Customer Reviews

Stanislavsky in Focus (Russian Theatre Archive, Volume 17)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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'Stanislavsky in Focus' by Sharon M. Carnicke is by far the best book to date on Stanislavsky, the 'System', the'Method', that I've come across.Unlike so many solemn commentators in this area Carnicke speaks Russian and, most importantly, has had access to files in Moscow inaccessible up to now. This enables her to tell the story of Actor Training from Stanislavsky through Michael Chekhov and across the tlantic into Adler, Strasberg and Meisner, with a clarity and ease that future actors will be really grateful for.

This is the best book for giving context to Stanislavsky's contribution to the American actor training that is out. Hands down. Read this and be happy!! Great for teachers of acting and actors, too.

Acting as a concept is illusive at best. Teachers everywhere ludicrously believe that they have the answer. Based on their limited experience they continue to try to rewrite, redefine, and re-imagine Stanislavsky, who spent decades exploring the roads into acting. Some grab onto one specific part of his work and feature it as "the way." Others mistranslated the original Russian, no doubt to meet some personal agenda of their own. The most severe in my estimation are Elizabeth Hapgood's mistranslations in the assumed Bibles of Stanislavsky (An Actor Prepares and Creating a Role). [Generations of actors have been confused and misled because Hapgood chose to translate the original Russian word "zadacha" as "objective," not its correct meaning, "problem."] In Dr. Carnicke's book, Stanislavsky in Focus, she breaks through the confusions, and allows a clearer vision of Stanislavsky's work. The book is an enormously important and essential addition to the very limited amount of Stanislavsky's writings that have been translated into English.

At last. It makes sense. The Glossary alone is worth the purchase price.

I have read myriad theater books, and I have to say that this book is the best. Any serious actor MUST own a copy of this book. This book puts all other Stanislavsky books into perspective.