220px stanislavsky

Stanislavski and The Moscow Art Theater

By willbish

  • Serfs Liberated: Actors no longer the property of feudal lords.

    Russian Actors no longer the property of feudal lords.

  • Stanislavski born into wealthy merchant family.

  • Stanislavski at Age 10

    Stanislavski at Age 10

  • Meyerhold born

  • Stan. attends drama school, but leaves before graduating.

  • Stan. starts gaining prominence as an actor.

  • Stan. appears as Othello, now one of Russia's most famous actors.

    Stan. appears as Othello, now one of Russia's most famous actors.

  • Meyerhold starts studying under Nemirovich-Danchenko.

  • Stan meets Namirovich, and they found the Moscow Art Theater.

    Stan meets Namirovich, and they found the Moscow Art Theater.

  • MAT Production of "The Seagull"

    MAT Production of "The Seagull"

    This Chekhov play, directed and starring Stanislavski with Meyerhold also in the cast, propels the MAT to the forefront of Russian Drama and the company adopts the seagull as its emblem
  • Meyerhold continues to act with the MAT.

    Meyerhold continues to act with the MAT.

  • Stanislavski directs and acts in the world premiere of Uncle Vanya.

    Stanislavski directs and acts in the world premiere of Uncle Vanya.

  • Directs and appears as Dr. Stockmann in An Enemy of the People.

  • Directs the premier of Small People.

  • Directs the premier of The Lower Depths.

  • Directs The Wild Duck.

  • Directs and appears as Vershinin in the premier of Three Sisters.

  • Plays Brutus in Julius Caesar, begins to have an artistic crisis.

  • MAT on German Tour

  • Takes a vacation and begins to plan writing a book.

  • Period: to

    Researching his System to prepare to write a book.

  • Directs The Drama of Life.

  • Meyerhold moves to St. Petersburg and becomes a prominent actor/director.

  • Appears in Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man.

    Appears in Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man.

  • Directs a masterpiece production of Hamlet.

    Directs a masterpiece production of Hamlet.

  • Directs and appears in Pushkin’s Mozart and Salieri.

  • The Bolshevik Revolution

    Lenin comes to power. Due to a close alliance with Lenin, MAT continues unperturbed. Many MAT actors win prestigious postings and awards from Soviet government. Meyerhold joins the Bolshevik Party.

  • Meyerhold diagnosed with tuberculosis.

    In vogue with 19th Century medicine, he is forced to head south where it is warmer. In his absence, and despite his close ties with Lenin, Meyerhold is replaced in his St. Petersburg post.
  • Period: to

    American Tour of MAT

  • Meyerhold founds "The Meyerhold Theater"

    Focused on circus theatrics and a form of physical and emotional realism similar to Stanislavski’s system.
  • American Lab Theater founded

    American Lab Theater founded

    By former students Moscow Art theatre Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya. Students included Harold Clurman, and Lee Strassberg.

  • American Edition of "My Life in Art" Published

    Stanislavski's autobiography

  • Russian Edition of "My Life in Art" Published

    Stanislavski's autobiography.
  • Stalin Takes Power

    Stalin Takes Power

    Socialist Realism becomes the only permissible artistic style in The Soviet Union (the definition of which narrows considerably). MAT faces heavy censorship and the quality of their productions declines. Stanislavski’s nephew imprisoned in the gulags.

  • Heart attack onstage

    This forces him to heavily cut back on the day-to-day work of MAT and leads him to begin seriously writing An Actor Prepares. However, he is unsuccessful in his attempts to quit smoking or drinking.
  • Period: to

    Writing "An Actor Prepares"

  • The Group Theater Founded

    The Group Theater Founded

    Heavily influenced by Moscow Art Theatre, Stanislavsky, and “method” acting. Included Harold Clurman, Lee Strassberg, Elia Kazan, Morris Carnovsky, Sanford Meisner.

  • Events of "An Actor Prepares" - the play

  • American Edition of An Actor Prepares

    Translated by Jennifer Hapgood and published by Theatre Arts Inc. The war prevents the second two books of Stanislavski’s acting system from appearing; American Method Acting emerges from the assumption that Actor Prepares represents the sum total of the System. Awarded the People’s Order of the USSR, his system is absorbed by the Soviet arts world as a “realistic” method for theater, ignoring or censoring the spiritual and psychological aspects of Stanislavski’s system.
  • Stanislavski Dies

    Stanislavski Dies

    Of heart failure, while rehearsing for "Tartuffe." Hands control of MAT to Meyerhold.

  • Russian edition of An Actor Prepares

  • Meyerhold arrested and shot.

    Meyerhold arrested and shot.

    Meyerhold arrested by Soviet police. He is tortured until he admits to being both a British and Japanese Intelligence Officer (confessions he later recanted). He is sentenced to death by firing squad and executed the same year. MAT continues under heavy Soviet censorship but loses its artistic relevance until the 1970s.

  • Building a Character released in the US.

    Building A Character ­– which focuses on the physical and external aspects of the system – released in the United States long after Method has incorporated only the psychological guidance of An Actor Prepares.

  • Creating a Role released in the US.

    Focuses on how the System can be applied to a variety of roles.