It is virtually impossible to discuss modern acting or actor training without first mentioning the Russian thoerist and director Konstantin Stanislavsky. Complete in one volume, Mel Gordon explores the actor training systems of Stanislavsky and his two most important disciples, Evgeni Vakhtangov and Michael Chekhov, tracing the major teachings and refinements over the first 50 years of use by actors. Gordon reconstructs the actual exercises taught at the Moscow Art Theatre and various Russian acting studios, and he clears away the myths and confusion about the practical use of Stanislavsky's System. This volume contains: The Stanislavsky System - First Studio Exercises 1912-1916; Vakhtangov as Rebel and Theoretician - Exercises 1919-1921; Michael Chekhov - Exercises 1919-1952; and Stanislavsky's Fourth Period - Theory of Physical Actions, 1934-1938.

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.