Our journal has always enjoyed a particularly active relationship with the complimentary activities of The Stanislavsky Research Centre and the research project The S Word. Each of these three strands of work has fed and supported the others and what has developed is a truly symbiotic relationship. Some recent developments have impacted on the future of this triumvirate, and I would like to share those with you.
In the Autumn of 2020, and largely in response to the COVID 19 pandemic, a decision was made to move the work of The S Word project online. Many regular readers will know that the project presented annual symposia, bringing together scholars, students and practitioners from all over the world to share their research and practice. The “liveness” of these events was always a major consideration, and when Bella Merlin and I instigated The S Word back in 2015, we took a conscious decision to call the events symposia, rather than conferences, emphasizing the importance of the coming together of people (in the Greek sense, to combine feasting with intellectual discussion). It was obvious to us that the sharing and networking opportunities of the events would be equally important.
I freely admit that I was afraid of losing the “liveness” of our events in the transference to the comparative remoteness of the computer screen: now I freely admit that I was wrong. Since November 2020, The S Word has presented five successful online events.
As we are about to start the second part of our webinar series, with events planned through the Spring of 2022, it is a good moment to review their impact and their influence on the future of our work. The benefits have significantly outweighed the drawbacks: maximizing the ability of participants, anywhere in the world to take part, and for panel members to contribute from their home locations and the easy facility to record the events and post them online within hours has vastly improved accessibility. I have tried to monitor the list of participants and I can report that the events consistently attract new audiences who have not discovered The S Word before.
This in turn supports and encourages new scholarship, which has always been a major objective for The S Word, the Research Centre, and the journal.
So far, our webinars have been relatively “self-contained” events, but this Autumn that will change. In November, around the time that the print version of the journal appears, we will be collaborating again with the University of Notre Dame London Global Gateway to present an extended event, both “live” and streamed, which will develop the theme Stanislavsky and Race which we began to explore as part of our first series of webinars. The symposium, which in line with our usual pattern will include papers, presentations and workshops, will then form the basis of the first in a new book series to be published by Routledge Taylor and Francis.
Details of the symposium are available online at https://stanislavsky-research.leeds.ac.uk/2021/07/30/cfp-the-s-word-stanislavsky-and-race-november-2021/
The new book series, under the collective title Stanislavsky And … focusing upon Stanislavsky’s work and legacy in a contemporary context, will offer six titles in the first three years: the topics featured will include Race, Gender, Disability, Pedagogy and Intimacy.
The material for each book will be generated by an event, such as a webinar or symposium, and the books will be supported by audio-visual material made available on-line.
I look forward to being able to share further information about this exciting new book series with you over the coming months. And details will be posted online at https://www.routledge.com/our-products/book-series/STAS.
Increasingly we will be using our new website, Stanislavsky Here Today Now, to support the work of the Centre, The S Word and the journal. If you have not done so already, please visit the site at https://www.stanislavskyheretodaynow.com to watch some of our 50 plus videos. We add new material every month.
In this edition of the journal, you will find articles exploring the relationship between Brian Friel and Chekhov, Stanislavsky and Emile Jacques-Dalcroze, Sanford Meisner, Stanislavsky and Demidov, and the creation of the role of Nina in Chekhov’s The Seagull. We also depart from our usual selected concentration on book reviews by including a critical appraisal of an outstanding new film, Stanislavski: Lust for Life (2021) made by the young Russian director Yulia Bobkova, which makes an important contribution to the relatively meagre canon of Stanislavsky material available on film, and includes contributions from some of the most interesting theatre-makers and teachers using elements of his approach in their work today.
Although it is hard to believe, next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the foundation of this journal. So we would like to particularly encourage our readers to consider this decade and reflect on how their relationship to Stanislavsky and his work may have developed. Please feel free to submit short pieces which share your experiences, and I hope that we may be able to compile a 10th anniversary “snapshot” of our changing relationship with KS in our two issues in 2022.