The Mastery of the Actor: The First Six Lessons

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