What is Stanislavsky's real name? Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky - the man who created the system

Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky (real name - Alekseev) - Russian theater director, actor and teacher, theater reformer. The creator of the famous acting system, which has been extremely popular in Russia and in the world for 100 years. National artist USSR (1936).

In 1888 he became one of the founders of the Moscow Society of Art and Literature. In 1898, together with Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko founded the Moscow Art Theater.

Konstantin Sergeevich was born in Moscow. By birth and upbringing, he belonged to the highest circle of Russian industrialists, and was related to all the eminent merchants and intellectuals of Moscow (with S.I. Mamontov, the Tretyakov brothers). In 1881 he left the Lazarev Institute and began working in a family firm. The family was fond of theater; the Moscow house was specially rebuilt for theatrical performances hall, in the Lyubimovka estate - a theater wing. He began his stage experiments in 1877 in his home Alekseevsky circle. He studied plastic arts and vocals intensively with the best teachers, learned from the examples of the actors of the Maly Theater, among his idols were Lensky, Musil, Fedotova, Ermolova. He played in operettas: “The Countess de la Frontière” by Lecoq (chieftain of the robbers), “Mademoiselle Nitouche” by Florimore, “The Mikado of Sullivan” by Nanki-Poo. In 1886, Stanislavsky was elected a member of the directorate and treasurer of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society and its conservatory. Together with the singer and teacher F.P. Komissarzhevsky and the artist F.L. Sologub, Stanislavsky is developing a project for the Moscow Society of Art and Literature (MOIiL), investing personal financial resources in it. The impetus for the creation of the society was a meeting with director A.F. Fedotov: in his play “The Players” by Gogol, Stanislavsky played Ikharev. The first performance took place on December 8 (20), 1888. During ten years of work on the stage of Moscow Institute of Philology and Literature, Stanislavsky became a famous actor, his performance of a number of roles was compared with best works professionals of the imperial stage, often in favor of the amateur actor: Anania Yakovlev in “Bitter Fate” (1888) and Platon Imshin in “Arbitrariness” by Pisemsky; Paratova in Ostrovsky’s “Dowry” (1890); Zvezdintsev in Tolstoy’s “Fruits of Enlightenment” (1891). On the stage of the society, the first directorial experience was Gnedich’s “Burning Letters” (1889). The tour of the “Meiningeners” (1890) made a strong impression on him, which opened up the prospects of directing art. Since January 1891, Stanislavsky officially took over the leadership of the director's department at the Society of Arts. Uriel Acosta Gutzkova (1895), “Othello” (1896), “ Polish Jew"Erkman-Chatrian (1896), "Much Ado About Nothing" (1897), "Twelfth Night" (1897), "The Sunken Bell" (1898) (played Acosta, Burgomaster Mathis, Benedict, Malvolio, Master Henry). He is looking for, according to the definition he later formulated, “director’s techniques for revealing the spiritual essence of the work.” Following the example of the Meiningen people, he uses genuine antique or exotic objects, experiments with light, sound, and rhythm. Subsequently, Stanislavsky will highlight his production of Dostoevsky’s “The Village of Stepanchikov” (1891) and the role of Thomas (“paradise for the artist”).

Dissatisfaction with the state of the stage at the end of the 19th century, the desire for stage reforms, and the denial of stage routine provoked the search for A. Antoine and O. Bram, A. Yuzhin at the Moscow Maly Theater and Nemirovich-Danchenko at the Philharmonic School. In 1897, the latter invited Stanislavsky to meet and discuss a number of issues relating to the state of the theater. Stanislavsky kept the business card, on the back of which it was written in pencil: “I’ll be at the Slavic Bazaar at one o’clock - won’t I see you?” He signed the envelope: “The famous first date-sitting with Nemirovich-Danchenko. The first moment of the theater’s founding.”

During this conversation, which became legendary, the tasks of the new theater business and the program for their implementation were formulated. According to Stanislavsky, they discussed “the foundations of the future business, issues of pure art, our artistic ideals, stage ethics, equipment, organizational plans, projects for the future repertoire, our relationships.” The conversation, which lasted eighteen hours, discussed the composition of the troupe, the core of which would be young, intelligent actors, and the modestly discreet design of the hall. They divided responsibilities (the literary and artistic veto belonged to Nemirovich-Danchenko, the artistic veto to Stanislavsky) and sketched out a system of slogans by which the theater would live. We discussed the range of authors (Ibsen, Hauptmann, Chekhov) and repertoire.

Almost a year later, June 14 (26), 1898 in the Moscow region dacha place Pushkino began the work of the Moscow Art Theater troupe, created from Nemirovich’s students at the Philharmonic and amateur actors from the Society of Art and Literature. In the very first months of rehearsals, it became clear that the division of responsibilities of the leaders was conditional. Rehearsals for Tsar Fyodor began with Stanislavsky, who created the mise-en-scène of the play, which shocked the audience at the premiere, and Nemirovich-Danchenko insisted on choosing his student I.V. Moskvin for the role of Tsar Fyodor from six candidates and, in individual lessons with the artist, helped him create touching image“The peasant king”, who became the opening of the performance. Stanislavsky believed that Tsar Fyodor began the historical and everyday line at the Moscow Art Theater, to which he attributed the productions of The Merchant of Venice (1898), Antigone (1899), The Death of Ivan the Terrible (1899), and The Power of Darkness (1902). ), Julius Caesar (1903), etc. With Chekhov, he connected another - the most important line of productions of the Art Theater: the line of intuition and feelings - where he included “Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov (1906), “A Month in the Country” ( 1909), “The Brothers Karamazov” (1910) and the Village of Stepanchikovo (1917) by F.M. Dostoevsky and others.

The most significant performances of the Art Theater, such as “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” by A.K. Tolstoy, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard by A.P. Chekhov, were staged jointly by Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. In the following productions of Chekhov, the discoveries of the Seagull were continued and brought to harmony. The principle of continuous development united a scattered, scattered life on stage. A special principle of stage communication (“an object outside the partner”), incomplete, semi-closed, was developed. The viewer at Chekhov's performances at the Moscow Art Theater was pleased and tormented by the recognition of life, in its previously unimaginable detail.

IN working together M. Gorky's play “At the Depths” (1902) revealed the contradictions between two approaches. For Stanislavsky, the impetus was a visit to the shelters of the Khitrov market. His directorial plan is full of sharply observed details: Medvedev’s dirty shirt, shoes wrapped in outerwear, on which Satin sleeps. Nemirovich-Danchenko looked for “cheerful lightness” on stage as the key to the play. Stanislavsky admitted that it was Nemirovich-Danchenko who found “the real manner of playing Gorky’s plays,” but he himself did not accept this manner of “simply presenting the role.” The poster for “At the Lower Depths” was not signed by either director. From the beginning of the theater, both directors sat at the director's table. Since 1906, “each of us had his own table, his own play, his own production,” because, explains Stanislavsky, everyone “wanted and could only follow his own independent line, while remaining faithful to the general, basic principle of the theater.” The first performance where Stanislavsky worked separately was Brandt. At this time, Stanislavsky, together with Meyerhold, created the experimental Studio on Povarskaya (1905). Stanislavsky would then continue his experiments in searching for new theatrical forms in L. Andreev’s “The Life of a Man” (1907): against a background of black velvet, schematically depicted fragments of interiors appeared in which patterns of people appeared: grotesquely pointed lines of costumes, make-up masks. In “The Blue Bird” by M. Maeterlinck (1908), the effect of black velvet and lighting techniques were used for magical transformations.

