Background

Realism in the last half of the 19th-century began as an experiment to make theater more useful to society. The mainstream theatre from 1859 to 1900 was still bound up in melodramas, spectacle plays (disasters, etc.), comic operas, and vaudevilles.
But political events—including attempts to reform some political systems—led to some different ways of thinking. Revolutions in Europe in 1848 showed that there was a desire for political, social, and economic reform. The many governments were frightened into promising change, but most didn’t implement changes after the violence ended.
Technological advances were also encouraged by industry and trade, leading to an increased belief that science could solve human problems. But the working classes still had to fight for every increase in rights: unionization and strikes became the principal weapons workers would use after the 1860s—but success came only from costly work stoppages and violence. In other words there seems to be rejection of Romantic idealism; pragmatism reigned instead. The common man seemed to feel that he needed to be recognized, and people asserted themselves through action.

Realism

It is where people move and talk in a manner similar to that of our everyday behavior. The style has been dominant for the last 120 years. It holds the idea of the stage as an environment, rather than as an acting platform.

Realism's early phase was Romanticism, which had its roots in the 1790's with works by Goethe (Faust) and Schiller (William Tell). Romanticism is known for exotic locales and swashbuckling heroes. As the 19th century progressed, there were several contributing elements to Realism, which came together in the late 19th century. Social, and political ideas, playwrighting, and some spectacular theatrical innovations helped bring Realism to the theatre.

The Emergence of Realism

3 major developments helped lead to the emergence of realism:

1. August Comte (1798-1857), often considered to be the "father of Sociology," developed a theory known as Positivism. Among the Comte’s ideas was an encouragement for understanding the cause and effect of nature through precise observation.

2. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) published The Origin of Species in 1859, and creators a worldwide stir which exists to this day. Darwin’s essential series suggested that life developed gradually from common ancestry and that life favored "survival of the fittest." The implications of Darwin's Theories were threefold:
- people were controlled by heredity and environment
- behaviors were beyond our control
- humanity is a natural object, rather than being above all else

3. Karl Marx (1818-1883) in the late 1840’s espoused a political philosophy arguing against urbanization and in favor of a more equal distribution of wealth

Some Major Realistic Playwrights

Anton Chekhov

Stanislavsky

Lee Strasberg

Henrik Ibsen (problem plays)

August Strindberg (also Expressionist)

George Bernard Shaw

David Belasco

Emile Zola (Naturalist)

Suggested plays

The Robbers by Friedrich Schiller

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

A Doll's House, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen

The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov

The Weavers by Gerhardt Hauptmann

Ah Wilderness, Mourning Becomes Electra, Desire Under the Elms, The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

American Buffalo by David Mamet

Fences by August Wilson

Lee Strasberg

Lee Strasberg was born in Budanov, Ukraine, on 17th November, 1901. The Strasberg family emigrated to the United States in 1908. Strasberg lived in Lower East Side of New York and as a teenager he began acting in plays.

Strasberg studied in Moscow under the Russian director, Konstantin Stanislavsky, who had developed a system of training and rehearsal for actors which bases a performance upon inner emotional experience.

In 1931 Strasberg joined with Harold Clurman to form the Group Theatre in New York. Others involved in the group included Elia Kazan, John Garfield, Howard Da Silva, Franchot Tone, John Randolph, Joseph Bromberg, Clifford Odets and Lee J. Cobb. Members of the group tended to hold left-wing political views and wanted to produce plays that dealt with important social issues.

The Group Theatre produced some notable plays including The House of Connelly (1931 by Paul Green), Condemned (1932 by Marc Blizstein), Men in White (1933 by Sidney Kingsley), Waiting for Lefty (1935 by Clifford Odets), The Cradle Will Rock (1937 by Marc Blizstein) and My Heart's in the Highlands (1939 by William Saroyan).

The Group Theatre disbanded in 1941 and Strasberg moved to Hollywood. He returned to Manhattan in 1947 where he joined with Elia Kazan to form the Actors Studio. Over the next few years he helped to train a large number of actors including Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eli Wallach, Patricia Neal, Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro. Lee Strasberg died on 17th February, 1982.

Konstantin Stanislavski

As founder of the first acting "System", co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre (1897-), and an eminent practitioner of the naturalist school of thought, Konstantin Stanislavski unequivocally challenged traditional notions of the dramatic process, establishing himself as one of the most pioneering thinkers in modern theatre.

Stanislavski coined phrases such as "stage direction", laid the foundations of modern opera and gave instant renown to the works of such talented writers and playwrights as Maksim Gorki and Anton Chekhov. His process of character development, the "Stanislavski Method", was the catalyst for method acting- arguably the most influential acting system on the modern stage and screen. Such renowned schools of acting and directing as the Group Theatre (1931- 1941) and The Actors Studio (1947-) are a legacy of Stanislavski's pioneering vision.

