Abstract

Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian actor and director, creator of an acting system (The System) for the Moscow Art Theater established this method to get their actors to play roles, to create characters through natural means and embody them in the stage in an artistic way. His experience as an actor and the notes of his teachers helped him to develop a manual which remains valid nowdays.
Taking Stanislavski as basis, Strasberg, the American theater director of Polish origin, created what is known as the Method, the basis of the well-known Actor’s Studio. Despite being one of the most studied and effective methods, it is sometimes rejected and criticized.
In this article, we propose to explain the Stanislavski system, its evolution to the Strasberg method, and the criticisms that both awaken, using a descriptive methodology, based on the investigations established by Jorge Eines or María Ósipovna Knébel, among others. The objective of this research is to create a theoretical approach that will serve for future lines of investigation of both methods and analyze and ground the criticisms of both systems.