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Stanislavski, Shpet, and the Art of Lived Experience ! Frederick Matern ! in the First Issue of Stanislavski Studies, John Century Russian Philosophy

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Stanislavski, Shpet, and the Art of Lived Experience ! Frederick Matern ! in the First Issue of Stanislavski Studies, John Century Russian Philosophy Stanislavski, Shpet, and the Art of Lived Experience ! Frederick Matern ! In the first issue of Stanislavski Studies, John Century Russian philosophy. It is very Gillett (2012) asked whether we were getting interesting that he was given the task of closer to the core of Stanislavski’s approach. coming up with a curriculum for a theatre The purpose of the present paper is to suggest school under the management of Moscow Art that we probably are getting closer, thanks in Theatre during the 1920s. It is my view that a great measure to the work of the scholars and great deal remains to be discovered about the practitioners of acting who have contributed to relationship and exchange of ideas between the early issues of this journal, but that the the great director and the philosopher. A look answer to the question is a problem not only of at Shpet’s philosophy of the theatre might translation, but one of philosophical discovery, therefore bear fruit in revealing more about the for hidden in Stanislavski’s practical approach underlying aesthetic assumptions of is the philosophical question of “what is Stanislavski’s system, particularly during its theatre as an art”, and “how does the actor fit later stages. into that art”. It is interesting and perhaps Sharon Marie Carnicke has recently argued telling that in America and throughout the (2009) that Stanislavski’s central concept—the English-speaking world, Stanislavski’s system, “lost term” of perezhivanie, or, as she, Jean without his sanction, was propagated as “the Benedetti, and other scholars translate it, Method”, for indeed it seems that one of the “experiencing”—led Stanislavski into a difficulties was that a part of Stanislavski’s fundamental contradiction: in the great debate methodology was exported, leaving behind the on acting that Diderot called “the paradox of underlying aesthetic assumptions that acting” he, unlike Diderot, took the side of the informed Stanislavski’s art. This is not to ‘sensible’ actor, promoting a theatre where the downplay the achievements of the method actor is taught by various means to experience acting schools in America. Rather, before the role. When it actually comes to performing holding up any version or iteration of roles on stage, however, Carnicke maintains Stanislavski’s System as being more authentic, that Stanislavski’s “eccentric and ambiguous” more work has to be done to understand the use of “experiencing” in acting was in reality Downloaded by [University of Ottawa] at 09:07 10 January 2016 purpose for which he developed his approach. quite messy (2009:141). She then goes further It is as if, in the English-speaking world, we and says that Stanislavski not only have been given a map showing roads, but appropriates Diderot, but that Diderot’s model none of the physical features underneath: no reflects Stanislavski’s own experience on stage mountains, coasts or rivers. (142). Here I argue that Diderot’s theory is, Stanislavski, by his own admission, was not a rather, incommensurable not only with professional philosopher, but he clearly Stanislavski’s teaching but also his practice developed a philosophy as regards the and that of later generations of Russian artists. aesthetics of the theatre. Later in his life, after My view is that Carnicke’s reading of the he had formulated his System, there is one R u s s i a n w o r d t r a n s l a t e d a s philosopher with whom he collaborated: “experiencing” (perezhivanie) relies too Gustav Gustavovich Shpet, who was a student heavily on Tolstoy’s theory of art which, of Edmund Husserl and continued to develop indeed, exerted an influence on Stanislavski hermeneutics, the science of interpretation. but not necessarily, to such an extent, on his Shpet is regarded as an important figure in 20th use of the noun in question. stanislavskistudies.org Issue # 3, November 2013 44 ! how acting, as it is very often done by The problem Carnicke is addressing has to do professional artists in Russia, differs from the with Stanislavski’s use of the concept of acting very often done by no less experienced theatrical truth. She notes that Stanislavski professional artists in the English-speaking takes up the idea as conceived by the world. I would suggest that pedagogy focused Romantics. Indeed, one of the foundations of o n t h e m e t h o d o l o g i c a l a s p e c t s o f Stanislavski’s aesthetics is based on an idea Stanislavski’s system may miss the more framed by Pushkin (as quoted in Jean fundamental aspects of the theatre he was Benedetti’s translation of An Actor’s Work): trying to promote, which, I think, is easier for “Truth of the passions, feelings that seem true Russian students to understand, wrapped up as in the proposed circumstances, that is what our it is in that one word