• Born in Moscow, Russia in 1863 (died:1938)
• Began an actor and moved on to become a director and teacher
• parents did not indulge in his passion for theatre, so he changed his name
• developed a new system of actor training and development-  a new way to approach theatre
• it took years of experimenting to get to what is now known as the Stanislavsky system.

5 elements of actor preparation

• relaxation: learning to relax the muscles and eliminate physical tension while performing.
• concentration: learning to think like an actor and to respond to one’s own imagination.
• observation: discovering the sensory base of the work, “sense memory” or “affective memory”
• communication: developing the ability to interact with other performers spontaneously, and with an audience, without violating the world of the play.
• imagination: The more fertile the actor’s imagination, the more interesting would be the choices made in terms of objective, physical action, and creating the given circumferences around the character.