Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
STELLA ADLER
(1901 1992)
appealed to her greatly, Stella Adler nevertheless joined the ensemble in 1931,
having been promised leading roles and having been enamored of Clurman's
vision.
From 1905, at the age of four, until her death eighty-seven years later, Stella
While acting with the Group, Stella Adler did some of her best work, including
Adler dedicated her life to preserving and expanding the highest level of art in
the theatre. The youngest daughter of the eminent Yiddish tragedians, Sara and
"Gold Eagle Guy," Bessie Berger in "Awake and Sing," and Clara in "Paradise
Jacob Adler, Stella Adler began her career on her father's stage at the age of
Lost."
four in a production of "Broken Hearts." When Stella Adler was eighteen, she
went to London, where she made her debut at the Pavilion as Naomi in "Elisa
Ben Avia," a role she performed for a year, before returning to New York.
Stella Adler the spent the next ten years performing throughout the United
States, Europe, and South America, appearing in more than 100 plays in
vaudeville and the Yiddish theatre. Stella Adler received a great deal of acclaim
among Yiddish-speaking audiences as the leading lady of Jacob Ben Ami and
Maurice Schwartz; yet she longed for wider recognition and the opportunity to
play more varied roles.
Following her Broadway debut in Carl Kapek's "The World We Live In," Stella
Adler joined the American Laboratory headed by Richard Boleslavsky and
Maria Ouspenskaya, who were former members of the Moscow Art Theatre.
In 1924, Stella Adler met her second husband, Harold Clurman, one of the cofounders of The Group Theatre, for the first time; and in 1928, she
participated in the Actor's Laboratory where she met Lee Strasberg as well.
When, in 1931 Clurman, Strasberg, and Cheryl Crawford created an influential
theatre group that championed an imperative for realism and the teachings of
Konstantin Stanislavski, Clurman and Strasberg invited Stella Adler to become
a founding member of that collective, which was called The Group Theatre.
Although neither the politics nor the cooperative energy of the company
Taking a brief leave of absence in 1934 to travel to Russia, Stella Adler stopped
off in Paris, where she met and studied for five weeks with Konstantin
Stanislavski. (She was the only American actor ever to study with him
privately.) When Stella Adler returned to The Group Theatre with a new
understanding of his work, and a new idea of what American theatre could be,
she began to give acting classes for other members of the Group, including
Sanford Meisner, Elia Kazan, and Robert Lewis, all of whom went on to
become notable theatrical directors and acting teachers. Although the Group
provided her with some support, Stella Adler never felt comfortable there; and
in 1937, she left for Hollywood.
After six years as an associate producer at MGM, and a number of roles (under
the name "Stella Ardler") in movies such as "Love on Toast" (1937) and "The
Shadow of the Thin Man" (1941), she returned to Broadway and London to
direct and act in many plays, including the London premiere of "Manhattan
Nocturne," the Off-Broadway revival of the Paul Green-Kurt Weil anti-war
play, "Johnny Johnson," as well as "Sons and Soldiers," "Pretty Little Parlor,"
and "He Who Gets Slapped." Her last stage appearance was in the critically
controversial production of Arthur Kopit's "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's
Hung You in the Closet, and I'm Feeling So Sad" (1959).
Concurrent with her work as an actor and director, Stella Adler began to teach
in the early 1940's at the Erwin Piscator Workshop at the New School for
Social Research. Stella Adler left the faculty in 1949 to establish her own place
Adler was both the toughest critic and the most profound inspiration, saying,
for young actors to work, study, and perform, which would last five decades
"You act with your soul. That's why you all want to be actors - because your
and enrich every part of the American theatre and motion picture arts.
souls are not used up by life." To this day, Stella Adler is still viewed as one of
the foremost influences on contemporary acting.
Combining what she had learned from the Yiddish theatre, The Group
Theatre, Broadway, Hollywood, and Stanislavski, the Stella Adler Theatre
Studio (later renamed the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting, and finally the
Stella Adler Studio of Acting) offered courses in principles of acting, speech
and voice, Shakespeare, movement, and makeup, together with workshops in
play analysis, character, scene preparation, and acting styles. Onstage
experience was acquired by performances of scenes and plays before an invited
audience. Among her students were Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Warren
Beatty, Elaine Stritch, Mario Van Peebles, Harvey Keitel, and Candice Bergen.
Her belief in the supreme seriousness of her art kept many well-known
members of the theatre coming back for her intelligent and passionate advice.
By 1960, as the school expanded, courses for advanced students and
professionals were added to the curriculum. These courses included rehearsal
technique and script analysis (which she also taught at Yale for a year and half).
The school also provided lecture demonstrations by such notable figures as Sir
John Gielgud, Arthur Laurents, Boris Aronson, and visiting artists from the
Moscow Art Theatre.
It was Adler's sense that "the theatre exists 99% in the imagination" that
informed her instruction. Stella Adler proposed that one of the actor's primary
concerns must be with the emotional origins of the script. A student's main
responsibility was to search between the lines of the script for the playwright's
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home.
In the end I accompaniedHarold to Mr. Stanislavski's
French
It was a small French apartmentwith a small
elevator,
When Harold openedthe door, there were a few peopiein the
room. It was a small room, and in the far corner wag
Stanislavski.The moment of meeting him was sucha shockto
me that I didnt move.Harold went over and greetedhim. With
Stanislavskiwere his doctor, a friend and Olga Knipper,
Chekhov'swidow.
Madame Chekhovastood near the door with me and said,
"You must go over and shakeMr. Stanislavskithand." I looked
at her andsaid,"No." Shesaid,"Youmust."I said,"No, I mustnt," and I didn't. I stood, completelyunableto move, forward
or backward.I wasparalyzedby the whole moment.