Like all pioneering thinkers however, Stanislavski stood on the shoulders of giants. Much of the thought and philosophy Stanislavsky applied to the theatre derives from his predecessors. Pushkin, Russia's original literary hero and the father of the native realist tradition, wrote that the goal of the artist is to supply truthful feelings under given circumstances, which Stanislavski adopted as his lifelong artistic motto. - Polyakova, Elena; Stanislavsky

Stanislavsky was born Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev in Moscow on January 5, 1863, amidst the transition from the feudal serfdom of Czarist Russia under the rule of Peter the Great, to the free enterprise of the Industrial Revolution. More than one hundred years prior, Konstantin's ancestor Alexei Petrov had broken the chains of serfdom that bound the family and gained immediate status and wealth as a merchant. By the time Konstantin was born, the Alexeyev business of gold and silver thread production had made the family name well known throughout the world.



Silver and gold were not the only interests of the Alexeyev family. While Konstantin was still very young, the family organized a theatre group called the Alexeyev Circle. Throughout his ascent to a major role on the stage, Konstantin maintained obligations to his family business, organizing shareholder meetings and keeping the accounts in order. However, his preoccupation with all aspects of theatrical production eventually made him a leading member of his family's theatre group.

Reared by a wealthy and generous father, Konstantin was never short of funding in his early stage performances. Ultimately, in order to escape the stereotype of the prodigal son and to be mindful of the reputation of his family, at the age of 25, Konstantin took the stage name Stanislavski. In the same year he established the Society of Art and Literature as an amateaur company at the Maly Theatre, where he gained experience in ethics, aesthetics and stagecraft. As he progressed independently, Stanislavsky began to further challenge the traditional stage approach. In 1898, in cooperation with Vladimir Nemirovich- Danchenko, Stanislavski founded the Moscow Art Theatre, Russia's first ensemble theatre.

"The program for our undertaking was revolutionary. We protested against the old manner of acting and against theatricality, against artificial pathos and declamation, and against affectation on the stage, and inferior conventional productions and decoration, against the star system which had been a bad affect on the cast, against the whole arrangement of plays and against the poor repertoire of the theatres." - Stanislavski




Using the Moscow Art Theatre as his conduit, Stanislavski developed his own unique system of training wherein actors would research the situation created by the script, break down the text according to their character's motivations and recall their own experiences, thereby causing actions and reactions according to these motivations. The actor would ideally make his motivations for acting identical to those of the character in the script. He could then replay these emotions and experiences in the role of the character in order to achieve a more genuine performance. The 17th Century melodrama Tsar Fyodor was the first production in which these techniques were showcased.

"How does an actor act? ... How can the actor learn to inspire himself? What can he do to impel himself toward that necessary yet maddeningly elusive creative mood? These were the simple, awesome riddles Stanislavksi dedicated his life to exploring. Where and how to 'seek those roads into the secret sources of inspiration must serve as the fundamental life problem of every true actor' ... If the ability to receive the creative mood in its full measure is given to the genius by nature", Stanislavski wondered, "then perhaps ordinary people may reach a like state after a great deal of hard work with themselves - not in its full measure, but at least in part." - A Method to Their Madness: The History of the Actors Studio

Using this system, Stanislavski succeeded like no producer or director before him in translating the works of such renowned playwrights as Chekov and Gorki, whose writings were aptly suited to his method. With their social consciousness and emphasis on the importance of imagery and theme rather than plot, they were blank canvasses on which Stanislavski could exercise his artful hand.

Stanislavski clearly could not separate the theatre from its social context. He viewed theatre as a medium with great social and educational significance. During the civil unrest leading up to the first Russian revolution in 1905, Stanislavski courageously reflected social issues on the stage. Twelve years later, during the Red October of 1917, Bolshevism had swept through Russia and the Soviet Union was established. In the violence of revolution, Lenin's personal protection saved Stanislavski from being eliminated along with the Czardom. The USSR maintained allegiance to Stanislavski and his socially conscious method of production and his theatre began to produce plays containing Soviet propoganda.

"The revolution thundered in and made its demands on us. There began a period of new explorations, of reappraisal of the old and the search for new ways. At a time when the new for the sake of the new and the negation of everything that had come before held sway in the theatre, we could not reject out of hand all that was fine in the past ... This link with the past and the eagerness to move to an unknown future, the searching quests of the new theatre - all this helped to keep us from succumbing to the dangerous 'charms' of formalism ... We did not succumb; instead we began our quest for new ways, cautiously but doggedly." - Stanislavski

In 1918 Stanislakski established the First Studio as a school for young actors and in his later years wrote two books, My Life in Art and The Actor and His Work. Both have been translated into over 20 languages. Through his earnest professional and educational leadership, Stanislavksi spread his knowledge to numerous understudies, leaving a legacy that cannot be overstated.

"It was with a feeling of deep emotion and joy that we entered Stanislavski's house: a tall old man with snow white hair rose from the arm chair to greet us. It was enough for us to converse with Stanislavski just 5- 10 minutes to come away feeling like a new born person, cleansed of all that might be 'bad' in art." - Khmelyov




In 1938, just before World War II, Stanislavski died holding on to the ideal of a peaceful, socially responsible world. A world completely engulfed in the experiences and interchange of works of art that people of every nation would identify with and cherish.