ABSTRACT
To those who think of Constantin Stanislavski as having been predominantly interested in introspective, soul-searching plays, such as those by Anton Chekhov, Gorki, Leo Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, it may come as a surprise that he also threw himself with great gusto into lighter plays, commedia dell' arte and even melodrama. His interest in melodrama was twofold: as a legitimate dramatic form of special character requiring the talents of superb actors and as a kind of play in which to train young actors. There is a real basis, when one is speaking of Anton Chekhov, for being reminded of a landscape by Levitan and melodies of Tschaikowsky. Chekhov's plays are profound in their amorphousness, the characters often feel and think things not expressed in the lines they speak.