Within a short time he suggestedwe all go to the ChampsElysees.When we got there, Mr. Stanislavskisat on a bencb
againsta tree, and we sat aroundhim. There wasgreat laughtcr
and gaiety,the intimary andwittinessthat actorshave.I remem.
ber distinctly Stanislavskichiding Madame Chekhovaand call.
ing her a ham, and of courseshelaughed.He pretendedto bully
her, and she pretendedto be stronger than he was.There wgl
humor, and an absolute moment of ensemble, and the joy
beinE there.
Mr. Stanislavskisooke to evervone and oerceived I was
V
Stanislavskircalizedplayswere being written that could no
kllger bc irctc(l in thc traditional way. He knew hc had to cre-
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ate a way in which theseplayscould be done.He had to achieve
a techniquethat could be usedfor everypossiblestyle.He had
to havethe meansat his disposalto createthe sizeand statureof
man, with control, discipline,good speech.
The plays he was dealingwith, of Ibsen and Chekhov and
Strindberg,are realism.They raisethe question,What is real?
On the simplestlevel, this cup is real. Reality is somethingyou
can seeand touch.
But realismis also a technique,a craft. It's an art form that
asksthe actor to reachand then revealthe truth. Realismteach'
esus the ideaof the play is the first consideration.You play tho
play and you play the characterto revealthe author'sidea.You
neverplayyourself.The actor'saim is to servethe theatre,never
himself.
The late 19th century playsStanislavskiwaswrestling
dealt with socialconditions,the life peoplethen were living'
socialrealismthe hero hasvanished.There areno longer
and villains. Everybody'sa hero. The author presented
ways and wrong ways to behave,and the audience has to
its own truths.
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family, money,politics, sex,religion, education- everything.
For the actor this meansmoving slowly.We don't get what we
needsimply by looking at the words.We haveto understandthe
whole social situation.We have to understandthe social conflicts the play'wrightis trying to illuminate.
Ibsen shows the middle class is involved with money'
They're not involvedwith museumsor cultural growth. We've
left behind the class concerned with deep thoughts. We're
with practicalityand ambition. Shawsaid
amonga classdiseased
that in his time the aristocraryhad been materialized,the middle classvulgarizedand the lower classbrutalized.
The middle-classis both materialisticand mlgar. They're
not concernedwith ideas,with glory. The middle classis conThe middle class
cernedwith selling,with profitableexchanges.
says,"I want somethingfor what I'm giving you."
The middle classarosefrom industrialization.The middle
classmind is about producing things to make money.To the
middle classmind time isnt somethingto be savoredbut to be
spent,exploited.It's easierand fasterto phone than to write. It's
fasterto turn on an elecuic light than light a candle.It's faster
to take the subwayor a car than to hitch up the horse and carriage. In the middle-classworld you mustn't dawdle.Time is
money.
In the middle class world "things" came into being.
Commodities.The aim had changed.The middle classwasconThings had to have resalevalue.That aim
cernedwith success.
reduced or ignored everything else, particularly individual
growth and art.
Peoplewere stimulatedto want more things - cars,refrigerators.But it sold out the inner man. The age of industrialization, of capitalismsweptthrough the minds, heartsand soulsof
people.To achievethe new aim, success'they gaveup the best
Cashedin their souls.
of themselves.
The capitalistpoint of view hasinfiltratedeverything'commodificd everything.Ambition, sttcccssand nlonetarypower
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T r rl n ro rl c r u r 2 4 3
242 sttLLtAILE\
Thesepeoplein their heydayhad tasteand style.We werent
alwaysas sloppy as we are now. Sitting up, behaving,having a
senseof tradition disappearedduring the Thirties with the
Depression,with the collapseof the economy.The pity is that
the actor'sgrandeurwent with it. The massmediumsof film and
TV took over.
had an entirelydifferentrangeof
This upper-middle-class
"things" than we do. They wore top hats. What are top hats
made oO Feit, with a silk border. Can you carry them anywhere?Do you wear them to the beach?No. You could only
M/here
carry them or wear them in certain circumstances.
doesthe top hat "sleep?"In its own box or on a specialshelf.
Do you buy them off a rack? No, you have them made for
you. There is evena specialway to clean them - you have to
follow the nap. We are used to things that are frayed. Would
you keep a ftayed top hat? Never. It defeatsthe whole purpose.
carrieda fan. Fanswere lik!
The upper-middle-class-woman
jewels. They generally came from abroad and were embroidered.The fan had its own language.It spoke.If you did thir
with the fan(sbemotions),
it wasa way of saying,Don't approach
me. If you did that, it meant,Come now. I once studiedwith I
Japaneselady to learn the languageof the fan, to learn how to
control it with the wrist.
IJpper-classmen carried canes.You useda canenot just trt
walk but to point, to call out, to twirl, to part the curtainsto scl
if it wasraininE.
They were
The upper-middle-class
had operaglasses.
times kept in a woman'sjewel box.They were madeof pearls,
gold and silver.The whole world of the operawasin the glasr
es.They had graciousness.
IJpper-classmen carriedpocketwatches.Ifyou asksomeonl
with a pocketwatch what time it is he has to take it out of hlt
timc to find
pocket.He can'tjust look at his wrist. It consumes
out the time.The implicationis that time doesn'treallyrnlttcf.
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give ourselvesfor exerciseor jogging, working in this way,quietly, to give "things" value.
v
You're industrialized,which deprivesyou of a senseof self'
You've even gotten to the point of saying, "It's stylish to be
of everything'
nothing." Becauseof the quick surfaceacceptance
you've lost something.You live your life with no value but thc
monetary.
Christmasis now all about buying and selling. We accept
this. Peopleare delightedwhen Christmascomes,but they have
no ideawhat Christrnasis. The symbol,the creche,hasbeenleft
out. W-elose the meaningof our lives.
Look at this table. It's black.It has no quality.The legson
the tablesat Versailleswere full of decorarion.Theselegsarea stab!They standlike prisonersaboutto be shot.You acceptit.
