Kirjahaku

Originally published in the Soviet Union in 1963, this is a Stanislavsky centennial collection. It contains excerpts from memoirs referring to the great Russian actor and stage director. There are passages by Maxim Gorky, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Sergei Eisenstein, Emile Verhaern, Maurice Maeterlinck, Max Reinhardt, Jacques Copeau, etc. Most of the materials presented in this collection, including the brilliant letters by Stanislavsky, are little known abroad, and appear in English for the first time. The collection is lavishly illustrated. "The theatre is the finest medium of intercourse between nations. It reveals their most cherished aspirations. If only these aspirations were revealed more often ... the nations would shake hands, and lift their caps, instead of training guns on each other." - Konstantin Stanislavsky

Konstantin Stanislavsky is one of the colossi not simply of Russian, but American and European theatre. His reputation is based mainly on his famous theory of acting and its application in practice. This volume contains his posthumous work, The System and Methods of Creative Art, together with an introductory essay giving a careful exposition and a critical analysis of his 'system', and two appendices dealing with his views on stage ethics and melodrama. It provides an excellent opportunity for the study of 'the essential Stanislavsky' in a comprehensive and compact form.

In his outstanding autobiography, Konstantin Stanislavsky reveals his own ideas and experience. "The theatre is the finest medium of intercourse between nations. It reveals their most cherished aspirations. If only these aspirations were revealed more often ... the nations would shake hands, and lift their caps, instead of training guns on each other." -- Konstantin Stanislavsky "This wise and delightful book...is packed with sage practical counsel to actors and actresses." -- The Times Literary Supplement "A great figure upon the world scene, one of the greatest men of the theatre that ever lived." -- New York Herald-Tribune "It was a source of great enlightenment to me." --Sir Laurence Olivier