Jean Benedetti – författare

"This is the most complete description yet available in English of Stanislavski's real life in art" (New York Times) Jean Benedetti's critical biography of Konstantin Stanislavski, one of the towering figures of twentieth-century theatre, has been fully revised and expanded offering new facts and insights into Stanislavski's life and arts. This new edition, written with unprecedented access to original Russian material including letters and production notes never previously translated, explores the collaboration and often bitter disputes with Nemirovich Danchenko, co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre, and traces further Stanislavski's often troubled relationship with the company he led. It gives a new account of the difficulties and tensions that lay behind the highly influential 1922-4 American tour.Benedetti also gives us fuller versions of key moments in Stanislavski's career: his arbitrary arrest in 1919 and his troubled relationship with the Soviet regime over artistic differences; a greater understanding of how Stanislavski's seminal books on acting came to be written, edited and translated into English only to lead to gross misunderstanding of his work; plus the best understanding yet of the evolution of Stanislavski's revolutionary acting 'system'."Benedetti's biography rescues Stanislavski from his stereotypes and will reinstate him for this and coming theatrical generations. It's written with the clarity of shape, firmness of purpose and fullness of emotion that mark out a good piece of acting." (Guardian) "Both extremely informative and highly readable, this biography will become the one indispensable book in English for anyone beginning to study not just Stanislavski and the Moscow Art Theatre, but also the foundations of modern acting and directing." (Theatre Research International)

The legendary Moscow Art theatre was born of a dream to reform and forge a new dramatic and production style which would revitalize the Russian stage. Its impact has enduringly changed acting and theatre around the world. The book contains the correspondences of the founders (Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko) and key talents (e.g. Chekhov, Gorki, Isadora Duncan) of the legendary Art Theatre, from its turn of the century origins through its first 40 years, as selected, edited, and translated with commentary by Benedetti.

A major rediscovered work by Stanislavski, this volume is full of new ideas and insights about his working method.

Jean Benedetti's Stanislavski is the clearest and most succinct explanation of Stanislavski's writings and ideas, especially those in the Stanislavski's acting trilogy – An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, and Creating a Role – a staple of every actor's library. Now available in an attractive new edition, Stanislavski: An Introduction provides the perfect guide through the Master's writing.

'A small jewel of a book, a knowleageable introduction to both Stanislavski's personal development and to the content and range of his writings' Theatre Journal '...shows the System to be a practical process - drama school students and actors will be grateful for it' Times Eductational Supplement 'A carefully documented study of peak interest and value to every serious student of acting theory' Choice The Stanislavski 'system' is still the only comprehensive method of actor training we possess. His theories can be hard to grasp and many academic books are impenetrable on the subject. This is a concise book for students that presents a readable introduction to the life and work of Stanislavski. It shows the slow growth of the 'system', from its roots in the tradition of Russian realism, to the various phases it went through until the final emergence of the Method of Physical Action in the years before his death. It also provides a short account of the writing, publication and translation of Stanislavski's books on acting. In this edition, Jean Benedetti makes several important updates in the light of new material and new translations becoming available.

Stanislavski and the Actor offers a clear, modern presentation of Konstantin Stanislavski's methods of actor training and rehearsal. It is based on the course Stanislavski designed and taught with a team of hand-picked assistants in the last three years of his life (1935-38) at the Opera-Dramatic Studio in Moscow. Jean Benedetti now reconstructs that course. Stanislavski and the Actor is the manual which Stanislavski never had time to write. Using notes made by Stanislavski's assistants, exercises and improvisations used in class, transcripts of Stanislavski's own master classes (translated into English for the first time) and his knowledge of Stanislavski's earlier writings, Benedetti builds up a comprehensive description of the 'system' in contemporary language that is easy to understand by today's actors and teachers. He also shows that Stanislavski's revolutionary teachings about acting still have a wide application now.