You don't know why it's madeyou so empty.This studio room
saysabsolutely nothing. It's made to serviceyou without feeding
you.
As an actor you have to find a way to analyzethe outsido
world to give it value.Tiust me, it's there.You must be fed from
the outside.If you feed only from yourself,you're pathological.
There's no life where there'snothing outside' You must taka
time with things - to be nourishedby them, not merely sef'
viced.
A very good exerciseto cultivate this sensibility is to sell
somethingover the phone. It can be anything - vitamin pillq
French lessons,a magazinesubscription.
You'll understand the middle-classrhythm simply from
pushing the telephonebuttons. It was necessaryto invent thc
push-buttonphone becausedialing wastedso much time. You!
rhythm is dictatedby the technologicalsociety- fast!Thc
machinesare importantto you. Vru needto be redcsigncdto
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The practical man isn't a man of spiritual quiet. He's constantly doing something. He's incapableof being "laid back."
However, you pay a price for practicality - even if nothing is
happening, you keep going, going. Like that litde battery-powered bunny.
V
Implicit in many playsaboutthe middle-class
is a senseof
loss,oF disillusionrnent.
Middle-class
life holdsout a certain
tht'nlctsyorrrlown.All thc nrnning,rrlltlrcactluirprornist'rtttrl
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We haveworked on exercisesto sharpenyour ability to see,
to distinguish betweendifferent shadesof red and white and
blue and to seehow we react to the differences,to look at the
world around us and seewhat makesit special,what makesit
historic, to look at nature and seehow rich it is, how stimulating it is to look at the samelittle bit of sLy at different times of
day and seehow remarkablyit changes.
But there is anotherkind of seeingthat is equallyimportanr.
There are a million things insideyou rhat you havero learn ro
see.
Being an American has sappedyour energy.It cuts off thc
feelings,the memories,the emotions,the instincts, the backgrounds.Why? Because
we're "independent!"We imagrnewe
can start over anltime we want. Isn't that absurd?You didn't
evcn start frcsh thc day you wcre born. Vlr wcrc lrorn into a
into othcrprollle'.s
livcs,
llrttcrno ifi'.Vlr rnusrbcgincrrtcring
to help you
beyond
-get,,real,, that boring, personal,egocentricquali_
ry you takefor
life.
a get,beyondyour own preciousinner
expenences
,,,,..]31
-|1: you to
llow.
I want
be ableto seeand iha.e *hat yorl see
with an
jifl"::::1"-:iu.1B;"t*1rpp"dupin yoursetf.
sJrru..so a."a.
rt(tors.
r)cnmark.
ir,.i-,r,.ili,i'i,,f.1,j:ff:'.X#1l'":lt1
:j
rlre circumsrances
of the royal position. rl"
jr"rr._f
r. rlecidewhether to live or diejha,
".,iln
",,
.o -"J
f,lrl"ir.irnr,.rr...,
lr()t yours. Your past indecision
on who ,o ,.k" to ah. p.o_
u',rn'tsuffice.
*1,.r.r
t{e ac.tr.vrty
on the stage,you must first createthe
,..
( trctlrnstances.
Stanislavski
.saidyo,. a"rr.rothauedin.re. on the
rtrr14c.
Whar he meantis that
ytu have to g.,
rhsrracandinto theparticular.
Fi.r,
i;;;; "*;u'i;.-.t"
i"rL
t.;
I hcnyouhavea tabiewith a lace,"6r*r.,r,
f".f..
*Jr',,ili"""a,ur,..
,..rrrtllcsticks.
Thenyouhavea plate-w]thf.o;;;;;;;
rp..".
\ll rhcscthingsarein thenature,f ,f,. ,.r_.y,
i,f,i.iii
f,r"i"g
rlrrrrrcr.
The circumstances
of theacrivitym,rrr'na...ri.a n.for.
By changingrhecircumstanc.r,
;;;.;;u
"l'.
."r.,
r-,ili],.']"fl
tr.urgc
the
moodof thescenc.
I l' the tableclothis nor lacebut some
rough fabric,if thereis
n,rr:rlrlccloth
at all but a ker
lamp,it will be awerydiffer, rrr kintr of dinner.11.,..;.".?t"ll
, r,Iy'uri,,,
;i ;;;i";';;; ;',"l'.iTi::il: ff ;;:'.Yr:::t",
lir bcgin to cxcrciseyour imagination,
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images,not just the things you've seen,butlhe things you've
imalined. Those imagesare very powerful' They will turn on
youl ignition. They will engageyour body and mind'
From now on you must only live imaginatively'You will see
To do this isn't hard if you
and act in imaginaiivecircumstances.
acceptthat evlrything you can imaginehasin it sometruth for
vou. The actor'siob is io de-ficdonalizethe fiction' If you need
, l.rnon tree brrtiarre neverseenone,you will createsomekind
of lemon tree for yourself,and the more detailsyou give it, the
more you'll acceptthat you'veseenit.
You'veimaginedit. Therefore it exists'Most of acting lies in
this minute knowledge of what you see and what you do'
Anything that goesthiough your imaginadonhasa right to live'
V
Let's start with an easy exercise.You're walking along a
country road. Know where you are. Look at the sky' Where is
the sun?How long is your shadow?What is the road like? Is it
bumpy?Does it distort your shadow?What kind of cloudsare
in the sky?What kind of birds do you see?
A fence lines the road, enclosinga meadow'How green is
the srass?How tall is it? Are there cows grazing on it? If so,
whaicolo, are they?Tell me three or four things that makethe
cowslogicaland real.
A lonE branch has fallen acrossthe road' How recently did
Is the foliage on it still green?Or is the branch
this happ-en?
long dead?How much effort doesit taketo pick it up and throw
it into the field?
You seea dirt road that runs off to the right' Follow it' What
kind of treesgrow alongsideit? Do they havefruit? Is it ripe?
