Different Acting Methods. Choosing the right course

The American Laboratory Theater was founded in 1923 by two of Stanislavsky’s proteges. This school in New York officially brought the Stanislavsky system to the United States. Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman and Stella Adler all learnt their craft at the American Lab Theatre and realised what a breakthrough this was for the craft of the actor.

In the early thirties Strasberg teamed up with Clurman and founded The Group Theatre. It was here that the carft of modern acting in the States was honed and developed. The Group Theatre went on to include Stella Adler, Clifford Odets, Anna Sokolow, and Sanford Meisner and many others. As with all groups of artists there was much internal conflict and this along with both the Depression and the coming Second World War meant that The Group Theatre shut its doors in 1941.

After the war the The Actors Studio was founded by four of the ex Group Theater students, and in 1951 Lee Strasberg joined and became director. The Actors Studio still lives on in both New York City and Los Angeles. Its alumni reads like a who’s who of Hollywood, and is currently run by Al Pacino and Ellen Burstyn

The Method was continued to be refined, and Strasberg, Adler and Meisner all developed their own techniques and these techniques are still taught in classes today.

Strasberg’s method is probably the closest to the Stanislavsky method, although some of what Strasberg uses was abandoned by Stanislavsky later in his life. In its most basic form Stanislavsky asks of the actor “If I were in this circumstance what would I do?” whereas Strasberg asks “What would motivate me, the actor, to behave in the way the character does?”

Sanford Meisner believed that Strasberg’s Method using the actor’s personal memories caused the actor to focus too much on themselves, and thus clouded from their ability to tell the story of the script. He broke away from Strasberg and his technique teaches the actor to fully immerse in the moment and concentrate on their partner in a scene. He wanted actors to be able to improvise and bring the spontaneity of improvisation to script work. His emphasis was on a moment-to-moment truthful spontaneity between actors in fictional circumstances. Meisner wanted to teach actors how to “live truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”

The Meisner technique and training is heavily based on ‘actions’, constantly reminding actors to commit to a task rather than focus on the dialogue. By committing to an ‘action’, and focussing your attention on your partner in a scene Meisner believed you would be forced into ‘the moment’ propelling you forward with concentrated purpose.

Stella Adler was the only member of The Group Theatre to have actually studied directly with Stanislavsky in 1934. When she studied with Stanislavsky his theory had been revised and was looking at how an actor must use imagination not memory to create emotion on stage.

Adler acted for several years in Hollywood and founded her own school in New York in 1949. Strasberg’s method used an actor’s personal emotional memories, much like the early teachings of Stanislavsky, Adler used her dealings with Stanislavski and developed techniques which summoned true emotion by using a scene’s given circumstances. She agreed with the Meisner technique regarding actions. She taught actors to be able to justify every action on stage or screen.

Adler also believed that if an actor is trying to be natural and organic on stage they can become ordinary, boring and small, and spend far too long in their own heads. Her technique teaches actors to look for a sense of ‘epic’ in all acting, not being melodramatic or forced but being seen and heard through both voice and action.

Stanislavsky in his later years believed that improvisation was really the only way for an actor to reach their subconscious through their conscious and be able to deliver true emotion.

Viola Spolin introduced her technique in Chicago in the early fifties and created theatre games which assisted the actor in focussing on the present moment, and finding answers and choices in the moment, through improvisation, as one does in everyday life. She was the first to consider the audience, they too became a player, nobody was passive in her technique. She believed that actors and audience needed to meet and interact to create great theatre.

She developed exercises and games which would fool spontaneity into being. Her techniques freed the actor from tension and preconceptions and liberated them. She hoped that by using her method actors would increase their spontaneity, physicality and lean on intuition to create a deepened knowledge of character beyond the body’s sensory memory.

With her son she created Second City which today, is still one of the foremost troupes for developing and nurturing comedic talent. Her book Improvisation for the Theatre is considered the bible of improv.