Stanislavski's search for truth

Abstract

A demonstration given my pedagogue, Dr. Frank Camillieri, during one of my own training sessions was an eye opener to what truth in the actor's work is about. We were working on a particular exercise in order to stimulate our centre of energy. The image we were using was that of pulling a rope. When our pedagogue demonstrated the exercise, I was impressed by the fact that although there was no 'real' rope, the action was 'true'. It was impossible from me not to believe that the pedagogue was totally engaged in the action of pulling, even though there was nothing 'real' to be pulled. I decided to start my dissertation with this reflection for two particular reasons. First and foremost because, in my opinion, it shows perfectly that in the work of the actor, the concept of truth is - for him and equally so for the beholder profoundly rooted, with all its human, philosophical implications. Truth is an important issue in the development of Western philosophy starting from the Ancient Greeks right down to the latest postmodern thought Foucault attributes the emergence of truth to power structures; people recognize a particular philosophical tenet or scientific theory as, say being 'true' (or not true, as the case may be) only if the political or intellectual milieus allow it to be seen as such. When it comes to theatre, many are those who have expounded at length on the concept of truth, notably philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, and theoreticians like Scaliger and Castelvetro. Their discussions, however, were always focused upon the truth of the written text, rather than upon the truth of the actor's work. It was Diderot who can truly be considered to have first attributed truth to the actor's work. In The Conversations on 'The Natural Son' for instance, Diderot asserts the actor's importance and says that Voice, tone, gesture, action, these are the actor's province, and they are what we notice, especially in the spectacle of great passions. It is the actor who gives the words the energy they have. It is he who brings to our ears the power and truth of expression.