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Konstantin Stanislavski: Google Doodle celebrates the Russian theatre practitioner with an outstanding legacy

Konstantin Stanislavski, the Russian actor, director and producer, is being honoured by a Google Doodle on what would have been his 156th birthday.

The trailblazing seminal theatre practitioner was best known for developing the system of acting called the Stanislavski system, a technique by which an actor strives to empathise with the character being portrayed so to offer a realistic interpretation.

Here's everything you need to know about the man who inspired today's Google Doodle:

Who was Konstantin Stanislavski?

(Google)
(Google)

Born Konstanin Sergeevich Alekseevin in Moscow in 1863, Stanislavski was raised in a wealthy family who encouraged his love of theatre. His father was said to have erected a stage for him and his siblings to put on plays.

Despite studying business and language at Lasarevsky Institute, which was then the most prestigious private school in Moscow, he did not graduate and instead dedicated himself to theatre and the arts, becoming a part of dramatic group the Alekseyev Circle in 1977.

Years later, he founded the Moscow Art Theatre with his partner, Vladimir Nemirovich Danchenko, in 1898. It was here that they staged Anton Chekhov plays including ‘The Seagull’, ‘Uncle Vanya,’ ‘The Three Sisters’ and ‘The Cherry Orchard.’ Stanislavski’s reinterpretation of 'The Seagull' would go on to gain the theatre national recognition.

As well as directing, Stanislavski was a theatre practitioner, writing several major texts on the art of performance. He was also an actor himself, making appearances in a variety of plays including Shakespeare’s Othello.

After the turbulent years before and after the Russian Revolution, many of his fellow actors left Russia, and the Moscow Art Theatre was eventually divided into several companies.

After his death in 1938, he had already left an outstanding legacy and his system is used as the foundation for the Method acting style to this day.

Stanislavski’s mansion in central Moscow is now a public museum and research centre displaying a collection of original stage sets and theatrical costumes.

Konstantin Stanislavski quotes

“Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art.”

“Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.”

“Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it.”

“The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his part, their joint feelings and subconscious creation.”

“Talent is nothing but a prolonged period of attention and a shortened period of mental assimilation.”