Beyond Stanislavsky: The Psycho-Physical Approach to Actor Training

A guide to Psycho-Physical Acting, complete with games and exercises.

When Stanislavsky died, he was working on a new system, Psycho-Physical Acting. Previously he had taught that truthful performance can only spring from the actor’s imagination (the Method). Late in life, Stanislavsky realised that physical actions can induce emotions just as much as the other way round.

Though well-known - and much taught - in Russia, Psycho-Physical Acting is in its infancy in the West. Bella Merlin has studied under three of the best teachers in Russia; this book is the fruit of her time there.

‘This is a book which is vital both to practitioners and to all serious students of the theatre’ Max Stafford-Clark

‘A seminal book for today… an outstandingly lucid account… essential reading’ Simon Callow