Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit [Paperback]

Bella Merlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2007

This is a hands-on, step-by-step guide to Stanislavsky's famous 'System' that illustrates, with exercises, each of his famous acting techniques. This comprehensive introduction to Stanislavsky is organised into three sections - Training; Rehearsal; and Performance. Each section offers definitions of the key terms found in Stanislavsky's teaching, illustrated with quotations and examples from Stanislavsky's own work. A final section offers a series of exercises to help today's actors practise using each of the 'tools' in turn. These include techniques such as given circumstances, the magic 'if' and emotion memory, which have made Stanislavsky famous the world over, but also some 50 others introduced one by one as they might become useful in the process of building a performance. "The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit" brings together in one volume for the first time all the terms and ideas explored and modified by Stanislavsky throughout his life from the early 1890s until his death in 1938. It is aimed chiefly at drama students, though professional actors and directors will also find it invaluable.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bella Merlin has successfully combined a professional career in acting (notably in Max Stafford-Clark's Out of Joint Theatre Company) with teaching at university level (notably in Birmingham and Exeter University Drama Departments). All of this experience feeds into her book. She is also the author of Beyond Stanislavsky (NHB) and a study of Stanislavsky for Routledge

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books (March 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1854597930
• ISBN-13: 978-1854597939
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,619,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, Useful, and Accessible, July 21, 2009

By 

M. Davison (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit (Paperback)

Easily one of the best books on breaking down Stanislavsky's system in a useful way.

It's not so much that there is anything necessarily new for those who are already familiar with Stanislavsky, but it is the approach that Dr. Merlin takes to present the material in a very accessible and organized way and her ability to perhaps correct some misconceptions about Stanislavsky and his views on the art of acting.

The toolkit is just that - tools for an actor (or director or student or whomever) to evaluate and use when needed. Merlin does not preach Stanislavsky's system as gospel, and neither did Stanislavsky himself. Instead this book becomes your kit full of "trays" of various tools that may or may not come in handy when an acting challenge arises. Some tools you may like and use all of the time without fail, others you may leave in the toolkit in favor of supplementing/replacing with a different approach from another source that works as a better tool for you.

It is the ease of attitude and frankness with the material that won me over with this book and Merlin's personal take on some of the tools that she has found useful or not useful in her own career.

Stanislavsky is too often misunderstood because of our own narrowness to pick and choose segments of his writings and take them out of context without evaluating the entire scope of his ideology - he was a brilliant pioneer in the advancement of the art of acting and Merlin does an excellent job of conveying his spirit through her thoughtful book and transforming his ideas into manageable tools that are so useful for any theatre practitioner today.