came to regard it as a betrayal of his principles.<ref>Benedetti (1999, 365), Solovyova (1999, 332—333), and Cody and Sprinchorn (2007, 927). Michael Chekhov led the company between 1924 and 1928. A decision by the [[Council of People's Commissars|People's Commissars]] and the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee of the Communist Party]] closed the theatre in 1936, to the bewilderment of its members. See Cody and Sprinchorn (2007, 927), Solovyova (1999, 331–332), and Benedetti (1999, 365).</ref>

===Opera Studio===
[[File:Chaliapin F. (Шаляпин Ф. И.) 1913.jpg|thumb|The Russian singer [[Feodor Chaliapin]], whose approach Stanislavski hoped to combine with his system, in order to prove its [[Universality (philosophy)|universality]] in the crucible of the artifice and conventionality of [[opera]].]]
Benedetti argues that a significant influence on the development of Stanislavski's system came from his experience teaching and directing at his Opera Studio.<ref>Benedetti (1999, 259). Gauss argues that "the students of the Opera Studio attended lessons in the "system" but did not contribute to its forulation" (1999, 4).</ref> He created it in 1918 under the auspices of the [[Bolshoi Theatre]], though it later severed its connection with the theatre.<ref name=opera>The studio underwent a series of name-changes as it developed into a full-scale company: in 1924 it was renamed the "Stanislavski Opera Studio"; in 1926 it became the "Stanislavski Opera [[Studio theatre|Studio-Theatre]]"; in 1928 it became the Stanislavski Opera Theatre; and in 1941 the theatre merged with Nemirovich's music studio to become the [[Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre]]. Nemirovich had created the Moscow Art Theatre Music Studio in 1919, though Stanislavski had no connection to it; see Benedetti (1999, 211; 255), Leach (2004, 20), and Stanislavski and Rumyantsev (1975, x).</ref> Stanislavski worked with his Opera Studio in the two rehearsal rooms of his house on Carriage Row (prior to his eviction in March 1921).<ref>Benedetti (1999, 255).</ref> His brother and sister, Vladimir and Zinaïda, ran the studio and also taught there.<ref name=b256>Benedetti (1999, 256).</ref> It accepted young members of the Bolshoi and students from the [[Moscow Conservatory]].<ref name=b256/> Stanislavski also invited [[Serge Wolkonsky]] to teach [[diction]] and Lev Pospekhin (from the Bolshoi Ballet) to teach expressive movement and [[dance]].<ref name=b256/>

By means of his system, Stanislavski aimed to unite the work of [[Mikhail Shchepkin]] and [[Feodor Chaliapin]].<ref name=b256/> He hoped that the successful application of his system to [[opera]], with its inescapable conventionality, would demonstrate the universality of his methodology.<ref name=b256/> From his experience at the Opera Studio he developed his notion of "tempo-rhythm", which he was to develop most substantially in part two of ''An Actor's Work'' (1938).<ref name=b259>Benedetti (1999, 259).</ref>

A series of thirty-two lectures that he delivered to this studio between 1919 and 1922 were recorded by [[Konkordia Antarova]] and published in 1939; they have been translated into English as ''On the Art of the Stage'' (1950).<ref>Leach (2004, 51–52) and Benedetti (1999, 256, 259); see Stanislavski (1950). Konkordia Antarova made the notes on Stanislavski's teaching, which his sister Zinaïda located in 1938. [[Liubov Gurevich]] edited them and they were published in 1939.</ref> Pavel Rumiantsev—who joined the studio in 1920 from the Conservatory and sang the title role in its production of ''[[Eugene Onegin (opera)|Eugene Onegin]]'' in 1922—documented its activities until 1932; his notes were published in 1969 and appear in English under the title ''Stanislavski on Opera'' (1975).<ref name=b259/>

===Opera—Dramatic Studio===
Near the end of his life Stanislavski created an Opera—Dramatic Studio in his own apartment on [[Leontievski Lane]] (now known as "Stanislavski Lane"), under the auspices of which between 1935 and 1938 he offered a significant course in the system in its final form.<ref>Benedetti (1998, xii-xiii) and (1999, 359–360).</ref>

Given the difficulties he had with completing his manual for actors, in 1935 while recuperating in [[Nice]] Stanislavski decided that he needed to found a new studio if he was to ensure his legacy.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 359) and Magarshack (1950, 387).</ref> "Our school will produce not just individuals," he wrote, "but a whole company."<ref>Letter to Elizabeth Hapgood, quoted in Benedetti (1999a, 363).</ref> In June he began to instruct a group of teachers in the training techniques of the 'system' and the rehearsal processes of the Method of Physical Action.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 360) and Magarshack (1950, 388–391). Stanislavski taught them again in the autumn.</ref> The teachers had some previous experience studying the system as private students of Stanislavski's sister, Zinaïda.<ref name="Benedetti 1999a, 363">Benedetti (1999a, 363).</ref> His wife, Lilina, also joined the teaching staff.<ref>Magarshack (1950, 391).</ref> Twenty students (out of 3500 who had auditioned) were accepted for the dramatic section of the Opera—Dramatic Studio, where classes began on 15 November 1935.<ref>Benedetti (1999a, 362–363).</ref> Its members included the future artistic director of the MAT, [[Mikhail Nikolayevich Kedrov|Mikhail Kedrov]], who played [[Tartuffe]] in Stanislavski's unfinished production of [[Molière]]'s play (which, after Stanislavski's death, he completed).<ref>Solovyova (1999, 355–356).</ref>

Jean Benedetti argues that the course at the Opera—Dramatic Studio is "Stanislavski's true testament."<ref>Benedetti (1998, xii). His book ''Stanislavski and the Actor'' (1998) offers a reconstruction of that course.</ref> Stanislavski arranged a curriculum of four years of study that focused exclusively on technique and method—two years of the work detailed later in ''An Actor's Work on Himself'' and two of that in ''An Actor's Work on a Role''.<ref name="Benedetti 1999a, 363"/> Once the students were acquainted with the training techniques of the first two years, Stanislavski selected ''[[Hamlet]]'' and ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' for their work on roles.<ref name=benedetti368>Benedetti (1999a, 368).</ref> He "insisted that they work on classics, because, 'in any work of genius you find an ideal logic and progression.'"<ref name=benedetti368/> He worked with the students in March and April 1937, focusing on their sequences of physical actions, on establishing their through-lines of action, and on rehearsing scenes anew in terms of the actors' tasks.<ref name=benedetti369>Benedetti (1999a, 368–369).</ref> "They must avoid at all costs," Benedetti explains, "merely repeating the externals of what they had done the day before."<ref name=benedetti368/>