When creating the Moscow Art Theater, Stanislavsky believed Nemirovich-Danchenko that tragic roles were not his repertoire. On stage, the Moscow Art Theater completed only a few of his previous tragic roles in performances from the repertoire of the Society of Arts and Letters (Henry from The Sunken Bell, Imshin). In the productions of the first season he played Trigorin (The Seagull) and Levborg (Edda Gabler). According to critics, his masterpieces on the Moscow Art Theater stage were the following roles: Astrov ("Uncle Vanya"), Shtokman ("Doctor Shtokman"), Vershinin ("Three Sisters"), Satin ("At the Depths"), Gaev ("The Cherry Orchard" ), Shabelsky (“Ivanov”, 1904). The duet of Vershinin - Stanislavsky and Masha - Knipper entered the treasury of stage lyrics.

Stanislavsky continues to set himself more and more new tasks in the acting profession. He demands from himself the creation of a system that could give the artist the opportunity for public creativity according to the laws of the “art of experience” at every moment of being on stage, an opportunity that opens up to geniuses in moments of the highest inspiration. Your search in the area theater theory and pedagogy Stanislavsky transferred to the First Studio he created (public showings of its performances - from 1913).

Following the cycle of roles in modern drama(Chekhov, Gorky, L. Tolstoy, Ibsen, Hauptmann, Hamsun) comes a cycle of roles in the classics (Rakitin in A Month in the Country, 1909; Krutitsky, “Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man,” 1910; Argan in “The Imaginary Invalid,” 1913 ; Famusov in “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov, 1906; Count Lubin in “Provincial Girl”; Cavalier in “The Landlady of the Goldoni Hotel,” 1914).

Stanislavsky’s fate was influenced by his last two acting works: Salieri in the tragedy Mozart and Pushkin’s Salieri (1915), and Rostanev, whom he was supposed to play again in the film that had been in preparation since 1916. new production Village of Stepanchikova F.M. Dostoevsky. The reason for Rostanev's failure, a role not shown to the public, remains one of the mysteries of the history of theater and the psychology of creativity. According to many testimonies, Stanislavsky “rehearsed perfectly.” After the dress rehearsal on March 28 (April 10), 1917, he stopped working on the role. After “not giving birth” to Rostanev, Stanislavsky forever refused new roles (he broke this refusal only out of necessity, during a tour abroad in 1922–1924, agreeing to play Voivode Shuisky in the old play “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich”).

Stanislavski's first production after the revolution was Byron's Cain (1920). Rehearsals had just begun when Stanislavsky was taken hostage during the White breakthrough to Moscow. The general crisis was aggravated at the Moscow Art Theater by the fact that a significant part of the troupe led by Kachalov, who went on tour in 1919, found themselves cut off from Moscow by war events. The production of The Inspector General (1921) was an absolute victory. For the role of Khlestakov, Stanislavsky called Mikhail Chekhov, who had recently transferred from the Moscow Art Theater (the theater had already been declared academic) to the 1st studio. In 1922, the Moscow Art Theater, under the direction of Stanislavsky, went on a long foreign tour of Europe and America, which was preceded by a return (not to in full force) Kachalovsky troupe.

The issue of changing theatrical generations at the Moscow Art Theater is becoming increasingly acute. After much hesitation, the 1st and 3rd studios of the Art Theater became independent theaters in 1924, and studio members of the 2nd studio joined the theater troupe: A.K. Tarasova, O.N. Androvskaya, K.N. Elanskaya, A.P. .Zueva, V.D.Bendina, V.S.Sokolova, N.P.Batalov, N.P.Khmelev, M.N.Kedrov, B.N.Livanov, V.Ya.Stanitsyn, M.I.Prudkin , A.N. Gribov, M.M. Yanshin, V.A. Orlov, I.Ya. Sudakov, N.M. Gorchakov, I.M. Kudryavtsev and others. Stanislavsky painfully experiences the “betrayal” of his students, giving the Moscow Art Theater studios names of Shakespeare's daughters from King Lear: Goneril and Regan - 1st and 3rd studios, Cordelia - 2nd.

Stanislavsky’s activities in the 1920s–1930s were determined, first of all, by his desire to defend traditional artistic values Russian stage art. In the press of those years, accusations of “backwardness,” “unwillingness” to accept revolutionary reality, and sabotage were heard more and more persistently. The activities of the Moscow Art Theater took place in an atmosphere of rejection of the “academic and bourgeois theater” by influential Proletkultists and Lefovites, who addressed socio-political accusations against the Art Theater. The production of Warm Heart (1926) was a response to those critics who asserted that “The Art Theater is dead.” The rapid lightness of the tempo and picturesque festivity distinguished Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais (1927) (scenery by A.Ya. Golovin).

After young people from the 2nd studio and from the school of the 3rd studio joined the Moscow Art Theater troupe, Stanislavsky taught them classes and produced their works performed with young directors on stage. Among these works, not always signed by Stanislavsky, are The Battle of Life according to Dickens (1924), Days of the Turbins (1926), The Gerard Sisters (a play by V. Massa based on the melodrama of Dennery and Cormona Two Orphans) and Armored Train 14-69 (1927); Embezzlers Kataeva and Untilovsk Leonova (1928).

After a severe heart attack that occurred on the anniversary evening at the Moscow Art Theater in 1928, doctors forever forbade Stanislavsky to appear on stage. Stanislavsky returned to work only in 1929, focusing on theoretical research, on pedagogical tests of the “system” and on classes in his Opera studio, which existed since 1918 ( Opera theatre them. K.S.Stanislavsky).

For the production of Othello at the Moscow Art Theater, he wrote the director's score for the tragedy, which he sent act by act along with letters from Nice, where he hoped to complete his treatment. Published in 1945, the score remained unused, since I.Ya. Sudakov managed to release the performance before the end of Stanislavsky’s work.

In the early 1930s, Stanislavsky, using his authority and the support of Gorky, who had returned to the USSR, turned to the government to achieve a special position for the Art Theater. They went to meet him halfway. In January 1932 the theater received the name of the Moscow Art Theater of the USSR, in September 1932 the theater was named after Gorky, in 1937 it was awarded the Order of Lenin, in 1938 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. In 1933 the Moscow Art Theater was given the building former Theater Korsha, where a branch of the Moscow Art Theater was formed. A museum (in 1923) and an experimental stage laboratory (in 1942) were organized at the theater. The art theater was declared the main stage of the country. The danger of the Moscow Art Theater turning into an ordinary theater, as well as the danger of its capture by RAPP, was averted, but the theater risked remaining defenseless against another threat - being strangled in the arms of power.

Among the works of the Moscow Art Theater of these years are Afinogenov’s Fear (1931), Dead Souls by Gogol (1932), Talents and admirers of Ostrovsky (1933), Moliere by Bulgakov (1936), Tartuffe by Moliere(1939) (experimental work prepared for the stage after the death of Stanislavsky by M.N. Kedrov). In 1935, the last Stanislavsky Opera and Drama Studio opened (among its works was Hamlet). Almost without leaving his apartment on Leontyevsky Lane, Stanislavsky met with actors at home, turning rehearsals into an acting school based on the method of psycho-physical actions he was developing.

Continuing the development of the “system”, following My Life in Art (American edition – 1924, Russian – 1926), Stanislavsky managed to send to print the first volume of An Actor’s Work on Himself (1938, posthumously).

Stamp of Russia 2000.
V. E. Meyerhold and K. S. Stanislavsky

Died on August 7, 1938 in Moscow. An autopsy showed that Konstantin Sergeevich had a bunch of diseases: an enlarged, failing heart, emphysema, aneurysms - a consequence of a severe heart attack in 1928. “Sharply expressed arteriosclerotic changes were found in all the vessels of the body, with the exception of the brain, which did not succumb to this process,” is the conclusion of the doctors.

