ABSTRACT

Demidov's incredibly forward-thinking processes not only continued his teacher's pioneering work, but also solved the problems of an actor's creativity that Stanislavsky never conquered. The greatest of artistic delights, which combines into one the writer, musician, designer, costumer, carpenter, electrician, and, finally, the actor himself, playing the most wondrous of all instruments. The audience's blood grew cold, and everyone people of different ranks, characters, inclinations, education, tastes, ages, and sexes fused into a single, enormous mass, brought to life by one thought, one single feeling. Heated applause would start up and end unfinished; hands raised to clap were lowered again from enervation; people stopped the hands of others; strangers forbade other strangers to express their delight and nobody thought this was strange. Art isn't a job for the uncaring, especially the art of the actor. Whether he wants it or not, his art has an effect.