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CORVALLIS - "The Stanislavsky System Today" is the focus of a talk Monday, Oct. 27, in Oregon State University's Lab Theater (Withycombe Hall) by Russian director and professor Sergei Tcherkasski. The lecture, which begins at 3:30 p.m., is free and open to the public.

Tcherkasski is vice-rector for international relations at the St. Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy, the largest theatrical educational institution in Russia. His doctoral research dealt with the education of theatre directors in the 20th century. He has directed numerous plays - both classics and contemporary works - in Russia, has taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has led his Modern Stanislavsky Workshops in leading theatre schools in the United States, the United Kingdom, Korea, Italy, Sweden, and Finland.

Many scholars contend that Tcherkasski's subject - Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky - had a more profound effect on acting than anyone in the 20th century. Born in Moscow in 1863, Stanislavsky joined a theatrical group organized by his family, and soon became its central figure. Stanislavsky maintained that if theater was to be meaningful, it needed to move beyond the external representation that acting had primarily been. He then worked to create an approach, known as the Stanislavsky System, or "the method," that holds that an actor's main responsibility is to be believed, rather than recognized or understood.

As one of the few Russian directors who speaks fluent English, he has often taught and directed outside of his country.