The date was January 17th, 1863. The place was Moscow, Russia. The event was the birth of Constantin Alekseyev Stanislavski, the well-known theatre practitioner whose theories behind acting became a major turning point in the history of theatre. Born into a wealthy family, Stanislavski's natural talent and sincere love of the theatre were well accounted for financially, which made his amateur theatre endeavors very easy to accomplish. In the late 1890's Stanislavski met with a playwright named Vladimir Nemitovich-Danchenko, both of whom decided that the acting style of their time was in need of improvement. They formed the Moscow Arts Theatre in hope of finding new truths and total realism in theatre. It was during this time and followed in the many years to come that Stanislavski formed his system of acting that he is so well known for. In 1913 Stanislavski set up an experimental theatre called "First Studio", where his primary goal was to experiment with his theory and to perfect it in every shape and form using psychological approaches through trial and error. Stanislavski's method was to have the actor psychologically transform himself into his character. The actor would actually have to believe everything he was acting was real, in some ways not even to be acting anymore but experiencing, for the first time, everything around him. Every emotion, every action, every event, every thought would be real – not imaginary. He once said, "It [his system] is not a hand-me-down suit that you can put on and walk off in, or a cookbook where all you need to find is the page and there is your recipe. No, it is a whole way of life." For Stanislavski acting was no longer pretend.
             "The actor must believe in everything that takes place on the stage – and most of all – in what he himself is doing – and one can only believe in the truth." - Stanislavski
             In order to achieve such a state of mind, the actor has to prepare hims...