An Actor Prepares by Constantin Stanislavski: Chapters 1 and 2

WHEN I began to read this book, it was not at all what I expected. I thought that this would be like every other acting technique book that I had read, which always seem to drone on about "doing this" and "not doing this." This is not necessarily a bad thing, books like that can be extremely helpful as well as insightful. However, you can imagine my surprise when I picked up An Actor Prepares and found it written in story form. It immediately reminded me of Plato's The Republic in how it used a story and supposedly fictional characters to make its point.

IN the first chapter, Stanislavski introduces the reader to his main character, as well as all of the side characters. I found it interesting that he then proceeded to attempt to relate with the reader, by providing quirky moments and actions of this character as he prepares for an exhibition performance. Stanislavski also details the character's rehearsals, and the issues that the character faces in order to try and relate to the reader, who is, more-than-likely an actor. With all of this, he sets up the reader for the second chapter.

THE second chapter delves into deep and sometimes lengthy and repetitive descriptions of good and bad acting methods. Stanislavski uses the professor in his story, Tortsov to talk about and analyze the different methods, such as "the art of representation," "mechanical acting," "over-acting," and "the exploitation of art." He gives examples of all of these, and then talks in-depth about the famed "Stanislavski theory," of feeling your character at all times and simply becoming your character, instead of making your character become you.