Biography
Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky is a Russian director-reformer, actor, teacher, theater theorist. Stanislavsky's activities had a significant impact on Russian and world theater of the twentieth century. Performances: “The Seagull” (1898), “Uncle Vanya” (1899), “Three Sisters” (1901), “At the Lower Depths” (1902), “The Cherry Orchard” (1904), “ Blue bird"(1908), "A Month in the Country" (1909), "Hotelkeeper" (1914), "Warm Heart" (1926), etc. He developed a methodology for acting creativity (the "Stanislavsky system").
Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseev (Stanislavsky) was born in Moscow on January 17 (5), 1863. He lived for forty years in his parents’ house at the Red Gate. The Alekseevs were hereditary manufacturers and industrialists, specialists in the manufacture of gimp - the finest gold and silver wire from which brocade was woven. Only Stanislavsky’s grandmother, the once famous Parisian actress Marie Varley, who came to St. Petersburg on tour, had anything to do with the theater. She married a rich merchant Yakovlev. From this marriage Stanislavsky's future mother, Elizaveta Vasilievna, was born.
Kostya was a weak child. He suffered from rickets and was often sick. Until the age of ten I couldn’t pronounce “r” and “l”. But thanks to his mother’s care, he grew stronger and became a leader among his peers.
The large Alekseev family (there were nine children) spared no expense on education. In addition to ordinary subjects, children studied foreign languages, learned dancing and fencing. A large hall was set aside for a home theater in the Alekseevs’ house.
In the summer we vacationed in Lyubimovka, on the banks of the Klyazma. Celebrations with fireworks and, of course, amateur performances were held in a specially built home theater, the so-called Alekseevsky Circle (1877-1888). The initiator of the theatrical ventures was the young Konstantin Alekseev.
Konstantin worked at his father’s factory for many years and became one of the directors. He traveled to France more than once to study improved machines. Working out during the day family business, in the evenings he played in the Alekseevsky theater group. Konstantin was recognized as the best amateur actor. In January 1885, he adopted the stage name Stanislavsky in honor of the talented amateur artist Dr. Markov, who performed under this name.
Back in 1884, Stanislavsky expressed the idea of ​​​​creating a completely new theater club or a society where amateurs could “test and scientifically develop their powers.” In 1888, Konstantin Sergeevich developed the charter of the Moscow Society of Art and Literature and became one of its leaders. A successful relative, Moscow mayor Nikolai Alekseev frowns: “Kostya doesn’t have what he needs in his head.”
But after the first performances, critics brought Stanislavsky to the forefront of Russian acting art. Moscow started talking about him as an excellent actor and an extraordinary director who knows how to create performances full of life's truth. Next to him on stage shines Maria Petrovna Perevoshchikova, who took the stage name Lilina. The granddaughter of a Moscow professor, the daughter of a venerable notary, who graduated from the Catherine Institute noble maidens with a big gold medal, she decided to devote herself to the theater. On July 5 (17), 1889, Stanislavsky married her in the Lyubimov church.
Route honeymoon young traditional - Germany, France, Vienna; hotels, museums, theaters, walks... In March 1890, a daughter, Ksenia, was born into the family, but she soon fell ill with pneumonia and died on May 1. In July of the following year, another daughter was born, who was named Kira...
Stanislavsky devoted a whole decade (1888-1898) to activities in the Society. Performances such as “Othello” by Shakespeare, “The Fruits of Enlightenment” by Leo Tolstoy, “Uriel Acosta” by K. Gutskov, “Bitter Fate” by A. Pisemsky and his “Arbitraries”, “Dowry” by A. Ostrovsky, “The Sunken Bell” by G. Hauptmann, “The Polish Jew” by Erkmann-Chatrian, productions of Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies” and Moliere’s comedies, were captivated by the integrity of the director’s concept, the well-coordinated performance of the ensemble of actors, the truthful performance of the roles, and the excellent grouping crowd scenes, careful design. They were even set as an example for the Maly Theater. Name young director Stanislavsky became widely known.
The productions of the Society of Art and Literature attracted the attention of V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, popular playwright, theater critic and teacher. He also dreamed of a new theater that would truthfully depict life. On June 21, 1897, Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko met in a separate room at the Moscow Slavic Bazaar restaurant. “A significant meeting” - this is how Stanislavsky will title the chapter of his book dedicated to this conversation: “The World Conference of Nations does not discuss its important government issues with the same precision with which we then discussed the foundations of the future business, issues of pure art, our artistic ideals; stage ethics, technique, organizational plans, projects for the future repertoire, our relationships.”
The restaurant closed, and Stanislavsky invited his interlocutor to go to his dacha in Lyubimovka. There, the next day, their eighteen-hour conversation ended. We agreed to create a “Russian exemplary theater” of great thoughts and feelings.
The troupe of the future theater was made up of members of the Society of Art and Literature and graduates of the Nemirovich-Danchenko class from the Philharmonic School. In addition, they invited several professional actors from the outside, but with the strictest selection.
The troupe gathered in Pushkin at the end of June 1898. Before the start of the rehearsal work, Konstantin Sergeevich said: “We have taken on a business that is not simple, private, but public character. We strive to create the first intelligent, moral public theater, and this high goal we dedicate our lives.”
Subsequently, speaking about the program of the Art Theater, Stanislavsky called it truly revolutionary: “We protested against the old manner of acting, and against theatricality, and against false pathos, declamation, and against acting, and against the bad conventions of staging, scenery, and against the premiership , which spoiled the ensemble, and against the entire system of performances, and against the insignificant repertoire of the theaters of that time.”
October 14 (26), 1898 significant date in the history of the world performing arts- opening day. The play “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” by A.K. Tolstoy received an enthusiastic reception from the audience. In the first season it runs 57 times! True, the subsequent performances “The Sunken Bell”, “The Self-Governors”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “The Innkeeper” were not so successful.
On December 17, the premiere of “The Seagull,” Chekhov’s play, which had already suffered a scandalous failure, took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater. This premiere was the true birth of the Moscow Art Theater. For the first time in modern theater, the director became an ideological leader and interpreter work of art. The performance created a unique atmosphere Chekhov's play. Its peculiarity was not in the plot, because Chekhov depicts seemingly the most ordinary life, but “in what is not conveyed in words, but hidden under them in pauses, or in the looks of the actors, in the radiation of their inner feelings,” wrote Stanislavsky. The theater spoke about the most important thing: the life of the human spirit. The premiere of “The Seagull” became a theatrical legend, and the silhouette of a flying seagull became the emblem of the Moscow Art Theater.
A collaboration between the playwright and the theater arose: Chekhov gave all his subsequent plays to the Moscow Art Theater. The main theme of “The Seagull” for Stanislavsky was the hopeless loneliness of all its characters. The main theme of Uncle Vanya (1899) is resistance to this loneliness. And in “Three Sisters” (1901) the motif of persistent patience and duty that must be fulfilled becomes stronger. “What a pity for the sisters!.. And how madly I want to live!” - Leonid Andreev formulated the mood of the performance. The playwright and the theater understood each other better and better. In the process of working on Three Sisters, Stanislavsky could already afford to discuss with the author. In the book “My Life in Art,” the director wrote that the rehearsals of the play were going difficult and poorly, until it suddenly dawned on him: Chekhov’s people “do not rush around with their melancholy, but, on the contrary, are looking for fun, laughter, cheerfulness; they want to live, and not vegetate... After that,” Stanislavsky assured, “the work began to boil.”
The ensemble of the Art Theater was famous for its natural performance. But such a “presence effect”, such a complete merging of stage and hall, as in Doctor Shtokman (1900), was amazing even for the Art Theater. Ibsen's play, written in 1882, was staged by Stanislavski and embodied the most important themes of our time.
In 1902, Stanislavsky worked on the plays “The Bourgeois” and “At the Lower Depths” by Gorky. He is attracted by Gorky's dramaturgy, in which he sees artistic comprehension socio-political realities of his time.
“At the Lower Depths” is the pinnacle of the Art Theater in its long and complex communication with the writer. In this play by the young Gorky, Stanislavsky combined realism with romance in his performance of the character of Satin. It is Satin who pronounces the words: “Man - this sounds proud.” The actor carried from the stage faith in man and his high purpose.
In January 1904, on Chekhov's birthday, the premiere of The Cherry Orchard took place. Stanislavsky, who played the role of Gaev, enthusiastically accepted this play. “I cried like a woman, I wanted to, but I couldn’t help myself...” he admitted to Chekhov. “I feel a special tenderness and love for this play... I love every word, every remark, every comma in it.” However, he immediately entered into an argument with the author: “This is not a comedy, not a farce, as you wrote, it is a tragedy.”

