ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1: An Invitation to the Quest for Inspiration, you entered the world of actor training on the path to mastering acting technique. You have begun to experience and communicate artistic inspiration. Here we invite you to consider how Stanislavsky’s lifelong search for an acting technique based on the very nature of the creative process relates to your own artistic quest. We hope that by understanding his dynamic struggle to develop the System, during 40 years of experimentation, you will more deeply appreciate its achievement and contribution as part of your own acting legacy. Many great artists at the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) contributed to the development and, later, the dissemination of the Stanislavsky System. Some key figures are Leopold Sulerzhitsky, Vsevold Meyerhold, Evgeny Vakhtangov, Michael Chekhov, Richard Boleslavsky, and Maria Ouspenskaya (the last three of whom immigrated to and taught in the United States). All of them were inspired and nurtured in their artistic careers by Konstantin S. Stanislavsky, even as he was inspired by them, as well as other collaborators, students, and exceptional artists outside of MAT. (MXT is the Russian acronym).
