Emphasis Preaching Journal

On January 5, 1863, Konstantin Stanislavsky was born in Moscow. While serving as an actor and director of the Moscow Arts Theater in the early 1900s, he developed a revolutionary new method for training actors. Rejecting the highly stylized and artificial performances that were in vogue, he insisted that actors deeply understand the motivation of the characters they were playing. He also trained actors to bring their own past emotions and life experiences to a role. Actors who didn't give an authentic performance were subjected to his dreaded words: "I don't believe you!"