The roadleadsto a woodenbridge'Doesit look safe?What
a pond'What kind of fish
kinrlof railingsrloesit have?It crosscs
()n tlrc other
( ' i l l r y ( ) u s c c ? - l st h c w i l t c r t ( x ) t l t t r t l t l yt o s c c l l s h ?
V
l.ifl in the theatre isn't necessarilywhen you get noney
lr,rrr perfirrrningl.It isn't when you sign a contract.It isnt even
* lrrrr you urc in a play. It'.swhen you understand it. If you
||||rl('r'stitn(|
it, you'll know why voll wAlltto ?rct,and if you don't
6t
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V
Lett do another exercise.Let's imagine the robe of a
Chineseemperor.One of our problemsasAmericansis our attltude is so practical,so no-nonsensethat we reduceeverythingto
our level. The imagination allows us to live in a larger, more
beautiful,more excitingworld.
First imagine the fabric for the emperor'srobe' Is it fine
quality lineni Is it silk? How heary is-it? Is it-red? Is it gold?
Whai shade?How long is it? Does it haveto be supportedby
court attendants?How many?What is the pattern?How fine
are the stitches?Is it somethingfrom nature?Is it the leavesof
sometree?Is it the wings of a bird? A realisticbird? A fancasy
bird? Is the pattern s)'rnmetric?Abstract?
There are no "correct" answers.And your obiecdve in
answeringisn't to pleaseme' It's to fire your own imagination,
And to communicateto the audience'
yoo. o*n enthrrsiasm.
A student once said she was afraid of me - exceptwhen I
smiled.I told her in that caseI'd failedher' There arenot many
smilesin the theatre.If I gaveher the impressionthere would
be, I waspreparingher for a careerfull of confusionandunhappiness.Tire p"ttott yoo haveto pleaseis yourself' But you'll go
.ro*h"." ifyou makeit easyto pleaseyourself'You haveto be as
demandingasyou can.
All right, who would like to imagine for us the robe of a
Chinesecmperor.All right,Jennifer.
"Mine is an orangebrocaderobe."
.IENTNIFER:
srr,ll* I haveto interrupt you,Jennifer.You'respeaking
like a little girl. (imitatingher) "Mine is an orangebrocaderobe. . . Period."You'vegonetoo fast.You'rein too
much of a hurry to reachthe period. If I weredescribing
the robe, I might say,"It was an orange robe, a very
bright orangerobe." You would havea senseof my seeing it and not being able to describeit immediately,
searchingfor the proper words.
I sawan orangebrocaderobe. It extendedabout
I FINNIFER:
two feet in back of the Emperor. It was embroideredin
emeraldsand diamondsall around the perimeter of it,
and it had emeraldscrisscrossed
with rubiesin the back,
and it wasfilled with diamonds.
s'fELLA:It's much betteq but it's still not right. It is studied, You are repeatingsentences.
I don't feel you're seeing it for the first time, seeingit clearly and precisely.
You're giving me the emeraldsand diamondsbecause
you think that'swhat I want.
(nftera longpause)I seea long, beautiful,strange
IT|NNIFER:
lrrocaderobe. Itt a very bright shadeof orange.Around
the edgesare ermine, pink and white fur. Itt sparkling,
with studdeddiamondsarrangedalong the shoulders.In
the back are evenmore sparklesand a row of emeralds,
crisscrossed
with a row of rubies . . . "
\'f faLLA:This time you've really seenand she was really
alking. Even the wordsyou usedwere livelier and more
rrarural.Sheimprovedon the descriptionby extendingit.
l)id you noticethat this time asJenniferdescribed
the robe
olrr.lrcganto giggle?Thatt significant.The first time shewas
'rrrrplyreporting.Her lastattemptwasa pieceof acting.
'l'hcrc'.s
a big differencebetweena newspaper
andthe stage.
I lr(' rclx)rtcrrnustbc objcctivc,crxrl.The actormustbe full of
T ml n r o r l c n t e 7 t
z o S t m t tA l l I n
oassion.If he's too cool he's better off as the manager of a comp"aty,.rot someone who appearson the stage'
We have been so deadened by television that we're like the
surgeon who can slice open a body without feeling' He feels less
thai the anesthetized patients. In an operating room this is
required. On a stage it kills the patient.
Y
We have a dilemma. We dont want what we see to be flat
and without interest. But we don't want to overdo it so people
think we're "pushing." The answer is that we must be truthful'
The more details we imagine, the more honest and believable
and energetic our responseswill be' Nine tenths of your acting
lies in th! minute knowledge of what you see and what you do'
The actor is like a writeq fuIl of impressions that speak to
him. He does not say,"I'11have bacon and eggs'" That's the way
a clerk without a job sPeaks.
When the actor gets bacon and eggs he sees them on tle
plate, with some potatoes - the kind with bits of onion and
g.""n p"pp".. He seesthe waitress. He sees the table and the
I"rt",ro.ti, *ith all its rushed activity' He seesthat the floor has
dirt on it but the table is spodess.The coffee is weak, and the
cup doesn't hold much, so he constantly has to catch t}e waitress'sattention.
He loola around and seesthat at all the tables no one is really paying any attention to each other. Everyone is in a hurry'
gr"". wander. Sometimes they look at the door to see
ih"ii
who comes in'
The actor takes this all in. He isn't there iust to eat, pay his
check and leave. He liues there, watching, seeing, understandins. He askshimself, "What is this? What am I looking at?"
the way a writer or a Painter does.
ol'lili" ttot itrstfrtt'ts'
rtsthc rrrirrrclc
ns ilctors,yotl Illtlst14tvc
('11t1
use.
