ABSTRACT
While Strasberg concentrated on emotion, Soviet actors were focusing on another aspect of the System, physical actions, more suited to the Marxist mind set. This emphasis, like the United States (US) bias, disturbs the balance of mind, body, and spirit to which Stanislavsky dedicated his System. For Stanislavsky, both emotion and physical action, together with spirit, are equally important links in the unbroken chain that is theatrical art. While Stanislavsky believes that the effort to convey emotion unites all the arts, action distinguishes theatre from the others. In this, Stanislavsky would agree with Aristotle who defined drama as an imitation of action. Stanislavsky often cites the etymology of “act” and “drama” as proof. Despite Stanislavsky’s holistic sentiments, actors successfully tore the fabric of the System into halves, as they struggled to adapt it to their cultures. As surely as the US concentrated on emotional content, Marxist materialism favored the concrete physicality of form.
