We're wrapping up that one book we were supposed to have read in acting school. You were supposed to as well and you didn't, don't play pretend. Listen to our sweet book report on Richard Boleslavsky's big book o' acting and tell your teacher you totally did the reading.

All apologies to Sarah Goldberg for messing up your name, we love you so much. Please come on our podcast and play The Creature in our music stand reading of Acting: The First Six Lessons to raise money for the miniseries we're inevitably going to make.

We are slowing down a little bit. Turns out we're way too busy for our own good. Get caught up on prior episodes and meet us again to start Act 2 of The Method!

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Follow The Actors Bookshelf on Twitter @actorsbookshelf and Bluesky @theactorsbookshelf

Follow Patrick on Instagram @dfwpadraig

Follow Dan on Instagram @the.other.dan.stevens

Questions? Comments? Email us at actorsbookshelfpod@gmail.com

Finally, one of the books we were supposed to have read! It's Richard Boleslavsky's book, possibly the first book on the modern approach to acting (yes, it came out BEFORE An Actor Prepares)!

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Follow The Actors Bookshelf on Twitter @actorsbookshelf and Bluesky @theactorsbookshelf

Follow Patrick on Instagram @dfwpadraig

Follow Dan on Instagram @the.other.dan.stevens

Questions? Comments? Email us at actorsbookshelfpod@gmail.com

Curtain down on Act One of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act, and we go out on a bang! Thus concludes our background discussions on the history of the revolutionary approach to acting that would go on to influence the American "Method" and the new approach to psychological realism that would take the world by storm once a certain Polish Lancer made his way behind enemy lines to spread the good word abroad.

Check out our back catalogue of discussions on The Method for information that is going to provide atmosphere and context for the books on acting we'll be reading going forward, by such luminaries as Richard Boleslavski, Michael Chekhov, Vasily Toporkov, and even Stan the Man himself....

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Follow The Actors Bookshelf on Twitter @actorsbookshelf and Bluesky @theactorsbookshelf

Follow Patrick on Instagram @dfwpadraig

Follow Dan on Instagram @the.other.dan.stevens

Questions? Comments? Email us at actorsbookshelfpod@gmail.com

The title of this chapter is just too good, and we're moving toward the time when Stanislavski's system is going to expatriate to a new land to proliferate and convince generations of actors that pausing is the key to genius.

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Follow The Actors Bookshelf on Twitter @actorsbookshelf and Bluesky @theactorsbookshelf

Follow Patrick on Instagram @dfwpadraig

Follow Dan on Instagram @the.other.dan.stevens

Questions? Comments? Email us at actorsbookshelfpod@gmail.com

This week on TAB, Dan and Patrick are learning about the difference between what they do (hack work) and what our boy Stan the Man was trying to implement with his first workshop of actors back in Moscow with the System.

We're more than halfway through the first act of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler. We promise, dear listener, those books we were supposed to have read in acting school are coming. But first, we must get down with THE STANISLAVSKI SICKNESS (cue Disturbed throat noises).

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Media mentions in this episode:

Odessa Steps Sequence from "Battleship Potemkin" (dir. Sergei Eisenstein) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBqAGdqTNz0

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Follow The Actors Bookshelf on Twitter @actorsbookshelf and Bluesky @theactorsbookshelf

Follow Patrick on Instagram @dfwpadraig

Follow Dan on Instagram @the.other.dan.stevens

Questions? Comments? Email us at actorsbookshelfpod@gmail.com

We're trying new episode titles. This is Part 2 of Chapter 4 of The Method, aka Patrick wraps up his book report....

We got off the chapter numbering anyway.

Our last episode ended with the Ya Yes'm lesson (я есмь), this week we'll revisit that, and we'll cover how Stan got around to some of his profound acting theories, including Concentration, Affective Memory (oy...), the Magic If, and the big M word.

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Follow The Actors Bookshelf on Twitter @actorsbookshelf and Bluesky @theactorsbookshelf

Follow Patrick on Instagram @dfwpadraig

Follow Dan on Instagram @the.other.dan.stevens

Questions? Comments? Email us at actorsbookshelfpod@gmail.com

Well horsefeathers.....

Turns out a lot happened in Russia after the turn of the Twentieth Century, and our heroes Stan and Nemo were caught in the maelstrom. This week Dan and Patrick are talking about Chapter 4 of Isaac Butler's The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act. But it's a dense chapter, lots of scene-setting to set about, so we dive on in headfirst to the development of Mister Stan's theories about the CONSCIOUS and the SUPERCONSCIOUS.

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Follow The Actors Bookshelf on Twitter @actorsbookshelf and Bluesky @theactorsbookshelf

Follow Patrick on Instagram @dfwpadraig

Follow Dan on Instagram @the.other.dan.stevens

Questions? Comments? Email us at actorsbookshelfpod@gmail.com

We did it. We caught up the chapters with our episode numbers. We all lived happily ever after, in Moscow, with Trigorin, and the Cherry Orchard is continuing to bring us residual income. Huzzah.

This week Dan and Patrick talk about Chapters 2 and 3 of Isaac Butler's The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act. We'll cover some of the early productions of the Moscow Art Theatre (originally the Moscow Open Art Theatre), headaches, trials, tribulations, and successes, and the rudiments of what would become Stanislavski's "system" for actors. We also talk about a little play by Anton Chekhov that would place him among the titans of the dramatic canon like William Shakespeare, Lillian Hellman, and Tommy Wiseau.

Episode art is taken from the 1898 Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull, directed by Konstantin Stanislavski & Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. Pictured are an unknown performer as Yakov, Vasily Luzhsky as Sorin, Vsevolod Meyerhold as Treplev, Olga Knipper Chekhova as Arkadina, Konstantin Stanislavski as Trigorin, and Maria Alekseyeva as Masha.

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

Follow The Actors Bookshelf on Twitter @actorsbookshelf and Bluesky @theactorsbookshelf

Follow Patrick on Instagram @dfwpadraig

Follow Dan on Instagram @the.other.dan.stevens

Questions? Comments? Email us at actorsbookshelfpod@gmail.com