'l'hcrc
Trulnr orl c r r r c 9 ,
V CLASS EIGHT
ACTIOl{S
tIARI{INO
Tn the modern theatre,which beganin the late 19th century
Ithe.et no more importantacdonthan "to discuss'"
at least
In the theatrethat beginswith Ibsena play must have
- two points of view' More
two ideas of equal imp6rtance
tmthg
imoortant than that, two truths' The play sets these
must
before the audiencewith equalweight, and the-audience
At the end of A Doll\ House'
decidefor itself which to
"-ttpt'
he
*t .n Nor^ hasannouncedhei intention of leavingTorvald'
t"11.h"r, "Your first duty is to your husbandand your children'"
Shetells him, "No, my first duty is to myself'"
For the audiencethat first saw the play Nora's declaration
works if wc
*"r1io"king. We takeit in stride' but the play only
both havc
f"ei th"t Tori.ld's ideaof dury andNora'sideaof duty
no
lr"irr". W" tend to sidewith Nora' If that is the case'there's
play becausethere'sno struggte'
The audiencemust be urged first toward one idea' then
still
ao*"rd th. oth"r, sothat whenihey leavethe theatrethey're
wrestling with the ideas.
that
In many modern plal'wrights it is extremely important
"to
action
the
the actorsbe able to Jisiuss ideas'To understand
actions' "to
discuss,"however, it's helpfill to start with othcr
talk," "to chat,"and "to convcrsc'"
T n rl r r o rA c r n c 9 7
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you can't control, so I try to avoid it in life, just as I avoid gossip. The point of gossipis to escalatewhat I want to say,make
what I say seem more important than it is by giving it a secretive qualiry as if what I'm telling you no one elsemust know
It's a good exerciseconsciously"to cl.rat."It's likc the exerciseswe did to developmuscularmemory. What we were doing
then was getting our physicalmusclesaccustomedto the different weights of things. Here we're getting our mental muscles
accustomedto the different weiEhts of kinds of conversation.
There's no heary lifting in chatting. Itt as light as can be.
Of course for some of you, who are unacquaintedwith any
kind of conversation,even chatting may not be so easy.Thke a
partner and "chat." Remembel it's a form of verbal badminton.
It doesn'trequire as much energyor skill or effort astennis. Itt
just bouncing the shuttlecockback and forth.
V
9t
$tt ,t A ln
T n ll n t o r A c r t n cs s
Ifyou can'ttake both sides,it meansyou can only play yourself.
There's no more important exercisethan taking a side on
some big issue,like the necessityof legalizing abirtion, and
tJ-ren
taking the other sideand arguingit so effecrivelythat a listener can't tell which sideyou really favor.
In a genuinediscussionthere'sno needto win. In a discussion you don't needto cut offyour parmer.The ideasexpressed
yon. partner shouldexciteyou. The exchangeshouldstimu!y
lareyou.
In this action,asin almostno other in the field of communication, there'sgenuine understanding.The give-and-takeis
real and unforced. It's perhapsthe most important action .in
modern playwriting becausethe audienceunderstandsboth
sidesof the discussionand becomesthe third parmerin the play.
The membersof the audiencecanleavethe theatreand makeuo
their own minds.
All right, let's choose partners and discussthe question:
Should a man be a family man or an arrist?Shoulda woma.,be
an actressor a wife and motherl Let's take a few minutes and
o-rganizeour thoughts and then we'l1 begin. Who,d like to go
first? A.ll right, Hillary and Bob.
BoB:Being an actor is a fulI-time job. So is being a father.
A man has to choose.With women it's different. Only
women can havechildren.
HILLARYNo, Bob. That's wrongheaded and sexist. I
f e e l. . .
STELLA:Sweetheart,I haveto interrupt you. You are not
interestedin what he's saflng. You're anxiousto talk.
That's not discussion.Discussioncomesout of what your
partner says,not what you feel.
I don't want to know how youfcel.I want to know that you
t:anjusti$,sayingthat Art is lnorc inll)()rt:lnt
to ytxr than rny-
T r ul n r o rl m n c t o l
1 0 , s T [ [ t rl D [ [ n
ilv.. .
STELLA,
I'm afraidI haveto stop you. That's an intellecrual ideayou're presenting,and you're not an intellectual,
God knows.You haveto find a way of presentingideas,
justifuing them so that we can believethey come from
you, not frorn somethingyou read.
The questionof whetheran actor or an actressshouldmarry
is not an intellectual one. On eachside you can make several
points. You can say acting is an insecure professionwhereas
marriageis stableand enduring.You can saythe actor especially needsthe support of another human being, and that actors
havea great capacityfor love.
Dont raiseany of thesepoints unlessyou understandthem
and they awakenyou. Thke ideast*rat will provoke the other
personto a response.On the other side,you can saythat since
actorsare neversecure,they makepoor partnersin a marriage,
and no woman would wanr to marry an actor.
An actoq furthermore, must devoteall his rime to his profession.The careerof an actor doesn'tpermit a family or the
responsibilities
that marriageand childrenentail.
This argumentgoesto the very heart of why acting is an
inrportant profession,one that cornrnandsthe wholc of the
bcins.
actor'.s
1 r 2 S T l r nl o r l n
V
Every actor I know walksout on a set and wantsto kill himself becausehe doesn'tknow how to make the play live. They
neverlosethat anxiery.But you want to makethingsyours right
away.You can't.The only thing you can produceimmediatelyis
fake acting.You'vegot to get usedto it slowly.And you've got
to makeyourselfbigger.
I wasmarried to Harold Clurman,who wasthe greatestman
in the Americantheatre,who practicallyfoundedthe American
theatre.I wasmarried to Mitchell Wilson, who wasthe assistant
to Enrico Fermi in the developmentof the atom bomb.
I didn't go for the small fi:y.I didn't becauseI didn't want to
live that way.I was brought up by my father,and in our home
there wasno small talk at all.
You can'tgo on the stageunlessyou're filled with things that
giveyou life all day long . . . andproblems
all day long, onesthat
developyou.
Discussionis a hard action for you to grasp becauseit's a
very civilizedaction.In this country we dont discuss.We argrre.
We're like taxi drivers.Our national temDeramentis intolerant
of listening.
