LEVIN, Irina 1937-

PERSONAL: Born July 17, 1937, in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), U.S.S.R. (now Russia); immigrated to the United States, 1976; daughter of Boris Y. (an engineer) and Valentina G. (a nurse; maiden name, Savicheva) Grishkan; married Igor Levin (a scientist), December 2, 1961; children: Eugene. Education: Studied at Theatrical Institute, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), U.S.S.R. (now Russia), 1955-58, 1970-74.

ADDRESSES: Home—3315 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Apt. 102, Washington, DC 20016.

CAREER: State Drama Theater, Dushanbe, U.S.S.R. (now Russia), actress, 1958-59; Theater of Drama and Comedy, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), U.S.S.R., actress, 1958-73; State Philharmonic Society, Leningrad, performer of solo dramatic readings in concert programs, 1969-75; Theater-Studio, St. Petersburg, drama teacher and director, 1970-75; Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, lecturer in acting and scene study, 1981-82; writer.

WRITINGS:

(With husband, Igor Levin) Methodology of Working on the Play and the Role, Ladore Press (Washington, DC), 1990.

(With Igor Levin) Working on the Play and the Role, Ivan R. Dee (Chicago, IL), 1992.

(With Igor Levin) Stanislavsky Secret: Not a System, Not a Method but a Way of Thinking, Meriwether Publishing (Colorado Springs, CO), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Irina Levin once told CA: "Stanislavsky developed his method of working on the play and the role over a period of many years but, because it was constantly being modified and improved, the method remained unfinished. As a result, the fundamental ideas and methods developed by Stanislavsky in the latter part of his life were not included in his three widely known books; they are known only as recounted by his pupils and associates of those years.

"For the past fifty years, Stanislavsky's later findings were expanded and perfected in the theater by leading Russian directors, especially M. Kedrov and G. Tovstonogov. In spite of this, there remains no systematic outline of the method. It is described only in a few papers, stenographic reports of seminars, and notes kept by leading Russian directors during their work on individual plays. All of these materials are fragmentary and offer no idea of the method as a whole, and still less of how to apply it in practice.

"My desire, and that of my husband and coauthor, is to provide a full and systematic exposition of the method of working on the play and the role. That is the main motive for our writing. We are currently working on a book dedicated to identifying actions within the text of the play and their realization on the stage."*