At the beginning of July, Chekhov passed away. Stanislavsky feels the death of the writer as an orphan: “Chekhov’s authority protected the theater from many things. I didn’t think that I was so attached to him and that it would be such a gap in my life.”
This was the last collaboration between the playwright and the theater. Stanislavsky is becoming more and more interested in the process of rehearsals and working with actors. He can delay the rehearsal until the start of the evening performance or turn it into a lesson in diction or plasticity, and can offer the actor dozens of options for performing an episode. “With him it’s difficult, without him it’s impossible,” the actress said about Stanislavsky, whom he forced to repeat one phrase dozens of times.
It became impossible to specifically engage in experimental work in search of a new style of acting at the Art Theater itself. Stanislavsky creates theater studio, recruits former Moscow Art Theater actor Vsevolod Meyerhold, who was keen on experiments in the field of conventional theater. Stanislavsky dreams of a performance raised above everyday life, revealing human passions and thoughts with such depth, with such rigor and simplicity, which the theater has never known.
However, watching studio performances in the fall of 1905 made Konstantin Sergeevich doubt the correctness of Meyerhold’s experiments. He closed the first one creative laboratory The Moscow Art Theater placed the entire burden of material damage on itself.
Meyerhold's conventional art was alien to Stanislavsky. Summing up these experiments, with his characteristic sincerity, Stanislavsky says: “By breaking away from realism, we - artists - felt helpless and without ground under our feet.”
In January 1906, the management of the Moscow Art Theater decided to send the troupe on a foreign tour. Cities flash by - Dusseldorf, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Cologne, then Warsaw; The theater season in many cities takes place under the banner of the Art Theater. The young, friendly, talented troupe had big success. Caused surprise high culture labor, beautiful art, height of ethics, excellent discipline.
Stanislavsky was an outstanding actor; he amazed with the subtle organic nature of his art and the amazing perfection of external transformation. His favorite roles were: Astrov (“Uncle Vanya”), Vershinin (“Three Sisters”), Shtokman (“Doctor Shtokman”), Rostanev (“The Village of Stepanchikovo”)...
Abroad, Stanislavsky is called a “brilliant actor”; he is carried in the arms of the citizens of Leipzig. In Prague, guests are greeted by the entire city - “everyone takes off their hats and bows like kings,” Stanislavsky describes in surprise. Newspapers are filled with articles and photographs; receptions and performances are given in honor of the guest performers. Throughout Central Europe the theater was a triumph.
In May 1906, the “artists” returned to Moscow.
Konstantin Sergeevich usually spent his summer in several places - be it Lyubimovka, Essentuki, Wiesbaden, Badenweiler or a steamship trip along the Volga. In 1906, Stanislavsky, perhaps for the first time, lived in the quiet Finnish resort of Ganges for two months in a row. His wife and children, Kira and Igor, are vacationing with him.
Konstantin Sergeevich valued his family hearth very much and was faithful to Maria Petrovna. He was wary of other women: “In this regard, I am selfish. If you get carried away, you’ll leave your wife and children.”
In the 1906-1907 season, Konstantin Sergeevich began, in his words, “to take a closer look at himself and others while working in the theater.” He had already accumulated a lot of stage experience, which required generalization, analysis, and verification. The season opens with the premiere of “Woe from Wit.” The overall score of the performance is created by Nemirovich-Danchenko. Stanislavsky is preparing the role of Famusov and working with other performers.
During the period of fashion for decadence, Stanislavsky staged in 1907 experimental performances “The Drama of Life” by K. Hamsun and “The Life of Man” by L. Andreev. These experiments brought nothing but grief and disappointment. In the plays of the Symbolists there is a completely different system of feelings than in the works of Chekhov or Gorky.
Gradually, Stanislavsky's rehearsals turn into lessons, the theater into a laboratory, where more and more new experiments are carried out, sometimes controversial. The theater's shareholders grant him the right to choose one play per season “for his research.”
One of these plays is “The Blue Bird” by M. Maeterlinck (1908) - Stanislavsky’s triumph. The performance stood out for its complete, perfect fusion of acting, music, and scenography into a single whole. The voices of the actors sounded ghostly, intertwining into a single melody; the choirs sang, endlessly repeating “We are in a long line following the Blue Bird, following the Blue Bird, following the Blue Bird...”.
Stanislavsky argued that a performance, mechanically repeated, refers only to the “art of presentation,” while all actors need to strive for the “art of experience,” giving “performance” a subordinate place. In every performance he will now achieve the full truth actor's well-being and everyone stage action actor.
Shakespeare's Hamlet also becomes a “play for quest.” In the same 1908, Stanislavsky invited the young English director Gordon Craig to work on this performance. Stanislavski himself did not see Craig's work, but heard stories about him from Isadora Duncan, whom he met back in 1905. Duncan for Stanislavsky is the ideal embodiment of all his aspirations for true art. Proof of the possibilities of choreography beyond the traditional ballet that he was so passionate about in his youth.
However, the art of experiencing, true feeling is not needed in Craig's solution; he is passionate about symbolism and puts forward the thesis about the puppet actor. The directors' paths do not converge - they diverge. The contrast between the goals and methods of Craig and Stanislavsky is revealed.
In the production of Turgenev's A Month in the Country (1909), Stanislavsky put his new method of working with performers into practice. He is convinced of the correctness of his chosen path of working with the actor. The ensemble cast was impeccable. Stanislavsky himself played the role of Rakitin.
In 1910, cut off from the theater by a long illness, Stanislavsky delved into the study of the “life of the human spirit” of the actor on stage. He discovers more and more new elements of his “system”, clarifies the laws that underlie the art of acting. Borrows from Gogol the definition of the “nail” of the role, then finds his own - “ end-to-end effect" New terms and concepts are coming into use in the theater - “pieces”, “tasks”, “affective memory”, “communication”, “circle of attention”.
With the help of his closest friend and colleague L.A. Sulerzhitsky, he created in 1912 at the Moscow Art Theater the so-called First Studio for young actors. Overloaded with work at the Moscow Art Theater, Konstantin Sergeevich works with studio students only in fits and starts; the course of classes according to the system is taught by Sulerzhitsky.
The studio's productions of "The Death of Hope" by Geijermans and "The Cricket on the Stove" by Charles Dickens were successful. According to Stanislavsky himself, they discovered in young performers “a simplicity and depth hitherto unknown to us” and clearly proved the fruitfulness of applying the principles of his system.
Stanislavsky met the World War in the European resort of Marienbad. While the crowded train from Munich was heading to the Lindau border station, the deadline set for the departure of foreigners from Germany expired. Interrogations, searches... With difficulty Stanislavsky returns to Russia.
Konstantin Sergeevich turned out to be the only director of the gold-plating factory who considered it immoral to profit from the war. “I had a small incident at the factory, and I gave up both incredible income and salary. It’s true that it hurts your pocket, but it doesn’t stain your soul,” he writes to his daughter.
Stanislavsky releases "Woe from Wit" in Dobuzhinsky's scenery. He works through all the roles and crowd scenes with the actors (in “pieces” and “affective memory”).
Stanislavsky wants to oppose the war solemn peace"Little tragedies" by Pushkin. Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko and Alexander Benois as an artist and director. But the stage trilogy does not constitute a unity, or rather, it appears only in Benois’s scenography.
In 1916, Stanislavsky opened the Second Studio. It is headed by the Moscow Art Theater director V. Mchedelov. Studio artists A. Tarasova, N. Batalov and others then became part of the main troupe of the Art Theater. In addition, in 1918 Stanislavsky would also head the Opera Studio at the Bolshoi Theater...
For six years - from 1918 to 1923 - the Moscow Art Theater showed only two premieres ("Cain" and "The Inspector General"), one of which is a revival of an old play. Stanislavski staged Cain in 1920. He saw the performance as a mystery play set in a Gothic cathedral. Unfortunately, “Cain” had to be shown unfinished, and the audience received it coldly.
