Letters and diaries. Stanislavsky K.S.

In the unique in scale and significance of the literary archive of Stanislavsky, his notebooks and diaries occupy a special place. There are more than a hundred of them. In one of them, he left the following record: "I do not believe in human memory, I demand notebooks." Following this rule, Stanislavsky, starting from the age of thirteen and until the end of his life, kept diaries and notebooks, where he brought his thoughts, impressions and observations about theatrical art and not only. They also have many notes and a purely business, domestic nature.

diaries and notebooks - a literary genre of a special kind. These are notes of thoughts for yourself, preliminary blanks for future work, not intended for printing. For us, they are a kind of laboratory of Stanislavsky’s creative thought, brightly revealing the personality of the artist, his theatrical searches, the views on the art of the actor and director. This is one of the most interesting sections of his literary heritage, unfortunately, is still not enough studied and little familiar to the reader. There are direct, sometimes very emotional responses to the events of the theatrical life of those years, the analysis of the newly completed rehearsal, what was succeeded and what has not yet been done, remarks to the actors, reflections on the nature and laws of stage art, on notes on theatrical criticism, struggle With acting stamps and crafts, advice to actors and, finally, the first samples of the pen, draft sketches of thoughts to individual sections of future books about the art of the theater and much more.