Emotion memory: “A dangerous reputation”

Abstract

In October of 2018, Backstage published an article by Alex Yates called “The Definitive Guide to the Stanislavski Acting Technique”. This was a very cursory and superficial description of his life and some of his ideas. It was certainly in no way “definitive”. In fact, it perpetuated some common misconceptions about his work. For instance, it says he merely “dabbled in the performing arts as an amateur actor, opera singer, producer, and director”, with no mention of the Moscow Art Theatre and the years he spent there. However, as the author talks of the merging of the System of Stanislavski with the Method of Strasberg, he notes that emotion memory has a “dangerous reputation” and that “Some high-profile actors have merged their personal lives with that of their characters’ lives in psychologically unhealthy ways”. In this paper, I aim to trace the lineage of this notion of the danger inherent in studying Stanislavski and attempt to find actual evidence.

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