Transition, Adaptation and Application: A Critical Analysis and Evaluation of the Influence of the Work of Konstantin Stanislavsky on Professional British Actor Training Between 1938 and 2022 Actor Training Between 1938 and 2022

This thesis traces the reception and dissemination in British Actor Training of the theories and methods developed by Russian actor, director, teacher, and writer Konstantin Stanislavsky. Bringing together the research emerging from a range of journal articles and book chapters, the research focuses on the following:

• A close historical analysis of the routes by which Stanislavsky’s System was initially absorbed into UK actor training methodology.

• A critical analysis of the ways in which British interpretations of Stanislavsky’s work have differed to those adopted by various Method practitioners in the USA – Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, and Uta Hagen.

• A critical and comparative study of how British professional/industry-based applications of Stanislavsky’s work have served to enhance our understanding of his training/interpretative methods.

• An examination and critical evaluation of the pedagogical implications when teaching Stanislavsky-based techniques using the new technologies and training environments available in a post-pandemic era.

The research methodology adopted blends an ethnographic process of engagement with historical and qualitative analysis. Given my background as a professional actor and director, this affords a space in which to acknowledge the influence of my own embodied knowledge and understanding alongside more explicit forms of data analysis, information gathering, and critical judgement.

Through the analysis of various aspects of Stanislavsky’s ‘system’ of training and the differing ways in which it has been understood and applied, this thesis affords a series of deeply informed, authoritative insights into the development of actor training in the UK between 1938 and 2022. As such, it makes a unique and original contribution to knowledge, especially in relation to the history, adaptation, application, and the ongoing influence of Stanislavsky’s work in British actor training throughout a period of almost ninety years.