[2] He distinguished between two kinds of actors, both of whom are dedicated to the art of acting: (1) those who have developed the art of pretense based on intelligence and reason; (2) those who express feelings experienced by the actor in performance and work based on "a flaming-soul, heavenly spark."

[3] He was opposed to the principles advanced by the French playwright and philosopher Denis Diderot in his Paradox of the Actor (published posthumously in 1830), which inverted Shchepkin's evaluation.

[4] Shchepkin was born in the village of Krasnoe, in the Kursk Governorate of the Russian Empire, to a serf family-owned by Count G. S.

[7]Shchepkin's distinction between the 'actor of reason' and the 'actor of feeling' influenced the formation of the ideas about acting contained in the 'system' devised by Konstantin Stanislavski.

In 1812, Shchepkin married Elena Dmitrievna ("Alyosha") who was a Turkish captive during the Siege of Anapa.