Buildingacharacter

1、building a characterconstantin stanislavskichapter fourteen toward an ethics for the theatre i“the time has now come to speak of one more element,” tortsov began today, “contributing to a creative dramatic state. it is produced by the atmosphere surrounding an actor on the stage and by the atmospher

2、e in the auditorium. we call it ethics, discipline, and also the sense of joint enterprise in our theatre work. “all these things taken together create an artistic animation, an attitude of readiness to work together. it is a state which is favorable to creativeness. i do not know how else to descri

3、be it. “it is not the creative state itself but it is one of the main factors contributing to it. it prepares and facilitates that state. “i shall call it ethics in the theatre because it plays an important part in preparing us in advance for our work. both the factor itself and what it produces in

4、us and for us are significant because of the peculiarities of our profession. “a writer, a composer, a painter, a sculptor are not pressed for time. they can work when and where they find it convenient to do so. they have the free disposal of their time. “this is not the case with an actor. he has t

5、o be ready to produce at a fixed hour as advertised. how can he order himself to be inspired at a given time? it is far from simple. “he needs order, discipline, a code of ethics not only for the general circumstances of his work, but also and especially for his artistic and creative purposes. “the

6、first condition towards the bringing about of this preliminary state is to follow the principle i have aimed at: love art in yourself and not yourself in art. “the career of an actor,” tortsov went on, “is a splendid one for those who are devoted to it and understand and see it in the true light.” “

7、what if an actor does not do this ?“ one of the students asked. “that is unfortunate because it will cripple him as a human being. unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it,” tortsov replied. “why?” we asked in chorus. “because there are a lot of bacilli i

8、n the theatre, some are good and some are extremely harmful. the good bacilli will further the growth in you of a passion for what is fine, elevating, for great thoughts and feelings. they will help you to commune with the great geniuses such as shakespeare, pushkin, gogol, moliere. their creations

9、and traditions live in us. in the theatre you will also meet modern writers and representatives of all branches of art, science, of social science, of poetic thought. “this select company will teach you to understand art and the essential meaning at its core. that is the principal thing about art, t

10、herein lies its greatest fascination.” “exactly in what?” i asked. “in coming to know, in working on, studying your art, its bases, methods and technique of creativeness,” explained tortsov. “also in the torments and joys of creation, which we all feel as a group. “and in the joys of accomplishment,

11、 which renew the spirit and lend it wings! “even in the doubts and failures, for in them also lies a stimulus to new struggles, strength for new work and fresh discoveries. “there is too an esthetic satisfaction which is never altogether complete and it provokes and arouses new energy. “how much of

12、life there is in all this!” “what about success ?“ i enquired rather shyly. “success is transient, evanescent,” answered tortsov. “the real passion lies in the poignant acquisition of knowledge about all the shadings and subtleties of the creative secrets. “meantime do not forget the bad, the danger

13、ous, corrupting bacilli of the theatre. it is not surprising that they thrive there; there are too many temptations in our theatre world. “an actor is on view every day before an audience of a thousand spectators from such and such an hour to such and such an hour. he is surrounded by the magnificen

14、t trappings of a production, set against the effective background of painted scenery, dressed often in rich and beautiful clothes. he speaks the soaring lines of geniuses, he makes picturesque gestures, graceful motions, produces impressions of startling beautywhich in large measure are brought abou

15、t by artful means. always being in the public eye, displaying his or her best aspects, receiving ovations, accepting extravagant praise, reading glowing criticismsall these things and many more of the same order constitute immeasurable temptations. “these breed in an actor the sense of craving for c

16、onstant, uninterrupted titillation of his personal vanity. but if he lives only on that and similar stimuli he is bound to sink low and become trivial. a serious minded person could not be entertained for long by such a life, yet a shallow one is enthralled, debauched, destroyed by it. that is why i

17、n our world of the theatre we must learn to hold ourselves well in check. we have to live by rigid discipline. “if we keep our theatre free from all types of evil we, by the same token, bring about conditions favorable to our own work in it. remember this practical piece of advice: never come into t

18、he theatre with mud on your feet. leave your dust and dirt outside. check your little worries, squabbles, petty difficulties with your outside clothingall the things that ruin your life and draw your attention away from your art.” “excuse me for pointing this out,” interrupted grisha, “but no such t

19、heatre exists in the world.” “unfortunately you are right,” admitted tortsov. “people are so stupid and spineless that they still prefer to introduce petty, humdrum bickerings, spites and intrigues into the place supposedly reserved for creative art. “they do not seem to be able to clear their throa

