| Prof. Sergei Tcherkasski |
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(St Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy) Fri 21 March, 6pm Cinema Room Early and Late Stanislavski: Yoga and Affective Memory vs. Action Analysis Open lecture in English translated into Polish Admission free The lecture discusses the logic of the Stanislavski System’s development – from the analysis of individual elements of the actor’s inner creative state (through Ribot’s discoveries and yoga practice) and the role of unconscious processes in acting – to the elaboration of various conscious methods of triggering unconscious processes in acting, the development of the inner creative state, “I am” (the use of the mechanisms of affective memory, physical actions and sensations, etc.). The traditional opposition of early and late Stanislavski is argued. Rehearsal techniques (the etude technique, the method of physical (psychophysical) actions, active analysis) are discussed Sat 22 March 2014 Laboratory Theatre Space The Seagull in the Mirror of the Stanislavski SystemWorking group workshop in English The workshop will present Stanislavski’s rehearsal approaches in the late stage of the System development. The crucial discoveries of the 1930s – the method of physical (psychophysical) actions and the etude method – will be studied through etudes and improvisation based on The Seagull. Different types of etudes, the practice and philosophy of the etude method as well as the method of action analysis will be discussed. We kindly ask the participants to reread The Seagull and to have a copy of the text in English and Polish. Sat 22 March 2014, 6pm Cinema Room Boleslawski: The Life and Deeds of the Theatre Lancer in Russia and America Open lecture in English translated into Polish Admission free Richard Boleslawski (1889–1937), actor of the Moscow Art Theatre, actor and director of the First Studio; in the 1910s he participated in all the key moments of the evolution of the Stanislavski System. His theatre work in Poland (Teatr Polski, Teatr Ma³y) and the US, where he became Artistic Director of the American Laboratory Theatre (1923–1930), was of crucial importance to the history of the world-wide dissemination of the Stanislavski System in the 20th century. Staging plays and teaching in the 1920s and 1930s, with no opportunity for direct dialogue with Stanislavski, Boleslawski not only adapted the System to the needs of his new students, but also creatively developed it. The lecture proposes a glimpse of the adventurous life of Richard Boleslawski and explores the independent development of the Stanislavski System in its early period by both Stanislavski and Boleslawski in their teaching in the 1920s and 1930s.  Sergei Tcherkasski is a stage director and scholar, Professor and Head of the Acting Studio at the Theatre Arts Academy in Saint Petersburg (established in 1779). He devoted his candidate thesis to theatre director training in Russia. His postdoctoral thesis clarified the lines of succession of Stanislavski’s ideas in 20th century theatre (Stanislavski – Boleslawski – Method Acting). Prof Tcherkasski’s students have become award-winning actors and directors, including nominees and winners of the Golden Mask Award (the most prestigious national theatre award in Russia). Many of them work at Russia’s leading theatre companies: the Moscow Art Theatre, Taganka, and Lenkom in Moscow, and the Maly, Alexandrinsky, Akimov, and the Baltic House in Saint Petersburg. His practical work with students is widely acknowledged both in Russia and in over thirty theatre schools all over the world. His international directing credits include: Great Catherine by G.B. Shaw and Duck Hunting by A. Vampilov (RADA), General Inspector by N. Gogol (National Theatre of Romania), and Flight by M. Bulgakov (NIDA, Australia). His books include Stanislavski and Yoga, Valentin Smyshlyaev – Actor, Director and Teacher and Sulimov’s School of Directing. They form a sort of trilogy presenting Prof Tcherkasski’s professional “family tree” that stretches from Stanislavski to Smyshlyaev (a member of the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and, together with M. Chekhov, a director of Hamlet) to Sulimov (one of the leading professors of directing at the Theatre Arts Academy in Saint Petersburg in the second half of the 20 century). As part of “A Century of Actors. The Art of Acting in the Western Theatre Between the 19th and 21st Centuries”, a core course of the Open University of Research |