Konstantin Stanislavski and Vsevolod Meyerhold are seminal figures within performance theory of the modern theatre, most notably for their individual development of systematic approaches to actor training during the turbulent period in Russia between 1898 and 1940. In a superficial comparison of Stanislavski and Meyerhold’s performance techniques they appear to be polarized opposites. Stanislavski established himself as a prominent figure in the modern theatre through his revolutionary investigations into psychology and its capacity to unite an actor with his character in order to produce psychological realism and emotional authenticity within performance; in contrast, Meyerhold approached performance from a more physiological
Studies of the psyche were prominent among many of Stanislavski’s contemporary theorists and scholars, most notably Sigmund Freud who revolutionized studies of psychology through his ideas on unconscious impulses as determining forces. Stanislavski viewed an actor’s capacity to empathize with his character as essential in achieving a convincing performance. He encouraged actors to achieve empathy through extensive preparation work prior to any form of rehearsal or performance. This preparation required actor’s to treat fictional circumstances as if they were real through a visualization of their characters world and circumstances. Stanislavski asked performers to analyze the Given Circumstances of the play through a naturalistic study of the impacts of the environments on the character and a consideration of the character’s relation to other character in the play. Actors were also asked to identify the Units and Objectives within the script. They examined the psychological motivations of the character and how they informed the characters physical action in order to create logical and purposeful action on stage. The internal motivations were categorized as the characters objectives; the physical actions that resulted directly from these objectives or psychological motivations were referred to as units of action. It is during this initial