20、ts before they cross the threshold of the theatre, they come inside and spit on the clean floor. it is incomprehensible why they do this! “it is all the more reason why you should be the ones to discover the right, the high minded significance of the theatre and its art. from the very first steps yo

21、u take in its service train yourselves to come into the theatre with clean feet. “our illustrious forbears in acting have summed this attitude up in the following way: “a true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. it is exactly the same way

22、 that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theatre. an actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist!” 2a great deal of discussion was caused in the theatre by a scandal in connection with one of the actors. he was severely reprimanded and warned tha

23、t he would be dismissed if he repeated the intolerable offense. grisha had as usual a lot to say on the subject: “i for one dont think the management has any right to mix into an actors private life!” whereupon some of the others asked tortsov to explain his point of view to us. “does it not seem ir

24、rational to you to tear down with one hand what you are trying to build up with the other? yet many actors do that very thing. on the stage they make every effort to convey beautiful and artistic impressions and then, as soon as they step down from the boards, almost as though they had been intent o

25、n spoofing their spectators who a moment ago were admiring them, they do their best to disillusion them. i can never forget the bitter pain caused me in my youth by a famous visiting star. i shall not tell you his name because i do not want to dim his glory for you. “i was present at an unforgettabl

26、e performance. the impression he made on me was so tremendous i did not feel i could go home alone. i felt the necessity to discuss my experience with someone. so a friend and i went together to a restaurant. when we were in the midst of an excited conversation who should come in but our genius. we

27、could not restrain ourselves, we rushed up to him and unloosed the floodgates of our enthusiasm. the great man invited us to join him at supper in a private room and there before our very eyes he proceeded to drink himself into a bestial state. under the gloss was hidden such human corruption, such

28、revolting boastfulness, deceit, gossipall the attributes of a vulgar showoff. on top of that he refused to pay his bill for the wine he had consumed. it took us a long, long time to pay off this unexpected debt. and all the pleasure we got out of it was the privilege of conducting our belching and r

29、oaring host to his hotel where they were most unwilling to receive him in that disreputable drunken state. “mix together all the good and all the bad impressions which we received from that extraordinarily gifted man and try to determine what result you get.” “something like the hiccoughs you get fr

30、om drinking champagne,” suggested paul brightly. “well, mind you dont have the same thing happen to you when you get to be famous actors,” said tortsov. “it is only when an actor is behind closed doors at home, in his most intimate circle, that he can let go. for his part is not played out when the

31、curtain goes down. he is still bound in his everyday life to be the standard bearer of what is fine. otherwise he will only destroy what he is trying to build. remember this from the very beginning of your term of service to art and prepare yourselves for this mission. develop in yourselves the nece

32、ssary self- control, the ethics and discipline of a public servant destined to carry out into the world a message that is fine, elevating and noble. “an actor, by the very nature of the art he serves, becomes a member of a large and complex organizationthe theatre. under its emblem and hallmark he r

33、epresents it daily to thousands nf spectators. millions read daily in the papers about his work and activity in the institution of which he is a part. his name is so closely bound up with that of his theatre that it is scarcely possible to distinguish between them. next to his family name that of th

34、is theatre belongs to him. in the mind of the public his artistic and his personal life are inextricably linked together. therefore if an actor from the art theatre, the maly, or another, commits a reprehensible act, any crime, is involved in any scandal, no matter what alibi he may offer, no matter

35、 what denial or explanation may be printed in the papers, he will be unable to wipe away the stain, the shadow, he has laid on his whole company, his theatre. this, therefore, obligates an actor to conduct himself worthily outside the walls of his theatre and to protect his good name both on the boa

36、rds and in his private life.”3“one of the measures calculated to insure order and a healthy atmosphere in the theatre is to reinforce the authority of the people, who for one reason or another, have been put in charge of the work. “before they are chosen and appointed you may argue, wrangle, and pro

37、test against one candidacy or another but once that person has been elected to a post of leadership or management it is up to you to support him in every possible way. that is only fair from the point of view of the common good. and the weaker he is the more you should support him. for if he does no

38、t enjoy any authority the main motive force of the group will become paralyzed. what becomes of a collective if it is deprived of the leader who initiates, pushes, and directs the common work? we love to decry, discredit, humiliate those whom we have raised to high places, or if a gifted person clim

39、bs above us we are ready to use all our strength to beat him down and yell at him: how dare you presume to stand over us, you climber! how many talented and useful people have been destroyed that way. a few, in spite of all obstacles, have achieved general recognition and admiration. but on the whol

40、e the brazen ones, who usually succeed in bossing us, have all the luck. and we growl to ourselves and stand it because we find it hard to arrive at any unanimity and we are afraid to overthrow those who terrorize us.“in theatres, with few exceptions, this is vividly exemplified. the struggle for pr

41、iority among actors, regisseurs, jealousy of each others success, divisions caused by differences in salaries types of partsall this is strongly developed in our line of work and constitutes its greatest evil. we cloak our ambition, jealousy, intrigues with all kinds of fine sounding phrases such as

42、 enlightened competition, but all the time the atmosphere is filled with the poison gases of backstage back-biting. “out of fear of all competition and because of its narrow-minded envy actors meet any newcomer in their midst with fixed bayonets. if he can stand the test he is lucky. yet how many ar

43、e terrified, lose all faith in themselves, and go under?“how close to animal psychology all this is! “once when i was sitting on the balcony of a house in a small provincial town i had an opportunity to watch some dogs. they also have their own limits, lines of demarcation which they are keen to mai

44、ntain. if an outsider dares to overstep a certain bound and he is met by the combined curs of that particular district. he succeeds in giving a good account of himself he wins recognition in the end and is accepted in the district into which he had intruded. or he turns tail and flees, wounded and m

45、aimed, from his own fellow creatures, “and it is this very form of brute psychology which is rampant, alas, in all theatres with few exceptions, and which must be destroyed. it is in force not only among newcomers but also among the groups of old timers. i have heard two great actresses going for ea

46、ch other not only backstage but during performances and in terms that a fishwife would envy. i have been witness to the conduct of two famous and talented actors who refused to enter the stage through one and the same wing or door. i have been told about two celebrated stars, a man and a woman, who

47、for years played opposite each other without being on speaking terms. during rehearsal they communicated with one another through a third person. he would say to the man directing the play: tell her that she is talking nonsense, and she would reply through the same channel: tell him that he is actin

48、g like a boor. “why is it that such talented people are willing to destroy the and fine work which they themselves originally built up? for the sake of personal, trivial, petty insult and misunderstandings? “such are the suicidal depths to which actors sink if they are not able to overcome in time t

49、heir bad professional instincts. i hope this will be an example and vivid warning to you.” 4“l(fā)et us suppose that one actor in a well and carefully prepared production, either through laziness, neglect or inattentiveness, departs so far from the true performance of his part as to act in a purely rout

50、ine, mechanical way. has he the right to do this? after all, he was not alone in producing the play, he is not solely responsible for the work put in it. in such an enterprise one works for all and all for one. there must be mutual responsibility and whoever betrays that trust must be condemned as a

51、 traitor. “in spite of my great admiration for individual splendid talents, i do not accept the star system. collective creative effort is the root of our kind of art. that requires ensemble acting and whoever mars that ensemble is committing a crime not only against his comrades but also against th

52、e very art of which he is the servant. 5 our class was to meet for a rehearsal in one of the greenrooms backstage where the regular actors of the theatre company met their friends. afraid of disgracing ourselves before them we asked rakhmanov to give us some advice about how to act there. to our sur

53、prise the director himself appeared. he said that he had been much touched to hear of our serious attitude toward the rehearsal. “you will realize what you need to do and how you should conduct yourselves if you bear in mind that this is a collective enterprise,” he said to us. “you are all going to

54、 be producing together, you will all be helping one another, all be dependent on one another. you will all be directed by one person, your regisseur. “if there is orderliness and proper distribution of work, your collective effort will be pleasant and productive because it is based on mutual help. b

55、ut if there is chaos and a wrong atmosphere for work then your collective enterprise can become a torture chamber, you will be getting in each others way, pushing each other around. it is clear therefore that you must all agree to establish and support discipline.” p “how do we support it?” “first o

56、f all, you arrive at the theatre on time, a half hour or a quarter of an hour before the rehearsal is called, in order to go over the elements which are necessary to establish your inner state. “if even one person is late it upsets all the others. and if all are late your working hours will be fritt

57、ered away in waiting instead -f being applied to your job. that makes an actor wild and puts him in a condition where he is incapable of work. but if on the contrary you all have the right attitude towards your collective responsibilities and come to your rehearsal with proper preparation you will c

58、reate a splendid atmosphere which will challenge and encourage you. your work will go along hummingly because you are all helping each other. “it is also important that you take the right attitude towards the object of each individual rehearsal. “the great mass of actors have quite a wrong idea abou

59、t their attitude toward rehearsals. they believe that they need work only at rehearsals and that they can be idle at home. “whereas this is not the case at all. the rehearsal merely clarifies the problems that an actor needs to work on at home. that is one reason why i place no confidence in actors who chatter a lot at rehearsals and do not make notes on planning their home-work. “they pretend that they can remember everything without notes. nonsense! do they think