we are having trouble intellect requires of a dramatist”, with the elucidating: perezhivanie. small correction from “proposed” to “given” Benedetti (1990) and Carnicke (2009) have circumstances, reflecting the fact that in the described in detail the factors underlying the theatre, the playwright usually imposes gulf between Stanislavski as he is known to circumstances on the actor (Stanislavski 2008: Western world and Stanislavski as he is taught 52). Truth and sincerity are central to in Russia. This difference can be explained in Stanislavski’s teaching, but when confronted part by translations into English by Robbins with the reality of theatrical performance, the and Hapgood which are, in effect, very actor cannot forget that he is playing a role. As different manuscripts from those that were Carnicke puts it, “actors face a tough practical published in the USSR. As Burnet Hobgood choice. They must either align their feelings (1973), Benedetti, and Carnicke point out, a with those of a playwright, or superimpose key technical term in Stanislavski’s system for their own texts onto the author’s” (2009: 141). actors went missing in the English language She concludes by finding that Stanislavski publications through which he became known essentially finds a “postmodern” solution to to the West. The word “perezhivanie”, the this dichotomy, where “perezhivanie” becomes subtitle of Stanislavski’s key text for actors synonymous with “creating” (144). “When (translated by Benedetti as An Actor’s Work: A Stanislavski suggests evaluating performance Student’s Diary. Year One: Experiencing), was on its own terms and seeing ‘truth’ as relative simply dropped from the title of the Hapgood to the play, he travels away from Tolstoy and translation (An Actor Prepares). In the case of anticipates developments in modernism that J.J. Robbins’ translation of My Life in Art, the Downloaded by [University of Ottawa] at 09:07 10 January 2016 embrace the formal media of art” (145). word is rendered by “living… through” (p. Stanislavski’s creation was a system and not 159), “living” (p. 160), “inner creation” (p. simply a method. This fact has been 210), “examining” (p. 459), “experiencing” (p. emphasized time and again by Stanislavski 460) and “living over” (p. 462). A similar scholars but it bears repeating: there are of variety of terms can be found in Hapgood’s course many methodological elements in his translation. As Carnicke pointed out in her teachings, but they are meant to buttress a essay on translating An Actor’s Work (1984), view of what theatre art should be. Without the experiences of reading Stanislavski in understanding that view, any work on English and Russian are very different. The Stanislavski’s methodology risks being done in loss of the word as a technical term led to a vacuum. Also, despite the vast efforts that confusion in actor education. Furthermore, the have been made to create methodologies for not-quite-accurate rendering of perezhivanie as learning the art of acting in the English- “re-living” emotions led, in the end, to a speaking world that have been inspired by controversial style of actor training that later Stanislavski’s system, it is interesting to note provided critics of Stanislavski’s system, such as David Mamet, something of a straw man to stanislavskistudies.org Issue # 3, November 2013 45 discredit. “Dead pet acting” can be decried as the proper creative state (Stanislavski 2008, the stultifying legacy of academic theatre 299), but just as craft can be aesthetically education but has little to do with what pleasant in other contexts, here an audience Stanislavski wrote or taught (Maxwell 2008). can become used to theatrical conventions that In the English-speaking world, it was only they can “even love” (Stanislavski, quoted in through the work of such scholars as Carnicke Benedetti 2007, 115). But whether we adopt and, of course, Benedetti, that a serious the term “stock-in-trade” or “craft” is not attempt to revive the word as a technical term overly critical in terms of understanding the was accomplished. Now, it would seem that System and its aesthetic underpinnings. Once this concept is here to stay in the English defined by Stanislavski, the concept is self- literature on Stanislavski. contained and clear in either translation. Experiencing is part of a triad of technical The trend he labels “the art of representation”, terms Stanislavski uses to describe three the theory that finds its clearest expression in “trends” in theatre art. In an essay on these Diderot (1830/1957), is even easier to trends, translated by Benedetti (2007)1 , understand in translation. “Representation” is Stanislavski describes them as Craft, the Art of a straightforward translation of the Russian Representation, and the Art of Experiencing. predstavlenie. With stock-in-trade (or, as I Benedetti, who makes it clear in the w o u l d p r e f e r, s i m p l y “ craft” ) a n d introduction to his book that the translations representation, we have a good beginning of a are his own and that he is aiming to achieve a technical glossary for Stanislavski in English.
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