ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about a baker's dozen of the most influential acting practitioners from the past century, highly responsible for the trends and legacies of acting as people currently practise it. The Eleven Executioners was an edgy group of performers who scythed through conventional art, hacking away the old and inflaming the new. The chapter discusses the two countries that have arguably revolutionised contemporary acting practice the most – Russia and North America – starting with the person who influenced almost all of those who follow: Konstantin Stanislavsky. Although he never really wanted to commit his ideas to paper, Stanislavsky was eventually persuaded to write his 'system' down, resulting in a volume so huge that no publisher would consider it. Vsevelod Meyerhold warrants a place as executor as in many ways he's a forefather of what we now call 'physical theatre'. Michael Chekhov warrants four 'types of movement' and four 'qualities' that can feed people's imagination.
