Stanislavski's Legacy A Collection of Comments on a Variety of Aspects of an Actor's Art and Life

Out of the large body of materials -- articles, speeches, notes and memoirs -- left behind by Stanislavski at the time of his death in 1938, Elizabeth Hapgood, his friend and translator, chose items which concentrate on the essence of his work. The result is a volume which supplements the other books he wrote, and re-emphasizes, sometimes in condensed and particulary vivid form, his views about acting, the theatre and life.

Foreword to the Second Edition; Editor’s Part 1 “In art you do not command, you persuade….”; Chapter 1 The Long-Hoped-for Child; Chapter 2 What Shall We Learn?; Chapter 3 The Hard Job of Being an Actor; Chapter 4 Types of Actors; Chapter 5 On Being Truthful in Acting; Chapter 6 Acting Looks Easy; Chapter 7 An Actor Is a Teacher of Beauty and Truth–Letter to a Young Student; Chapter 8 Lively Art; Chapter 9 How to Talk to Actors; Chapter 10 Talks with Singers to Be Trained as Actors; Chapter 11 Talks with Opera and Acting Students; Chapter 12 Opera Rules; Chapter 13 The Bond Between Music and Action; Chapter 14 Technique of the Creative Mood; Chapter 15 Physical Action as a Means to an End; Chapter 16 Talent, Inspiration and Professionalism; Chapter 17 Back to Work–The Beginning of the Season; Chapter 18 Back to Study–Talks with Established Actors; Chapter 19 The Life of a True Artist; Part 2 “The value of any art is determined by its spiritual content….”; Chapter 20 After Ten Years in the Art Theatre; Chapter 21 On the Death of Tolstoy; Chapter 22 Chekhov’s Influence on the Art Theatre; Chapter 23 Memories of Chekhov; Chapter 24 Messages about The Cherry Orchard; Part 3 “My system is the result of lifelong searchings….”; Chapter 25 On Reaching the Public; Chapter 26 Conversation in an Actor’s Dressing Room; Chapter 27 On Drama Criticism and Critics; Chapter 28 Why and When Play Melodrama; Chapter 29 Young Actors in Mob Scenes; Chapter 30 What Is the Grotesque?; Chapter 31 The Inner Pattern of the Role; Chapter 32 The Mysterious World of The Blue Bird; Chapter 33 On Playing Othello; Part 4 “There is only one method—that of organic, creative nature….”; Chapter 34 The Theatre in Which the Playwright Is Paramount; Chapter 35 The Theatre in Which the Scene Designer Is Paramount; Chapter 36 An Argument with a Scene Designer; Chapter 37 The Art of the Actor and the Art of the Director; Part 5 ?Memories of the Past… Dreams of the future”; Chapter 38 A Better Mousetrap; Chapter 39 A Theatre for All; Chapter 40 The View at Seventy;

Constantin Stanislavski, Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood