Nikolai Demidov and the Path that Opens Again
Nikolai Demidov (1884-1953) was one of Stanislavsky’s closest associates for more than 30 years, he was the original editor of Stanislavsky’s An Actor Prepares and, as Stanislavsky stated before he died, his only student who could understand his system.
Their acquaintance goes back to 1907, when Leopold Sulerzhitsky introduced Demidov to Stanislavsky. Demidov’s theatrical background, his scientific knowledge as a psychiatrist, especially in the field of the “psychology of creativity” in relation to the function of the subconscious, his way of studying the esoteric disciplines in relation to art and the spirituality of his own nature, made Stanislavsky ask him, in 1919, to leave the medical profession and devote himself entirely to theatre and the science of acting, as it was evolving at that time.
For more than 30 years, Demidov was an indispensable partner for Stanislavsky, particularly when it came to introducing the principles of yoga into Stanislavsky’s teaching and the free development of the actor’s creative process.
However, Demidov’s personal research on the organic technique of the actor surpassed the analytical methods of the “system.” Demidov cultivated the principles of the affective synthesis and set the scientific grounds for the use of the subconscious as a major component in the development of the actor’s intuition and the free flow of his true life on stage.
In the early 1920’s, when Demidov was the Head of the Moscow Art Theatre School and the most credible teacher of the system at that time, he began to develop a new type of stage exercises (etudes) which aimed to fight the shortcomings in the separate study of the “elements” in Stanislavsky’s method.
Driven by the need to liberate the actor through the free flow of the subconscious, by his sincere love and his profound respect for the actor and his art, with deep faith in the need for consistent everyday scale work and in the actor’s right to inexact (creative) repetition, Demidov tried to restore the actor’s role as a creator and not as a mere executor.
The etudes and the scales Demidov invented for the actor’s training and the restoration of his perceptive and reactive ability, without the obstacle of intellectual processing, were extremely groundbreaking and revealing even since 1930’s.
However, Demidov’s spirituality, his scientific precision and the disarming way, in which he transformed the subconscious into a vital tool for the actor’s true life onstage, labeled him as “dangerous” for many decades.
From 1930 and up until his death in 1953, Demidov tried unsuccessfully to publish his five indispensable books, in which he records the values and the principles of his approach and presents with admirable scientific precision, artistic sensitivity and pedagogical responsibility the process of training and cultivating the affective actor.
Eventually, the exclusion of this charismatic teacher from the Drama Schools of Moscow, forced Demidov to wonder away to Finland, the Sakhalin Island and Mongolia in order to find fertile ground and implement and develop the school of acting he firmly believed the art of the actor deserves.
After his death, Demidov’s revolutionary technique, which was greatly esteemed by both the artistic and the scientific society of his time, disappeared diligently for more than 70 years, thanks to the efforts of Stanislavsky’s strictly devoted descendants.
Up until the first decade of the 21st century, Nikolai Demidov’s name was known only to a very close circle of experts.
His books’ publication in the last decade was the triggering factor that made Nikolai Demidov’s distinctive pedagogical and artistic approach visible again. The International Demidov Association, curated by director and professor Andrei Malaev-Babel, is dedicated to preserving the precision and accuracy behind Demidov’s teachings.
Over the last decade, the worldwide theatrical community got access to Nikolai Demidov’s “School of Creative Freedom” and finally, through the activities of the Demidov Association, a consistent effort has started for the revival of this unique method for the continuous and lifelong training of the actor and his creative reflexes.
Countries, artists and Drama Departments that offer the demidovian path for the actor’s training are still rather few. However, there is already an active network of collaboration with the goal to convey Demidov’s lofty ideals, to cultivate the unique affectivity of Demidov’s “School of Creative Freedom” and help The Art of Living Onstage to gain the place it deserves in the contemporary theatre landscape.
Experts and many of the artists and teachers who have started following Demidov’s “path”, recognize that the path suggested by Demidov is the “Pedagogy of the Future” in the art of theatre and believe that Demidov’s “path” will change the training landscape for the younger generations of actors and directors.