Building a Character

Building a Character

First English-language edition
Author	Constantin Stanislavski
Original title	Работа актера над собой
Translator	Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian
Subject	Acting
Published	1948 1949 (Theatre Art Books)
Media type	Print
Preceded by	An Actor Prepares
Followed by	Creating a Role

Building a Character (Russian: Работа актера над собой) is the second of stage actor/director Constantin Stanislavski's three books on his method for learning the art of acting. It was first published in Russian in 1948; Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood's seminal English translation was published by Theatre Art Books of New York the following year.

In Stanislavski's most widely read work, An Actor Prepares, he describes a process by which an actor imagines the character he will become. In Building a Character, he explains that the outward expressions of character must flow from that character's inner life: his memories, beliefs, preoccupations, and so on. He then elaborates ways in which the actor's manner of speech, dress, and movement (gestures, facial expressions, etc.) evidence the character's inner experience.

Creating a Role, the final book in the trilogy, followed Building a Character in 1957.

Contents

1. Toward a Physical Characterization
2. Dressing a Character
3. Characters and Types
4. Making the Body Expressive
5. Plasticity of Motion
6. Restraint and Control
7. Diction and Singing
8. Intonations and Pauses
9. Accentuation: The Expressive Word
10. Perspective in Character Building
11. Tempo-Rhythm in Movement
12. Speech Tempo-Rhythm
13. Stage Charm
14. Toward an Ethics for the Theatre
15. Patterns of Accomplishment
16. Some Conclusions on Acting

See also

• Stanislavski's system
• Method acting

External links

• Building a Character at Open Library