Comparing Stanislavsky And Edward Gordon Craig

Konstantin Stanislavsky and Edward Gordon Craig are both influential directors and have shaped that way we view theatre today. Stanislavsky valued a form of naturalism that the actors should have experienced a similar situation to that of the character. From this the actor could convey real human emotions to the audience. Further along in his career, to allow the actor into the psych of the character, Stanislavsky started to focus on the psychological motivations that drove the role. On the other hand, Craig’s views of the actor were so different to anything seen up to that point. He thought of the actor as an instrument, an über-marionette, someone that can be molded to any role and with the ability to adapt to unexpected circumstances. The
Describing the characters as “half human,” their words “too simple” and their actions “groundless,” Stanislavsky was not impressed. Regardless of his thoughts, Stanislavsky took the play and created a mise-en-scène that would be used in the staging of the play. This step is referred to as the “paper stage.” To create a detailed atmosphere and picture for the production, Stanislavsky surrounded himself with the script, his notebook, drawings, reference books and cardboard figures. In Figure 1, Stanislavsky writes out directions for Act 1’s conversation between Treplev and
Stanislavsky organized character movements and built the scene around pauses to underline the topic of divisions. This example is consistent with Stanislavsky’s ideas of naturalism, but isn’t so consistent with his later thoughts on psychological realism. Stanislavsky is given the opportunity to re-direct The Seagull in 1917 for the second time. In this production he wanted to redefine what it meant to be a “Chekov actor” by having the actors discovering themselves in the character’s mindset. In his original production, he outlined everything for the actors with little to the imagination. Even though the second production never came to fruition, it showed the type of mind set Stanislavsky was in by the time he worked with Craig on