Stanislavski’s creative state on the stage. A spiritual approach to the “system” through practice as research

Abstract

This article is a continuation of a previously published one and talks about my own research project, with a focus on various meditation techniques, used as un underlying principle of breath to observe possible spiritual ways of preparing the actor towards what Stanislavski defines as the creative state or as experiencing ‘the life of the human soul’ on the stage. Following the odyssey of the artist from being oneself to becoming the character, my practice as research looks upon how certain spiritual ways (such as meditation) might contribute to their artistic development. It also draws attention on the strange similarities between Christian Orthodox ideas, the Zen Buddhist state of ‘enlightenment’/ ‘zanmai’, and the Stanislavskian creative state.