Eugenio Barba and the Stanislavski Legacy: An Ontology of the Actor

This study is an investigation of Eugenio Barbäs claim that he is professionally descended from Konstantin Stanislavski. It was inspired by many visits to Barbäs Odin Teatret in Holstebro, Denmark over the period ranging from 1985-97. This study draws from, though does not rely on, anecdotes told by Odin actors, interviews with Barba and members of the Odin, and the experience of attending actor training and rehearsal at the Odin. It was also inspired by reading En Skuespilllers Arbejde Med Sig Selv, Ellen Rovsing and Egill Rostrup¿s 1967 Danish translation of Stanislavski¿s An Actor¿s Work on Himself (known to most as An Actor Prepares). Rovsing and Rostrup¿s translation of Stanislavski is remarkably different from the Elizabeth Hapgood English translations upon which I previously relied. Rovsing and Rostrup¿s translation is richer in the kind of pedagogical repetition and exemplary anecdotes that characterize Stanislavski¿s struggle to articulate the actor¿s process.