The Mastery of the Actor. The First Six Lessons

The book "The Mastery of the Actor. The First Six Lessons" (Acting. The First Six Lessons, 1933) was written by Richard Boleslavsky (1889–1937), one of the greatest theater educators of Russia and America in the 20th century, an actor of the Moscow Art Theater and the director of its First Studio, head of the New York Laboratory Theater (1923–1930), and director of two dozen Hollywood films. This book became the world's first printed presentation of the foundations of the Stanislavski system. In a brief, clear, and witty form, "The Six Lessons" reveal the basics of acting mastery, and even today, having withstood a huge number of English-language reprints, they continue to compete with the works of Stanislavski himself. The second part – "Notes from the Acting Class" by Maria Uspenskaya (1887–1949), an actress of the Moscow Art Theater and the First Studio, who dedicated more than a quarter of a century to American theater pedagogy (teaching both at the Laboratory Theater and in her own school), making a rapid career in Hollywood as an actress in character roles. Uspenskaya's lesson notes are a treasure trove of aphorisms about the acting profession. The commentary and concluding essay by director and educator S. D. Cherkasovsky, Doctor of Arts, introduce the works of Boleslavsky and Uspenskaya, newly translated into Russian, into the context of the global development of the Stanislavski system. The edition is addressed to all theater people – experienced actors and students, critics and theater historians, lovers of theatrical art. It can be used as a practical guide to mastering the craft of acting.