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Stanislavski and America: A Critical Chronology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2022

Paul Gray
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Extract

June, 1897. At a historic eighteen-hour session in the Slavic Bazaar, a restaurant in Moscow, Stanislavski and Nemirovich- Danchenko agreed to pool their acting companies and form the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT). Stanislavski wrote:

He, like me, thought the theatre's situation hopeless, for the brilliant traditions of the past had degenerated into a plain collection of easy technical devices… the theatre was in the hands of dilettantes and bureaucrats…

Type
Research Article
Information
Tulane Drama Review , Volume 9 , Issue 2: Stanislavski and America: 2 , Winter 1964 , pp. 21 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © 1964 The Tulane Drama Review

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References

1 F. D. Reeve, An Anthology of Russian Plays, Vol. II (New York: Vintage, 1962), pp. 3-21. (Obviously culled from Chapter xxvii in My Life in Art by Stanislavski.)

2 Konstantin Stanislavski, My Life in Art (New York: Meridian, 1956), pp. 294-295.

3 Reeve, op. cit., p. 25.

4 Ibid, (from a wire sent by Danchenko to the ailing Chekhov on the opening night of The Seagull).

5 Stanislavski, op cit., p . 344.

6 Ibid., p. 434.

7 Ibid., p.438.

8 Duerr, Edwin, The Length and Depth of Acting (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962).Google Scholar

9 Stanislavski, op. cit., pp. 462-463.

10 Interview with Vera Soloviova in New York, January 9, 1964.

11 Stanislavski, op. tit., p. 532.

12 Magarshack, , Stanislavski: A Life (New York: Chanticleer Press, 1951) p. 343.Google Scholar

13 Duerr, op cit., pp. 473-474.

14 Ibid., p. 372

15 Magarshack, op. cit., p. 364.

16 Soloviova interview. (Also completely described by Christine Edwards in her dissertation, The Contribution of Stanislavsky and the Moscow Art Theatre to the American Theatre, soon to be published by the New York University Press.)

17 See Gorchakov, Nikolai, The Theatre in Soviet Russia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957), pp. 247-250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 For more details see Willis, , The American Laboratory Theatre, Tulane Drama Review, Vol. 9, No. 1 (T25, Summer 1964) pp. 112-116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Clurman, Harold, The Fervent Years (New York: Hill & Wang, 1958), p. 31.Google Scholar

20 The Adler-Stanislavski session is described in The Fervent Years, pp. 129-130. Much doubt has been cast concerning this meeting because of the many versions of how long, where, and when they met. The author interviewed Miss Adler several times during April and May of 1963. Her memory of exact dates is hazy. The author interviewed Harold Clurman in his apartment in New York on January 11, 1964. Mr. Clurman, who was with Miss Adler during the first day of their talks, verified the information presented above.

21 Interview with Robert Lewis in New York on July 30, 1963 (also May and December of 1963).

22 Interview with Sanford Meisner in New York on January 11, 1964.

23 Clurman, op cit., p. 148.

24 Interview with Harold Clurman in New York on January 11, 1964.

25 Described to the author by Robert Lewis (see also Clurman, op. cit., pp. 135-136).

26 Lewis interview.

27 Meisner interview.

28 Clurman, op. cit., p. 138.

29 Lewis interview.

30 Edwards, op cit., p. 425 (see footnote 16).

31 Lewis interview.

32 Chekhov, Michael, To the Actor (New York: Harper, 1963), pp. 63-84.Google Scholar

33 New York Times Book Review, January 23, 1955, p. 4.

34 Gorchakov, Nikolai, Stanislavski Directs (New York: The Universal Library, 1962), p. 193.Google Scholar

35 Interview with Lee Strasberg in New York on October 20, 1962.

36 Maurice Zolotov, The Stars Rise Here, Saturday Evening Post, May 18, 1957, p. 86.

37 Interview with Geraldine Page in New York on August 11, 1964.

38 Funke, Lewis and Booth, John E., Actors Talk about Acting (New York: Random House, 1961), pp. 437-469.Google Scholar

39 Strasberg interview.

40 Interview with Eva Klein Lipshutz in New York on Tanuarv 23 1964.

41 Interviews with Actors Studio and Lincoln Center actors in New York on January 23, 1964 (the actors do not wish to be identified).

42 Strasberg's own discussion of this is found in his interview, Working with Live Material, Tulane Drama Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 117-135.

43 Interview with Kim Stanley in Congers, New York on January 10, 1964.

44 See footnote 41.

45 Well-known Actors Studio improvisation—a conversation piece.

46 Klein interview.

47 Meisner interview.

48 Stanley interview. (For variant, see Funke and Booth, op. cit., pp. 111-112.)

49 Clurman interview.

50 Lewis interview.

51 Klein interview.

52 Stanley interview.

53 Esquire, May, 1959.

54 Stanley interview.

55 Soloviova interview.

56 Interview with Bulgakov in New York on January 24, 1964.

57 A mimeographed statement sent to the author by Robert Whitehead's office entitled, The Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center: An Introduction.

58 Interview with Robert Whitehead in New York on December 27, 1963.

59 Actors Studio Bulletin found in the Actors Studio packet in the Theatre Section of the New York Public Library.

60 Strasberg interview.

61 Whitehead interview.

62 Stanley interview.

63 Lewis interview.

64 Clurman interview.

65 See footnote 41.

66 Interview with Elia Kazan in New York City, January 11, 1964.