Meanwhile, the Soviet government placed a large mansion on Leontyevsky Lane at Stanislavsky's disposal. This house, which was an example of Moscow serf architecture of the 18th century, had halls that seemed created for rehearsals, and numerous rooms on the second floor could accommodate all family members and a variety of property - books, stained glass windows, models.
In 1922, the Art Theater, headed by Stanislavsky, went abroad for a long tour. Tours in Berlin (as in all other cities) open with “Tsar Fedor”, continue with Chekhov’s performances, then play “At the Lower Depths”, “The Brothers Karamazov”. Stanislavsky is a landmark of Europe, then of America. His popularity as a director and creator of the system acting everything increases.
Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington... Stanislavsky plays, rehearses, attends receptions, clubs, concert halls, and at night writes the script for the film “The Tragedy of Nations” about Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich for a Hollywood company.
At the suggestion of an American publishing house, Stanislavsky begins work on a book about the theater. Publishers demand that the manuscript be submitted on time, and the director has to write in fits and starts - during intermissions, on trams, and somewhere on the boulevard... The book “My Life in Art” will be published in 1924 in Boston. The book will be published in Russian only in 1926. It will be translated into many languages, including English, because it was the new, Moscow edition that Stanislavsky considered the main one.
Konstantin Sergeevich spends the summer at German resorts, the autumn in Paris, in rehearsals, in preparation for a new cycle of tours; sails to New York in November. In America, he finds that ordinary Americans “are extremely friendly with the Russians. They sincerely love us Russians.” Businessmen are a different matter: when it comes to the dollar, “they are very unpleasant.” Entrepreneurs are ruthless, merciless, and the law is always on their side. The slightest violation of the contract, and disaster - “walk on the sea.”
He returned to Moscow in early August 1924. In the fall, posters announce to Muscovites the new season of the Art Theater. Konstantin Sergeevich writes to his son Igor (he lives in Switzerland, under the constant threat of a hereditary predisposition to tuberculosis) that in Moscow “huge changes have occurred, primarily in the composition of the audience themselves.” He reports that they have been forgotten in Moscow - they don’t bow in the streets, that criticism is mostly hostile towards the theater, but “ higher spheres“They fully understand the importance of theater. In 1926, the Opera Studio received theater premises on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. Konstantin Sergeevich conducts rehearsals. It demands from performers scrupulous precision of stage actions and their everyday justification.
In the words of Stanislavsky, every true artist must have his own super-super task, the ultimate goal towards which his art is directed. “If an actor does not have his own super task,” Stanislavsky taught, “he will not a real artist. The ultimate task of a role can be understood in different ways, and this depends on the ultimate task of the actor himself - the person.”
Very often, in order to achieve the correct performance, Konstantin Sergeevich paused the rehearsal and began to disassemble the piece. The performer told how and why he came to the state in which the action found him... Those participating gave advice to the director or argued with him. At Stanislavsky's rehearsals, several people always wrote down his examples, statements, and results. But it happened differently. They were just starting the scene when Konstantin Sergeevich was already stopping the performers: “I don’t believe it!”...
In January 1926, posters appeared on Moscow streets announcing the premiere of A. Ostrovsky’s “Warm Heart.” Stanislavsky approached classic comedy in a new way. Truthfulness - and at the same time bright, festive theatricality, satirical causticity. Stanislavsky here strived for that highest, justified grotesque, of which he considered the actor to be an example in Russian art Alexandrinsky Theater Varlamova.
After “Warm Heart” comes “Days of the Turbins” (1926) by M. Bulgakov. Stanislavsky, who did not work on the play on a daily basis, this time does not break what he has done, as often happens after viewings. On the contrary, he accepts everything found by the director and the young actors, yesterday's studio students.
The theater addresses modern dramaturgy and follows the path of creating a social performance. However, Stanislavsky’s enormous directorial and production culture cannot be truly in demand either in “Untilovsk” by L. Leonov, or in “The Embezzlers” by V. Kataev, staged for the thirtieth anniversary of the Moscow Art Theater. On these anniversary days, Stanislavsky last time came on stage. While performing the role of Vershinin in Chekhov's Three Sisters, he felt ill on stage, barely finished the act and fell ill. A severe heart disease (angina pectoris, complicated by a heart attack) forever deprived him of the opportunity to perform on stage.
The last decade of Stanislavsky's life were years of progressive illness, which confined him to bed for many months, long trips for treatment and recreation abroad or to sanatoriums near Moscow, and at the same time work on the next productions at the Moscow Art Theater.
At first Stanislavsky strictly adhered to the regimen prescribed by doctors. But then, carried away by the rehearsal, he worked for hours until the nurse on duty with him stopped working. Having barely recovered from his first serious attack of illness, while being treated in Nice, he is developing a detailed plan for staging Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, consulting with studio heads, conducting extensive correspondence and working hard on a book on acting.
In the 1932-1933 season, Konstantin Sergeevich produced the plays “Dead Souls” based on Gogol and “Talents and Admirers” by A.N. Ostrovsky. These are his last productions on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. The seriously ill Stanislavsky is already conducting rehearsals for Ostrovsky's play. for the most part in his office, reclining on the sofa. These were rather classes in acting, according to the method of physical actions developed by Stanislavsky.
Flu, heart attacks, irregular pulses, pain - and daily work continues with actors and directors of the Art Theater and Opera House. Plans for organizing the Theater Academy culminated in the spring of 1935 with the opening of the State Opera and Drama Studio. Konstantin Sergeevich was appointed its director.
Stanislavsky's opera performances are a separate topic. Konstantin Sergeevich staged in various genres: fairy tales (“The Snow Maiden”, “The Golden Cockerel”, “ May night"), romantic (" Queen of Spades", "Rigoletto", "Cio-Cio-san"), comedy ("The Secret Marriage" by Cimarosa, "Don Pasquale" by Donizetti, " Barber of Seville"Rossini), " folk drama"(Boris Godunov, The Tsar's Bride), lyrical and everyday life (Eugene Onegin, La Boheme).
Stanislavski does not detract from the specificity of the opera; he attaches great importance to vocals; work with his studio students the best teachers modernity. At the same time, Konstantin Sergeevich is convinced that the main principles of creating an image by an opera actor are fundamentally the same as the principles of creating an image by a dramatic actor.
In the play “Eugene Onegin,” the actors trained by Stanislavsky were able to fill the conventional form of the opera with deep psychological content, lively feelings, and behavior. Stanislavsky laid the foundation for the musical theater of the stage ensemble (until then, the stage ensemble was considered the privilege of the dramatic theater).
January 1938. The celebration of Stanislavski's 75th birthday was turned into an official celebration by the Soviet government. Countless greetings come from all over the country and from abroad. Leontyevsky Lane, where Konstantin Sergeevich lives, is renamed Stanislavsky Street.
Overcoming his ever-increasing weakness, he becomes interested in applying the method he discovered of working on a performance at the rehearsals of Moliere's Tartuffe.
Already terminally ill, Stanislavsky was brought the layout of his book “An Actor’s Work on Oneself” to sign for printing. Remembering last years life of Stanislavsky, nurse Dukhovskaya will say: “He won time from death.” The autopsy showed that ten years were truly won from death by force of will and mind: an enlarged, failing heart, emphysema, aneurysms - a consequence of a severe heart attack in 1928. “Sharply expressed arteriosclerotic changes were found in all vessels of the body, with the exception of the brain, which did not undergo this process,” is the conclusion of the doctors.
Konstantin Sergeevich died on August 7, 1938. “Stanislavsky was not afraid of death,” Yu.A. writes in his memoirs. Bakhrushin, son of the founder of the Moscow Theater Museum, - but hated it as the opposite of life.”

Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky (whose real name is Alekseev) – famous director, actor and theater teacher.

He is known for having founded a school of acting and theater arts using his own unique system. This system is known throughout the world as the Stanislavsky system.

It is also admirable that it is still taught to this day even in Hollywood.

Stanislavsky's childhood

The future theatrical genius was born in Moscow on January 5 (17), 1863, in the family of manufacturer Sergei Vladimirovich Alekseev and his wife Elizaveta Vasilievna. Family business Alekseev was the production of gimp and precious metals. This is a wire whose thickness resembles the thread from which brocade was woven.

Constantine's childhood was marred by frequent illnesses. However, the mother’s efforts helped the child not only straighten out, but also demonstrate leadership skills among children. And there were nine of them in the family itself. They tried to educate their children well, sparing no effort or money.

The beginning of Stanislavsky's theatrical career

The summer vacation of the large Alekseev family took place near the Klyazma River, in Lyubimovka. An indispensable attribute of recreation there were cheerful festivities and amateur performances, for which a special theater room was even built, which everyone called the Alekseevsky Circle. It operated from 1877 to 1888.

Even then, young Kostya Alekseev was the main organizer of all theatrical productions this home theater society. When childhood was over, Konstantin grew up for a long time served with his father, becoming the director of the factory. But in his free time from work, he took part in amateur performances of the family theater group.

At the beginning of 1885, the pseudonym Stanislavsky was first voiced in application to Konstantin Alekseev. In these amateur performances, along with the future famous theater figure, Maria Petrovna Perevoshchikova played very brightly under the pseudonym Lilina. In 1889, the young people got married, and the next year they had a daughter, but she soon died. A year later, another daughter, Kira, was born.

Stanislavski's professional career

From the beginning of 1891, Stanislavsky supervised directing at the Moscow Society of Art and Literature, even then being in search, according to him own definition, given by him later, “director’s techniques for identifying the spiritual essence of the work.” Taking into account the experience of the Meiningen students, Stanislavsky began to introduce genuine rarities and exotic objects into the props during classes with actors.

He began to conduct various experiments with sound, rhythm and lighting. In 1998, in Pushkino, at one of the dachas, the Moscow Art Theater troupe began working, consisting of amateur actors from the Society led by Stanislavsky, and students from the Nemirovich Philharmonic. While working with the troupe, Stanislavsky set new tasks and goals, and the search for new theatrical solutions continued. All the developments and principles of these quests in theater pedagogy and theater theory were later transferred to the First Studio created by the director.

In Stanislavsky's life as an actor, his last two works were especially important. These are the roles: Salieri in “Mozart and Salieri” in 1915; Rostaneva in the play “Sela Stepanchikova”. However, the second role remained unknown to the public. The reason for this is still one of the mysteries in the history of the theater that arouses genuine interest, especially since there is numerous information that Stanislavsky “rehearsed perfectly.” However, at the end of the dress rehearsal, he completely stopped working on the role of Rostanev. The consequences of this decision were such that Stanislavsky refused new roles for the rest of his life.

Demonstration of director's talent

Stanislavsky The flip side of the coin after his illness was the development of his directorial gift. Stanislavsky's first production after the revolution, work on which began in 1920, was Byron's Cain. At the very beginning of rehearsals, during the White breakthrough, Stanislavsky was taken hostage.

In the period 1920 - 1930s of the twentieth century, Stanislavsky's work consisted of upholding the traditional artistic values ​​of Russian performing arts. The press of that period increasingly persistently accused him not only of an alleged unwillingness to accept revolutionary realities, of “backwardness,” but also of sabotage, which was much more serious.

The result of his experiences in 1928 was a severe heart attack that overtook the then hero of the day at a gala evening at the Moscow Art Theater. Afterwards, doctors imposed a ban on any patient going out to the ramp. I managed to return to work only after a year.

In the early 1930s, Stanislavsky, taking advantage of the weight of his name in theater world and having secured the support and authority of M. Gorky, he turned to the government with the goal of obtaining the status of a state theater for the Art Theater, as well as a special position for it. His wish was destined to come true, and from January 1932 the theater began to be called the Moscow Art Theater of the USSR.

The death of the greatest theater figure, Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky, occurred on August 7, 1938 in Moscow. After the autopsy, a number of serious illnesses: pulmonary emphysema, and against the background of an enlarged, worn-out heart - an aneurysm, as a consequence of a severe heart attack suffered in 1928. Stanislavsky's funeral took place on August 9, his grave is located at the Novodevichy cemetery.

• The future brilliant actor and director had speech impediments until the age of ten, unable to pronounce the letters “l” and “r”.
• Stanislavsky had an illegitimate first-born, who was born from a relationship with the peasant woman Avdotya Nazarovna Kopylova. This boy, under the name Sergeev, was adopted by his grandfather, Stanislavsky’s father S.V. Alekseev. The surname and patronymic of the child, who later became a historian and professor at Moscow State University, was derived from his name.
• All members of the Stanislavsky family were far from the world of theater, but there was a grandmother who had no time famous actress Marie Varley. She once came to St. Petersburg on tour from Paris and met her love in Russia.
• Konstantin Sergeevich took a pseudonym in honor of the amateur artist Markov, a doctor by profession, who talentedly played under this name.
• Stanislavsky's legacy is not only not lost, but, on the contrary, increased. His system lives and works to this day, and many modern actors around the world consider him their teacher.

Stanislavsky Konstantin Sergeevich is a man who went down in the history of theatrical art. In addition, even people far from theater and drama know who Konstantin Sergeevich is. Because famous quote“I don’t believe it” has become a catch phrase and is used by almost everyone at least once in their life. Therefore, it is worth getting to know the person who introduced this expression into circulation. In addition, we will talk about such a person as Danchenko-Nemirovich, who contributed to acting. Photos can be seen on the Internet or textbooks on theatrical art.

Konstantin Stanislavsky has another real surname, Alekseev. Year of birth - 1863. Born into a family of intellectuals who were famous for their good manners and belonged to large industrialists.

Therefore, it is difficult to say that Konstantin Stanislavsky grew up in harsh conditions and led a hungry childhood, like many celebrities. After graduating from university, young K.S. Stanislavsky got a job in a family company. But he didn't work there for too long.

The family was fond of theater. Therefore, the estate in Lyubimovka, or rather part of it, was rebuilt into a theater, where K. S. Stanislavsky began working in theatrical art and in this he was helped by choreography and vocal masters.

Soon K.S. Stanislavsky is elected as a member of the music society commission. He is working on a project to create a literary society, investing his own money in it. At the same time, he does not stop studying at the Lyubimovka estate, photos of which are still displayed on the Internet.

Over several years of existence similar society, K. Stanislavsky managed to play dozens of roles, attracting attention and creating the image of an excellent actor. Since 1892, K. Stanislavsky became a creative organizer and tried himself as a screenwriter and director. According to the quote, he was looking for directorial techniques that would show actor's essence works. K. Stanislavsky uses Meiningen techniques and uses esoteric objects, adjusting sounds and light in different ways. Subsequently, a production based on Dostoevsky’s “The Village of Stepanchikova” appeared.

