Building a Character

Building a Character

First English-language edition
Author	Constantin Stanislavski
Original title	Работа актера над собой
Translator	Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood
Language	Russian
Subject	Acting
Published	1948 1949 (Theatre Art Books)
Publication place	Soviet Union
Media type	Print
Preceded by	An Actor Prepares
Followed by	Creating a Role

Building a Character (Russian: Работа актера над собой) is the second of stage actor/director Constantin Stanislavski's three books on his method for learning the art of acting. It was first published in Russian in 1948; Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood's seminal English translation was published by Theatre Art Books of New York the following year.^[1]

In Stanislavski's most widely read work, An Actor Prepares, he describes a process by which an actor imagines the character he will become. In Building a Character, he explains that the outward expressions of character must flow from that character's inner life: his memories, beliefs, preoccupations, and so on. He then elaborates ways in which the actor's manner of speech, dress, and movement (gestures, facial expressions, etc.) evidence the character's inner experience.

Creating a Role, the final book in the trilogy, followed Building a Character in 1957.