ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book strives to set the record straight about a Russian actor and director, who was born in the nineteenth century, revolutionized actor training around the globe by the end of the twentieth, and now in the twenty-first century appears outdated. By the mid-1950s, Stanislavsky’s name stood for excellence in realistic and truthful acting. By 2000, many young people who thirsted for acting careers entered the author's classes with either no knowledge of him or only a foggy notion that he had something to do with Method acting. When Shapiro began to study aspects of Stanislavsky’s System that fell outside the bounds of common knowledge, he experienced a jolt. Notice that there are technical considerations included, voice and tempo-rhythm among them. He even hints at the actor’s dual consciousness when he lists “self-control” as important in the crafting of performance.