Creation of a new theater

At the end of the 19th century, K. Stanislavsky was no longer satisfied with his work and was in search of something new, as his biography says. Then the search led to Danchenko-Nemirovich. Danchenko - Nemirovich invited K. Stanislavsky to meet and discuss the creation of a new theater. As K.S. himself said earlier. Stanislavsky, Nemirovich’s business card became the main memory before the creation of the Moscow Art Theater, whose photos anyone will recognize.

After this meeting, issues related to the composition of the group, the concept of the theater, repertoire and distribution of roles were discussed. Danchenko-Nemirovich studied literary work, and K. Stanislavsky only artistic. Since then, K. Stanislavsky began to appear less often at the estate in Lyubimovka, because he devoted himself to a new business.

And after a couple of years, the first rehearsals with the new troupe took place in Pushkino. But the division of responsibilities turned out to be only conditional. Because both K. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko did everything that came to hand.

In 1902, there was a divergence of views on the production of plays on the part of K. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. Because, as Stanislavsky said, Danchenko found the right approach to realizing his plan. In addition, at this time K. Stanislavsky realized that tragic roles were not his strong point.

In 1905, Stanislavsky, together with Meyerhold, in addition to the Moscow Art Theater, created a new experimental group, but not on the territory of the Lyubimovka estate, but on Povarskaya. Then new directorial techniques are used that no one has seen before: velvet, fragments of interiors, lighting equipment for magical performances and magic, makeup and masks, photo collages.

Even after Nemirovich-Danchenko’s words that tragedies are not for him. K. Stanislavsky continues to improve and develop. He is developing a system that will accurately depict the actor's experience in public at every minute of the performance.

Work of the Moscow Art Theater

If we talk about the super task that K. Stanislavsky set for himself, then it was not feasible. Because it was necessary not just to play a role, but to create a system that would allow one to get used to the role and live it. Therefore, when assessing the performance of his actors and subordinates, Stanislavsky told them the quote “I don’t believe it.” He might not have said this, but then none of the protégés would have been able to achieve the results and success that they soon received. K. Stanislavsky cultivated realism in them. He, and not Nemirovich-Danchenko, because relations with the latter were almost severed after the division of the Moscow Art Theater into several theater groups that had their own leaders.

Even footage has been preserved where K.S. Stanislavsky says popular quote when trying out a role for a young actress. Then you could hear the advice that the master gave, according to his system. Such footage and photos can rightfully be considered a treasure. Because they still carry value for actors and directors in the theater. Even harmless performances at the Lyubimovka estate would not have been complete without the quote “I don’t believe it.”

It is worth noting that even after the death of master K. Stanislavsky, Nemirovich himself said that the whole world and the acting family were orphaned because he died great person. It is also noteworthy that no one else said the phrase “I don’t believe” after Stanislavsky left.

What is Stanislavsky's secret?

Despite the death of K.S. Stanislavsky in 1938 in Moscow, the famous system remained, which is now a kind of base for the work of progressive theater schools. Even in the Lyubimovka estate, rehearsals were held in accordance with the recommendations, the principles of which are set out in two autobiographical works: “My life in art” and “The actor’s work on himself.”

Now there are only a few of those actors left whose work is considered great art. As for new TV series and films, we can say with confidence that the actors would have heard the quote “I don’t believe it” from K. Stanislavsky.

Giftedness given at birth

You need to understand that this man was gifted and talented in absolutely everything. After all, he didn’t immediately become famous actor and director.

At first he worked at the family company, then became a director. And they produced thinning wire from silver and copper. Which is also considered a work of art. After that, in the evenings, they studied with the whole family at their estate in Lyubimovka.

From his youth, K. Stanislavsky studied with teachers, so he danced and sang well. Apparently, he got his talent from his grandmother, French actress.

Stanislavsky established himself not only as an outstanding actor, who was noticed from the very first performances, but also as a talented director. After all, what is the Moscow Art Theater worth and modern theater. Although K. Stanislavski never performs after he began directing, he still makes an exception once, abroad. He remains a theorist and developer brilliant system, so he is still an example for aspiring actors.

After death, not only the system remained, but also books, operating principles, photos, footage from performances, talented students and the famous quote “I don’t believe it.” After all, she will forever remain in the history of the world.

Such people create an era, make the world a little brighter. It is worth focusing on such individuals and achieving the same success. Because you can only become better if you follow the example of the best people and set goals that initially seem unattainable.

Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky(real name - Alekseev; January 5 (), Moscow - August 7, Moscow) - Russian theater director, actor and teacher, theater reformer. The creator of the famous acting system, which has been extremely popular in Russia and in the world for 100 years. People's Artist of the USSR (1936).

Biography

Konstantin Alekseev was born in Moscow, in a large family (he had nine brothers and sisters in total) merchant family, who was related to S.I. Mamontov and the Tretyakov brothers. Father - Sergei Vladimirovich Alekseev (1836--1893), mother - Elizaveta Vasilievna (nee Yakovleva). The mayor of Moscow N.A. Alekseev was his cousin.

S. V. Alekseev, father of K. S. Stanislavsky.

In 1881, Konstantin Alekseev graduated and began working in the family firm. The family was fond of theater; in the Moscow house there was a hall specially rebuilt for theatrical performances, and on the Lyubimovka estate there was a theater outbuilding.

In 1886, Konstantin Alekseev was elected a member of the directorate and treasurer of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society and its conservatory. His colleagues on the directorate of the conservatory were P. I. Tchaikovsky, S. I. Taneyev, S. M. Tretyakov. Together with the singer and teacher F. P. Komissarzhevsky and the artist F. L. Sollogub, Alekseev is developing a project for the Moscow Society of Art and Literature (MOIiL), investing personal financial resources in it. At this time, in order to hide his real surname, he took the surname Stanislavsky for the stage.

The impetus for the creation of the Society was a meeting with director A.F. Fedotov: in his play “The Players” by N. Gogol, Stanislavsky played Ikharev. The first performance took place on December 8 (20), 1888. Over ten years of work on the stage of MOIiL Stanislavsky became famous actor, his performance of a number of roles was compared with the best works of professionals of the imperial stage, often in favor of the amateur actor: Anania Yakovlev in “Bitter Fate” (1888) and Platon Imshin in “Arbitrariness” by A. Pisemsky; Paratov in “Dowry” by A. Ostrovsky (1890); Zvezdintsev in “The Fruits of Enlightenment” by L. Tolstoy (1891). The Society's first directorial experience was “Burning Letters” by P. Gnedich (1889). The theater community, including Stanislavsky, was greatly impressed by the tours in Russia in 1885 and 1890 of the Meiningen Theater, which was distinguished by its high production culture. In 1896, regarding Stanislavsky’s production of Othello, N. Efros wrote: “The Meiningians must have left a deep mark in the memory of K. S. Stanislavsky. Their production is depicted to him as a beautiful ideal, and he strives with all his might to get closer to this ideal. "Othello" is a big step forward along this pretty path."

K. Stanislavsky, 1912.

The most significant performances of the Art Theater, such as “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” by A.K. Tolstoy, “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters”, “The Cherry Orchard” by A.P. Chekhov, were staged jointly by Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. In the following productions of Chekhov, the discoveries of the Seagull were continued and brought to harmony. The principle of continuous development united a scattered, scattered life on stage. A special principle of stage communication (“an object outside the partner”), incomplete, semi-closed, was developed. The viewer at Chekhov's performances at the Moscow Art Theater was pleased and tormented by the recognition of life, in its previously unimaginable detail.

