Acting Methods

Constantin Stanislavksi  Born in Russia;  Began the Moscow Art Theatre in 1897, where he directed many plays  Created First Studio in 1912 as training place for young actors  Wanted to create “a believable truth” on stage  Instructed them in his “system” of realistic acting

“system” analysis An actor analyzes the character’s  subtext  objectives  super-objective (major goal for the play)  given circumstances (info about the character’s background, appearance, etc.)  Stanislavski had actors break scenes into “bits”; when a goal or tactic changes, the “bit” changes  later became known as “beats”

“system” exercises “Magic If” = “If I were in this situation, how would I behave?”

“system” exercises affective or emotional memory = recreating past experiences to arouse emotions in rehearsal of a scene

“system” exercises psychophysical action = finding physical actions that provoke feelings in the actor (this was later in his teaching)

Constantin Stanislavksi  Wrote several books: An Actor Prepares, An Actor’s Work, Creating a Role, My Life in Art  Even though he focused on actors using memories to create real emotion, he also developed a more psychophysical approach: exploring characters was just as much about “the inside out” as “the outside in”  “Love art in yourself, not yourself in art.”  “The person you are is a thousand times more interesting than the best actor you could ever hope to be.”

Lee Strasberg  ; born in what is now Ukraine; grew up in NYC  In 1923, he saw Stanislavski perform on a US tour—changed his life  Co-founded the Group Theatre with Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford  Artistic director of the Actors Studio in NYC (almost 40 years)  In his later years, he acted in several movies, including The Godfather II

 father of Method acting (his version of Stanislavski’s “system”)  trained several generations of theatre and film stars, including Dustin Hoffman, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Fonda, Paul Newman, James Earl Jones, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro…  Method acting was based on Stanislavski’s teachings but was more focused on “inside out”

How are the Method and the “system” alike? Both try to create realistic acting by using  objectives and super-objectives  subtext  given circumstances  “magic if”  affective/emotional memory

Method Exercises Private Moment

Method Exercises Sensory Recall

Method Exercises Animal Exercise

 “Mr. Brando based his acting technique on the Method. ‘It made me a real actor,’ he once said. ‘The idea is you learn to use everything that happened in your life and you learn to use it in creating the character you're working on. You learn to dig into your unconscious and make use of every experience you ever had.’”  “Mr. Strasberg's career, his teachings, were controversial. Opponents of the Method believe that it encourages actors to be self-indulgent, to forget the character in pursuit of behavioral motivation, and that it does not prepare actors to play classics.” (Both quotes from Mel Gussow’s obituary for Strasberg in the New York Times, 1982)

Stella Adler  ; born in New York City  Married to Harold Clurman, one of the founders of the Group Theatre; she was part of the Group but never felt comfortable there (disagreed with Strasberg)  Studied with Stanislavski in 1934; returned to the Group and told them how Stanislavski’s theory had evolved

Stella Adler  Worked in Hollywood, Broadway, and London, directing and acting; began teaching acting  Started the Stella Adler Theatre Studio  students: Marlon Brando, Kevin Costner, Christopher Guest, Martin Sheen, Robert De Niro, Benicio del Toro, Sean Astin…

Stella Adler Technique  “the theater exists 99% in the imagination”  one of the actor’s primary concerns must be with the emotional origins of the script  main responsibility is to search between the lines of the script for the important unsaid messages  takes a combination of emotional availability and imagination  “You act with your soul. That’s why you all want to be actors, because your souls are not used up by life.”

Michael Chekhov  ; born in Russia  Nephew of playwright Anton Chekhov  Studied with Stanislavski (one of his brightest students)  father’s “death”  experimented with affective memory and had nervous breakdown

 Emigrated to Germany and started his own school; taught actors the “psychological gesture”  Opened Chekhov Theatre School in England; moved to Connecticut during WWII  Moved to Hollywood and coached actors (such as Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Palance, Gregory Peck, and Yul Brynner)  Jack Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins, and Johnny Depp have discussed the influence of his book on their acting style

Sanford “Sandy” Meisner  ; born in Brooklyn  Exposed to Method acting when he was founding member of the Group Theatre; began to follow Stanislavski’s “system” more than Strasberg’s Method  Was one of first teachers at Actors Studio (before Strasberg)  Taught at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre for almost 60 years

 "To be an interesting actor – hell, to be an interesting human being – you must be authentic and for you to be authentic you must embrace who you really are, warts and all. Do you have any idea how liberating it is to not care what people think about you? Well, that's what we're here to do." — Sanford Meisner  Some of Meisner’s students: Grace Kelly, Bob Fosse, James Caan, Steve McQueen, Robert Duvall, Gregory Peck, Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum, Connie Britton, Chris Noth, Mary Steenburgen, Allison Janney, Jennifer Grey, Christopher Meloni, Tom Cruise, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Alec Baldwin…

Meisner Technique  “to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances"  “the reality of doing”  “to eliminate all intellectuality from the actor’s instrument and to make him a spontaneous responder to where he is, what is happening to him, what is being done to him”  Behave instinctively to environment  Emphasis on other actor  Repetition exercises

Uta Hagen  ; born in Germany  Appeared on Broadway when she was 18  Played Blanche DuBois in national tour of A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Harold Clurman (impacted her acting)  “He took away my 'tricks'. Mr. Clurman refused to accept a mask. He demanded ME in the role.”

 Originated role of Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (won Tony)  Appeared on Hollywood blacklist, so didn’t appear in many films  Taught at HB Studio in NYC  Some students: Matthew Broderick, Jason Robards, Sigourney Weaver, Liza Minnelli, Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Lemmon, Jon Stewart, and Al Pacino  Nominated for an Emmy for One Life to Live  Wrote Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor

Uta Hagen Technique  4 Steps:  What did I just do?  What am I doing now?  What do I want?  AND GO FOR IT! 

Viewpoints  Originally developed by a choreographer  Adapted by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau for creating staging for actors  Anne Bogart  Director and professor at Columbia University  Co-founder of SITI Company with T. Suzuki  Tina Landau  Playwright and director  Ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago

Viewpoints  TIME  Tempo  Duration  Kinesthetic Response  Repetition  SPACE  Shape  Gesture  Architecture  Spatial Relationship  Topography  VOCAL VIEWPOINTS (recently added)  Pitch  Volume  Timbre

Viola Spolin  ; born in Chicago  Theatre teacher, writer, acting coach  Created exercises to help actors make choices in the moment—later called “Theatre Games”  Considered the mother of improvisational theatre  Her son, Paul Sills, was founding director of the Compass Players (became Second City); he trained and directed them using her techniques  “Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become 'stage-worthy.‘”