The action "to argue" grows out of the action "to discuss,"
It's when you hear your parmer but you don't hear.You understand?You continue with what you think. Argument has passion. It's not about logic and mind.
The next stage after "to argte" is "to fight." "To fight"
meansthere is no control, and very little listening.You attackin
all directions."To fight" is to go after somethingwith no waiti.g'
From arguing to fighting is a natural progression,and with
fightingwe'vereachedthe end of the chainof communicating,
CLASS NINE
MAIII{O
ACTIOI{S
DOABTX
t this stagein the techniqueyou're developinga vocabulary
of actions.Everything is basedon actions.An actor develops a characterfrom the things he does.That's why the actor
must understandactions.
Every action you do has its nature,its truth. In order to be
truthful onstageyou must krrow the nature of what you're
doing, andit must be truthfully done.Everythinghasto haveits
logic. It must havetruth, growth (progression)and a beginning,
middle and end (sequence).A play is made intelligible to an
audiencethrough the actor'sactions,a seriesof separatebut logically connectedphysicalor psychologicalactivitiesthat breathe
life into the play and createthe moment-by-momenttruth.
In modern plays,the playwright providesonly an oudine or
skeleton.It's up to you to add fleshand blood, ro makethe playwright! ideaslucid. The contentof the playcanonly be brought
to life through your actions.
It's not words that make a performance.Even the best actor
cannot put into words everythinghe knows,for what the wellpreparedand thoughtful actor knows about his characteris a
hundred times more comolicated than the words in the
playscript.
It canonly be seenasaction.
When we snrdyacti<lns
thereare threewaysto go alxnt it.
Thc first is tri rrsk,Hlve I tlonethis action?'l'hesccontlis tt>ask,
t 0 4 S r u nlrl r r n
T r rl n r o rl c r n o i o t
Have I seenthis action done?If the answerto both those questions is no, the third approach, and in some ways the most
importarrt,is to go to thc inraginar
ion.
fully. You cannot indicate it. You cannot indicate those little
truths, just as you cannot indicate looking at the audienceor
talking to people.You can't indicate it. It must happen.
These seem like little things, but they're important. In acring these tiny physical things have to be comfortable for the
body. One thing that makes a young act()rvery uncomfortable
is he skims over something,or he indicatesit. It's a part of your
technique that you must not skim over, not indicate physical
truths that the activity needs.Do you agreeto that?
Opening a bottle is a very simple task, but it's a very educational one. You have to open a. . . you have a bottle . . . ooh,
God, that'sstrong. But then it comesopen. If you open the bortle, strangelyenough,ifyou really open the bottle, that which is
difficult is easier,becauseyou've really opened the bottle. Do
you understand?
If you haven't really opened the bottle, then that nexr tiny
moment of - phuhl - qr6n'1come. Is that clear to you? Itt a
trick, that when the body is true, the soul reacts.When the body
lies, the soul gets frightened. The way ro be sure you're being
truthftil is to focus on these tiny truths.
All activity is complicated.If I sayto you, "Write somerhing
down in your book," you haveto reachfor the book and find the
page.That's the narureof life. Now all thesecomplicationshave
to be true on the stage.These physical,small thing;shave to be
true. Now write this in your head: no physicalactiviry with all
its little tmths can be done without rehearsal.They canrrotbe
done. When you get very expert, maybe vou can do thcn.r.But
at this nroment you utnnlt clo then.
Whe thcr you're lrrriklingrr firc or rrrrrking
cof'fcc()l'ir'(rrillg
rt slrirt or prrckingn lrrrg,rrll rcrlrire thrrl cvt.ry'littlcp:rlt ol the
ll(ti()n I)('tltrt.'lltt
i r t s i r l t ' o l t . r ' t . r tt l ( l i o n l l i t \ t o I r r . r l o r r t l, r - r r l l t -
I went to Wilmington over the weekend,and there was a little girl with me. She had the instinct to fight boredom, ancl in
that respect children are great actors. She would say, ,,C)ooh,
we're in the dark now" Then she'd say, "Now we,re coming
into the light." Shedidn't say,in a monotone, "We,re in the tlark
now and we're coming into the light," becauseshe didn't want
to take the life out of it.
Grownups take the life out of things. It's better to makc
thingsup. to userie imaginarion,than ro krll them.
When you start work on a physical action, don't start with
the performance.Say to yourself,I'm the director. Let me firol
around with this and seeif I have it, becauseI don't wanr to tlo
it for an audienceunlessit's easy.
V
Let's take the physical activiry washing clothes in a strerlnr.
The first thing is to build the circumsrancesof the strearnitsclf.
Is it on the edgeofa desertedlot? Is it in the middle of a frrrcst?
That's just the beginning.
It might be useful to practice the action of washing clrthcs
in the bathtub.That will givc you the experiencc,hr.,ritis n,,r
'lhink
enough.
about thc soap. It gets onto ttrc thing you'rc
washing,ind thcn it getsdippedin the watcr.'l'hlt'.sthc kinrl o1tiny task thrt can grow evcry titne vou rlo it. Vlr hirveto nrrrkc
everythingvour ()wn,corncrrlivc.Th:rt'.sthc <liffcrcncc
lrclu't.cn
what vorrrliti in the brrtlrrrrlr
rrntlwhrrtvorrtlo ol.rstrrgt,.
I ' r r rr v r t s l r i nr gt s l i p i n t l l ( , s l r ( . r l n;lr,r r rIl s t . t . t l r r tr ltr t ,\ \ . t t ( , ri \
i 0 6 S r u Llro, rl r n
muddy. I take the slip out to wait for the water to becomeclear.
The stream is alive, terribly alive to me. It's sparkling and it's
clear,and it's wonderful. Oh, but this part is all milky. I'm not
going to wash my slip until the water becomesclcar again.