In their joint work on M. Gorky’s play “At the Depths” (1902), the contradictions between the two approaches became apparent. For Stanislavsky, the impetus was a visit to the shelters of the Khitrov market. His directorial plan contains a lot of sharply observed details: Medvedev’s dirty shirt, the shoes wrapped in outerwear on which Satin sleeps. Nemirovich-Danchenko looked for “cheerful lightness” on stage as the key to the play. Stanislavsky admitted that it was Nemirovich-Danchenko who found “the real manner of playing Gorky’s plays,” but he himself did not accept this manner of “simply reporting the role.” The poster for “At the Lower Depths” was not signed by either director. From the beginning of the theater, both directors sat at the director's table. Since 1906, “each of us had our own table, our own play, our own production,” because, explains Stanislavsky, everyone “wanted and could only follow his own independent line, while remaining faithful to the general, basic principle of the theater.” The first performance where Stanislavsky worked separately was Brandt. At this time, Stanislavsky, together with Meyerhold, created the experimental Studio on Povarskaya (1905). Stanislavsky would then continue his experiments in searching for new theatrical forms in L. Andreev’s “The Life of a Man” (1907): against a background of black velvet, schematically depicted fragments of interiors appeared in which patterns of people appeared: grotesquely pointed lines of costumes, makeup masks. In “The Blue Bird” by M. Maeterlinck (1908), the effect of black velvet and lighting techniques were used for magical transformations.

Stanislavsky-actor

When creating the Art Theater, Stanislavsky believed Nemirovich-Danchenko that tragic roles were not his repertoire. On stage, the Moscow Art Theater completed only a few of his previous tragic roles in performances from the repertoire of the Society of Arts and Letters (Henry from The Sunken Bell, Imshin). In the productions of the first season he played Trigorin in The Seagull and Levborg in Hedda Gabler. According to critics, his masterpieces on stage were the following roles: Astrov in “Uncle Vanya”, Shtokman in G. Ibsen’s play “Doctor Shtokman”), Vershinin “Three Sisters”, Satin in “The Lower Depths”, Gaev “The Cherry Orchard”, Shabelsky in "Ivanov", 1904). The duet of Vershinin - Stanislavsky and Masha - O. Knipper-Chekhova entered the treasury of stage lyrics.

Stanislavsky continues to set himself more and more new tasks in the acting profession. He demands from himself the creation of a system that could give the artist the opportunity for public creativity according to the laws of the “art of experience” at every moment of being on stage, an opportunity that opens up to geniuses in moments of the highest inspiration. Stanislavsky transferred his searches in the field of theatrical theory and pedagogy to the First Studio he created (public showings of its performances began in 1913).

The cycle of roles in modern drama - Chekhov, Gorky, L. Tolstoy, Ibsen, Hauptmann, Hamsun - was followed by roles in the classics: Famusov in “Woe from Wit” by A. Griboyedov (1906), Rakitin in “A Month in the Country” by I. Turgenev (1909), Krutitsky in A. Ostrovsky’s play “Simplicity is enough for every wise man” (1910), Argan in “The Imaginary Invalid” by Moliere (1913), Count Lubin in “The Provincial Woman” by W. Wycherley, Cavalier in “The Landlady of the Inn” by K. Goldoni (1914).

Stanislavsky's fate was influenced by his last two acting work: Salieri in the tragedy “Mozart and Salieri” by A. S. Pushkin (1915), and Rostanev, whom he was to play again in the upcoming new production of “The Village of Stepanchikov” by F. M. Dostoevsky. The reason for Rostanev's failure, a role not shown to the public, remains one of the mysteries of the history of theater and the psychology of creativity. According to many testimonies, Stanislavsky “rehearsed perfectly.” After the dress rehearsal on March 28 (April 10), 1917, he stopped working on the role. After “not giving birth” to Rostanev, Stanislavsky forever refused new roles (he broke this refusal only out of necessity, during a tour abroad in 1922-1924, agreeing to play Voivode Shuisky in the old play “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich”).

After 1917

K. S. Stanislavsky with the troupe of the theater studio in Leontyevsky Lane in the scenery of the Lensky Mansion (c. 1922)

Stanislavsky's first production after the revolution was D. Byron's Cain (1920). Rehearsals had just begun when Stanislavsky was taken hostage during the White breakthrough to Moscow. The general crisis was aggravated at the Art Theater by the fact that a significant part of the troupe, led by Vasily Kachalov, who had gone on tour, found themselves cut off from Moscow by military events. The production of The Inspector General (1921) was an unconditional victory. For the role of Khlestakov, Stanislavsky appointed Mikhail Chekhov, who had recently transferred from the Moscow Art Theater (the theater had already been declared academic) to his 1st studio. In 1922, the Moscow Art Theater, under the leadership of Stanislavsky, went on a long foreign tour of Europe and America, which was preceded by the return (not in full strength) of the Kachalovsky troupe.

In the 20s, the issue of changing theatrical generations became acute; The 1st and 3rd studios of the Moscow Art Theater turned into independent theaters; Stanislavsky was painfully worried about the “betrayal” of his students, giving the Moscow Art Theater studios the names of Shakespeare’s daughters from “King Lear”: Goneril and Regan - 1st and 3rd studios, Cordelia - 2nd. In 1924, the troupe of the Art Theater joined large group studio students, mostly students of the 2nd studio.

Stanislavsky's activities in the 20-30s were determined, first of all, by his desire to defend the traditional artistic values ​​of Russian stage art. The production of “A Warm Heart” (1926) was a response to those critics who asserted that “The Art Theater is dead.” The rapid lightness of the tempo and picturesque festivity distinguished Beaumarchais's "Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro" (1927) (scenery by A. Ya. Golovin).

After young people from the 2nd studio and from the school of the 3rd studio joined the Moscow Art Theater troupe, Stanislavsky taught classes with them and produced their works performed with young directors on stage. Among these works, not always signed by Stanislavsky, are “The Battle of Life” based on Dickens (1924), “The Days of the Turbins” (1926), “The Gerard Sisters” (a play by V. Massa based on the melodrama by A. Dennery and E. Cormon “Two orphans") and "Armored train 14-69" Sun. Ivanova (1927); “The Embezzlers” by V. Kataev and “Untilovsk” by L. Leonov (1928).

Later years

The grave of Konstantin Sergeevich at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow

After a severe heart attack that occurred on the anniversary evening at the Moscow Art Theater in 1928, doctors forever forbade Stanislavsky to appear on stage. Stanislavsky returned to work only in 1929, focusing on theoretical research, on pedagogical tests of the “system” and on classes in his Opera Studio, which existed since 1918 (Opera Theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky).

For the production of Othello at the Moscow Art Theater, he wrote the director's score for the tragedy, which he sent act by act along with letters from Nice, where he hoped to complete his treatment. Published in 1945, the score remained unused, since I. Ya. Sudakov managed to release the performance before the end of Stanislavsky’s work.

In the early 30s, Stanislavsky, using his authority and the support of Gorky, who had returned to the USSR, turned to the government to achieve a special position for the Art Theater. They went to meet him halfway. In January 1932, the abbreviation “USSR” was added to the name of the theater, equating it with the Bolshoi and Maly theaters; in September 1932, it was named after Gorky - the theater became known as the Moscow Art Theater of the USSR. Gorky. In 1937 he was awarded the Order of Lenin, in 1938 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. In 1933, the building of the former Korsh Theater was transferred to the Moscow Art Theater to create a branch theater.

In 1935, the last one opened - the Opera and Drama Studio of K. S. Stanislavsky (among his works is Hamlet). Almost without leaving his apartment on Leontyevsky Lane, Stanislavsky met with actors at home, turning rehearsals into an acting school based on the method of psycho-physical actions he was developing.

Continuing the development of the “system”, following the book “My Life in Art” (American edition - 1924, Russian - 1926), Stanislavsky managed to send to print the first volume of “The Actor’s Work on Himself” (published in 1938, posthumously).

Stanislavsky died on August 7, 1938 in Moscow. An autopsy showed that he had a whole bunch of diseases: an enlarged, failing heart,