Konstantin stanislavskij biography of michael

Separating Michael Chekhov and Stanislavsky

Scott Fielding

Select historic figures have concerned themselves with advancing the art and craft of acting.  It is commonly acknowledged that Konstantin Stanislavsky and Michael Chekhov are foremost among them.  Stanislavsky, widely regarded as the father of modern acting, pursued his artistic/pedagogic aims over the course of some forty years as co-founder and co-director of the Moscow Art Theatre and leader or overseer of its various studios.  Chekhov, a celebrated pupil of Stanislavsky, was also a dominant presence in the creative work of the Art Theatre, particularly through the First Studio and Second Moscow Art Theatre, for a period of sixteen years.  During that time, and subsequently as an exile for twenty-five years, he, like Stanislavsky, devoted his creative and intellectual powers to investigating the conditions and means necessary to the actor’s creative inspiration, and to organizing his findings