Question and Answer Session

Recorded during a symposium on the Moscow Art Theatre held at the United Nations Plaza, the speakers discuss their experience working with Konstantin Stanislavski. According to an October 26th, 1964 article in the New York Times, the speakers visiting from the Soviet Union are:

Victor Manyukov, Theater Director and Teacher
Vladimir Prokofyev, Historian and Theoretician
Angelina Stepanova, Actress
Vasily Toporkov, Actor

The recording begins in the middle of a speech by Vasily Toporkov. He describes working on a scene with Stanislavski from Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls in the role of Chichikov. He describes experimenting with which words to emphasize and the character's motivation. He then performs the monologue from the scene.

After a coffee break, Angelina Stepanova answers a question on how an actor is trained. She believes that an actor must have an inherent talent that cannot be trained and describes her training under Stanislavski and Manyukov.

Next, Vladimir Prokofyev discusses physical action during rehearsal. He argues that an actor must not think about the emotional reaction initially, but rather focus on the physical reaction first. This is followed by a question on a "dormant" period for an actor before they become the character. Both Prokofyev and Stepanova insist that there should be no dormant period. The actor must immediately live under the circumstances of the role even as they are considering accepting it. The last question is about physical exercises to practice physical emotions.

Translations by Tanya Derugeen and Ross Levroff.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 151755
Municipal archives id: T1580