I n rA n o
r rA c l l n t 0 7
real life, where no one caresifyou're boring. On srageyou cannot afford to be boring even for one instant,and therein lies the
difference between real time ancl stase time - between how
long it takesto do what you acruallyJo in life and how long it
should take to representwhat you do in life on the stage.
In life an action is worth exactlythe amount of time it takes
to do it. On staE;e,
where thirty years of a person'slife are compressedinto rwo and a half hours, it is never worth that mucl.]
time. So the actor, in perforrning simple activitiessuch as wrrring a letter or reading a book or sewingon a button, consrantlv
needsto ask,how rnuch is it worth?
The technique for making real dme fit into stage time wc
call smarteningup the action,which rneansshorteningwhat you
do, trimming it, editing it, so that the audience,while undcrstanding fully what you're doing, won't feel you've gonc on firr
too long. The audience will always be the best judgJe,but rrn
actor has to anticipatetheir reactions.
Smarteningup an action requirespre-planning.If I neerl to
smoke a cigarette,the pack is alreadyopen and one or rw(, cigarettesare sticking out. I cannot be caught on stage liunbling
for a cigarette,ur-rless
it's a choice.
If I have to look up a telephone number in the H'.s,I strrrr
thumbing through the book hunting for the H's, and ir takcsrrxr
long. I need to arrangemyself so that I know exactlyu'h:rt Prrgc
I'm going to.'I'hen I read a few names,and when I corne to rhe
one I want I put a pencil mark next to it. I have convcl'crl rhc
truth ofthe action cluicklyand truthfirlly. In a book, if I hirvcro
get to page 460, I place a match bcwccn the pagesto gct rhcr.c
quickly.
If I'm sitting at a makeuptablc, I can put on rrrrscrrrrr,
lilr
stick,eyeshrrdow,
powder,ancl,whilc this is conrpletclv rcrrlistit,
it takesrnuclrt(x) long ftrr thc strrgc.Vrrr sinrplt'lir on 1'orrrlilr
stick,rvipcone eycbrow,anrlyorr'r'ctlonc. Llnlikc lifc, 1,ourLrrr'l
hrrvcrr lrfctirrrc{)lt strlgc.Vru rlrrsl snrrlt'ten
rrctiorrs
rrPlrt sclt,ct
i t t g o t t t ' o l l " v ol c l l i n gp r r l l s .
TnA
r nor rl c r n r i o s
ArIX
1 0 8 s T E r rl D
V
Last time we went througlr a seriesof actions that involve
talking, to chat, to discuss, to argue, to fight. An action one
encounters repeatedly in modern theatre is "to reminisce," a
deviceplay,vrightscommonly use to introduce poetry or poetic
prose. A retreat into a more favorably rememberedpast, reminiscing is itself a meansof escapefrom the sometimesunbearable realitiesof the present.
To reminisceis to soliloquize,to recall the past and bring it
back to life. Itt different from remembering,which is automatic and associatedwith daily life. You remember your telephone
number and your grocery store list. lbu remember to answer a
letter.
In reminiscence,a man brings back what he loves.You can
say,"One day I was walking along a river. It was flowing quietly. It wasa lovely day.I sat in the shade.It wasvery quiet. I could
seethe mountains.I looked up at the sly." When you reminisce,
you can sensehow little physicalmovement is required. \I4ren
you use a lot of words, you don't need a lot of gestures.
The anatomy of the action "to reminisce" is to relive the
experience,to seeagain what you once saw and to remember it
fondly. When you start to reminisce, you lose the world. This
table I'rn sitting at no longer exists for me, only the river I
walked along that spring day under a cloudlesssly through a
mountainousvalley.
When I reminisce,I becomedetachedand my words take on
a poetic quality. To reminisce is to reinvent the world.
Remembering is simply experiencingit all over again,which is
closer to description.
Descriptiorr c:rn be cxprcssetl irr gcstrtlc lty e clrr,;tlting
'l-hc
motion of thc hrrtrrl.
gesttrrcol-rctttitristcntcis rt getttlcr,
l l ' c c rl ' l o w r r r ur v, r t v t - l i k lct t o l i r r to l t l t c l r r r r r r\l\.' l t t t t t ' o t tl r .l t t i -
1 1 0 S T l t L IrD L I R
T r ul n r o rl c r n c l t l
"Those were the only happy moments of my life then,
dreaming tiere at the window. I like to be all alone - those
times. I got to know all the different kinds of sunsetsby heart.
And all those sunsetstook place over there - beyond the horizon. So gradually I came to believe that all the wonders of the
world happenedon the other side of those hills."
In this soliloquy,Robert is struggling to make himself clear
and groping to find the sourcesof his life. Like all human beings
at one time or another,he resiststhe attachmentto reality and
longs to return to the primal source of life, which is the seato live life more instincrually.
To reminisceis not by itself an action. An action, to be an
action, has to contain some of the content. You don't sirnply
reminisce.You reminisceabout something,somethingyou care
about. You can reminisce about your lost home. You can reminisce about the family that has scartered.
A lost family prompts the mosr affecting of reminiscences
even today when family life, for all pracricalpurposes,hardly
exists.Today,at eighteen,children leavehome ro rerurn only for
an occasionalvisit. Most of the srudentsI teach have drifted
away.But family life can be imagined through textssuch asJohn
Van Druten's I Rem.ember
Ma,m.n.
Hele is Katrin recalling her family:
"It's funny, but when I look back, I always see Nels anrl
Christine and myself looking almosr as we do today. I guess
that's becausethe people you seeall the time stay the sarncrgc
in your head.Dagmar'.sdifferent. She was alwaysthe baby - so
I see her as a baby. Even Mama - it's funny, but I alwayssee
Mama as around forty. She couldn't alwayshave been f<rrry."
