PDF; Stanislavski, Meierhold & cia.: 170

Stanislavski, Meierhold & cia.: 170

Vsevolod Meyerhold

Vsevolod Meyerhold was born Karl Kasimir Theodor Meierhold in Penza on 28 January o.s. (9 February n.s.) 1874 to Russian German wine manufacturer Friedrich Emil Meierhold and his Russian Dutch wife, Elisabeth Alvina Luitgard (née van der Neese). He was the youngest of eight children. After completing school in 1895, Meierhold studied law at Moscow University but never completed his degree.

Konstantin Stanislavski

Stanislavski had a privileged youth, growing up in one of the richest families in Russia, the Alekseievs. He was born Konstantin Sergeievich Alexeiev—he adopted the stage name "Stanislavski" in 1884 to keep his performance activities secret from his parents. Up until the communist revolution in 1917, Stanislavski often used his inherited wealth to fund his experiments in acting and directing.

Stanislavski's system

Stanislavski's system is a systematic approach to training actors that the Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski developed in the first half of the twentieth century. His system cultivates what he calls the "art of experiencing" (with which he contrasts the "art of representation").

Stanislavski and Meyerhold the two sides of the same coin

"Take care of Meyerhold, he is my sole heir in the theatre". From the outside, Stanislavski and Meyerhold are men from two seemingly very different eras and two very disparate schools of acting. Repeatedly, Meyerhold condemned Stanislavski's System and Naturalism as being old antiquated forms that reflected a bourgeois culture of illusion. He claimed that because Naturalistic directors…

Stanislavski and Meyerhold: The collision of naturalism

I have always wondered why there is such a wide gap between the practices of realist and physical theatre. When you think about it, it's almost like you cannot liken the Stanislavski method and the Meyerhold method in any way. When you sit in cinema and watch a film, most of the acting that you…