Stanislavsky in the World

Jonathan Pitches is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries. He specialises in the study of performer training and has wider interests in intercultural performance, environmental performance and blended learning. He is founding co-editor of the journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training and has published several books in this area: Vsevolod Meyerhold (2003), Science and the Stanislavsky Tradition of Acting (2006/9) Russians in Britain (2012) and Stanislavsky in the World (with Dr Stefan Aquilina 2017). He is currently working on two new book projects, Great Stage Directors Vol 3: Komisarjevsky, Copeau, Guthrie (2017) and Performing Landscapes: Mountains (2018), supported by the AHRC.Stefan Aquilina is a lecturer within the Theatre Studies Department of the School of Performing Arts (University of Malta). His main area of research is Russian and early Soviet theatre, especially the work of Stanislavsky and Meyerhold. This particular research interest is developed through the application of critical theories on ‘everyday life’. Aquilina also runs a research project called ‘Performance Lineage: the Russian Tradition of Actor Training’ through a grant offered by the University of Malta.

The editors are to be congratulated on taking us far beyond the Western mainstages to incorporate non-professional theatre in locations as diverse as Malta and Bangladesh. They have proved that the pedagogical fluidity that Stanislavsky himself intended has been realised over more than a century through a dynamic process of cross-cultural hybridity. This is theatre scholarship of the highest quality, that opens up new fields of study, moves long-standing debates forward and inspires creative practice. There are many introductory books on Stanislavsky, but Pitches and Aquilina have contributed an advanced study for the connoisseur, an intense and engrossing resource for practitioners and scholars alike.

• ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on transliteration Figures INTRODUCTIONS AND CONTEXT 1 AND 2‘Well-trodden Paths: US, UK, Russian and Soviet Perspectives on Stanislavsky’s Transmission’ by Stefan Aquilina ‘A System for all Nations? Stanislavsky in the World’ by Jonathan Pitches PART 1: EUROPEIntroduction by Stefan Aquilina‘Three Periods of Stanislavsky in Italy’ by Franco Ruffini ‘Stanislavsky and French Theatre: Selected Affinities’ by Marie-Christine Autant-Mathieu ‘Between Nationalism and Ideology: Stanislavsky in Lithuania’ by Ina Pukelyte‘An Amateur Processing of the System: Stanislavsky in Malta’ by Stefan Aquilina‘Moments of Transition: Stanislavsky in Greece’ by Maria Gaitanidi PART 2: CHINA AND JAPANIntroduction by Jonathan Pitches ‘Towards a Chinese School of Performance and Directing: Jiao Juyin’ by Siyuan Liu ‘Stanislavsky with Chinese Characteristics: How the System was introduced into China’ by Jonathan Pitches and Ruru Li ‘A Producer’s Perspective: Stanislavsky in Contemporary Japan’ by Kaori Nakayama PART 3: LATIN AMERICAIntroduction by Stefan Aquilina ‘Stanislavsky in Brazil: Territories and Frontiers’ by Arlete Cavaliere‘Stanislavsky’s Legacy in Cuba’ by Yana Elsa Brugal ‘A Teacher’s Perspective: Stanislavsky at the Escuela de Teatro de Buenos Aires in Argentina’ by Raul Serrano PART 4: AFRICAIntroduction by Stefan Aquilina ‘Stanislavsky in Nigeria: Convergences and Counterpoints in Actor Training and Practice’ by Kene Igweonu ‘Stanislavsky in Tunisian Theatre: a Heritage in Progress’ by Moez Mrabet‘A Director’s Perspective: Stanislavsky in South Africa’ by David Peimer PART 5: AUSTRALASIA Introduction by Jonathan Pitches ‘Theatrical Bowerbirds: Received Stanislavsky and the Tyranny of Distance in Australian Actor Training’ by Ian Maxwell ‘Acting Idealism and Emotions: Hayes Gordon, The Ensemble Theatre and Acting Studios in Australia’ by Peta Tait‘Stanislavsky in Aotearoa: The System Experienced through the Maori World’ by Hilary Halba PART 6: INDIA AND BANGLADESHIntroduction by Jonathan Pitches ‘Between Stanislavsky and Bharata: Actor training at the National School of Drama in New Delhi’ by Jooyeoul Ryu‘Stanislavsky in the Modern Theatre of Bangladesh: A Mapping of Postcolonial Appropriation and Assimilation’ by Syed Jamil Ahmed Notes on Contributors Index