Creator of the Spiritual Psychology of Acting

Dear Actor,

At the time of graduating from five years of training as an actor, followed by two years training as a stage director, it would have been easy to kid myself that I was supremely equipped to embark on a career in theatre, TV and film.

The training I received was mainly based on the teachings of Constantin Stanislavski, who was the first actor / director to develop a system of acting and is considered to be the grandfather of modern acting.

One of my teachers, Sam Kogan, trained at the Moscow Institute of Theatre Arts under one of Stanislavski’s’ students and colleagues, Maria Knebel. He in turn developed Stanislavski’s ideas, in search of what he called a ‘science of acting’.

In theory it all seemed to sound right and much of it was very useful and insightful, but in practice, his approach just didn’t work. The cerebral nature of the training served to tie us in knots and ultimately stripped us of our own natural sense of feeling and spontaneity… Surely a system of knowledge of acting should serve to liberate actors, not bind us?

So, in spite of my extensive training, huge questions still remained unanswered… Continue Reading