Creating a Role

Creating a Role is theatre actor/director Constantin Stanislavski's third and final book on his method for learning the art of acting. It was first published in Russian in 1957; Theatre Art Books published an English-language edition, translated by Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood, in 1961.

In the two preceding installments, An Actor Prepares (1936) and Building a Character (1948), Stanislavski describes ways in which an actor imagines the lived experience of their character, and then expresses that inner life and persona through speech and movement. Creating a Role applies these principles to rehearsal, in which the actor improves their understanding of the role, and how it fits the script.

Contents
Part I: Griboyedov's Woe from Wit 1.

2. The Period of Study

3. The Period of Emotional Experience

4. The Period of Physical Embodiment

Part II: Shakespeare's Othello 1. First Acquaintance

2. Creating the Physical Life of a Role

3. Analysis

4. Checking Work Done and Summing Up

Part III: Gogol's The Inspector General 1. From Physical Actions to Living Image

Appendices 1. Supplement to Creating a Role

2. Improvisations on Othello