When they study this rext, studenrsrry to createthe pcriotl
out of thcir irnap;inationby describingthe kind of clothesMirnra
would haveworn - thc skirt, tlre blouse,the tlcc<irltions,thc
night Mirnrrrworrltlsit
icwelry,thc shoes,when "cvcry S.,rtrrrtlrry
r l o w n l r y l h c k i t c h c l rt r r l r l cr u t r lc o l r ' l t( ) l t lt h c r r r o r r cIyt r r p rl r , r r l
l l r o r r g h ht o n r t i n t l r t 'l i t t l c c n l c l o p c . "
T n tl n t o t A c t t t t c l t i
I Dlln
r 1 2 S T I L tA
In paraphrasinga monologue, you must have sp-ecificpic*r., i,r ttii.,d. Rathe. than words, always in prefcrence to
words, start with a place.Ifyou're at a beach,what at the beach
will help you rernemberMama? Start with seashells'Do something that will get you in the mood' The family's all glonenow'
In your rerninisccnceyou lnust bring them back together'
The objectsyou choosecan help or hinder you' A radio, for
something mechanical,is a mistake' Instead, rurn to
exan-rple,
nature. A radio leavesyotl stone cold inside.
For example,I remember one student finding a simple botTle
from William Saroyan''s
tle of beer unhelpful. Parapl-rrasing
Time of Your Life, abott childhood on an Ohio farrn, he seated
himseif ,t , t"tl. on the stage.Placing a bottle of beer and a
stein in front of him, he poured half of the bottle into tlre stein,
took a sip and beganhis nronologueabout the family losing the
farm in ihe Depressionand being fbrced to move to the city
At the appropriatetime he broke fiom the monologue and
atldressedhit p.ttt-,"t in an everydaytone of voice, "That's when
we moved to -hicago."'fhen he rerurned to the detachedstate
of reminiscenceagain. But the beer and the stein, for the delicatenersonalnatuie of his reminiscence,were too ordinary'The
beer fed his stotnachbut not his reminiscence'
Students seem reluctant to take on material that has srze'
They seemunwilling to go to a tragic level' to recognizein the
ordinary facts of a story as in the passageabove, the larger
truths, iuch as a man'sneed for a home, the saddestructionof a
of lift.
family.the rransience
Wordsworth said, "Poetry is emotion recollecteclin tranabout
quility." Bringing that poetic quality into it, you reminisce
'l'here
was
your high school p;raduation'"There it was thirt clay!
don't
you
- an a,r.1ito.i.,n
r!" You don't try to make it natr'rral'So
try to bring it back to a natural tonc ofvoice. "\Vas thcrc 'r gradthe applc trec.'l'herc'sthc h'rvu'aguation?Was there?'I'herc's
on."
('\i\l irl lrrtll\ i r t t t t t t t s tt t o l l r r i l t t l i t i t t t o t o t t t r c r r l i t r . l' t l t l l l \ t
quility. You must see if you can recreate this lost world. As tl
large poetic action, reminiscingis done only by peoplewho cannot bear this world.
Reminiscenceis related to dreaming. In both actions yor.l
lose the senseofyour body, but you can't try too hard to achicve
the effect or llo too fast. You must make it come alive for thc
first time. It'.sthe miracle of Our Tbwn.A running child, an applc
tree - they have died and you're bringing them back. Thc
hurnan being is given this one extra dimension,his n-remoryof
the past,and this one extra dimension is peculiarlyavailabletcr
the stage.
Reminiscencehas in it a miracle. "And they were alive . . "
The miracle of life - it's so long ago and yet I see it. Kccp
restorinEthe miracle.
V
For next classhere are solne exercises:Create an old-fashioned country room with an old upright piano and music sheets
from the 1900t, a sewing basket,a rocking chair, a nrother, irt.t
old family album. Renrinisceabout the life then, recalling how
you were dressed,what you did, who playedthe piano, how vou
helped your mother.
Create a garret and reminisce about going up the crcrlkv
stairs and seeingtle spider webs and the old trunk. Renrinist:c
about the objectsin the trunk: the broken old doll, the picture
ofyourselfin a party dressin 1900.
Practicereminiscingand brerrkingaway frotn tlre actitltl rttrtl
going back to it.
T r uA nor rl c n I . c u t
an abstraction. We talked about actions that are weak and that
are strong - the circumstances and the parmer can play an
important part in making the action strong.
CLASS TEN
Y
OT
AYOCABIIIARY
BUII,DIt{C
ACTIONS
bu have come here to learn how to act. and I keep telline
you I want to teach you how not to act - except in the very
precise senseof pertorming actlons.
Lett take the action "to take care of." If the obiect of the
action to take care of is, say,a little cactus,the action rs very
weak, since a cactusrequires almost no care at all. But if the
action is to take careof a sick friend, the action becomesmuch
strongerand muchmore interesting.
The nature of the action also changesaccordingto who is
performingit. Ifthe persondoing the actionis a doctor itt a different action from that of an elderly immigrant or a child.
Let's uy an exercise.Imagine a baby bird has fallen from a
nest high in a ffee. The bird is lying there helplessly,as if one
wing were about to come off. The baby bird is going to die.
How would you take careof it?
Who wantsto go on the stageand try? Very good.
Everyoneis bendingto the floor. Everyoneis picking up the
bird very gingerly,but canyou seewhat Brad is doing?He took
the trouble to spreada handkerchiefon the ground to help him
pick up the injured bird. Almost all of you seem completely
absorbedin the task. Seth, your gesturesseem perfunctory.
Have you nevercaredfor an injured animal?
Sarah,go up on the stageand createa small play of caring
for an animal.
When I waslittle I had a pet turtle. Her namewas
sARAH,
GretelandI usedto like to put her in thegarden.I would
put out water for Gretel to swim in and lettuceleavesfor
her to eat.One day the smallboy who lived next door
rnadcoff with her,arrdI wasafraidI woultlneverseeher
1 1 6 s T [ [ t rl D [ [ n
again.But Gretel found her way back to the garden and
I was overjoyed.
"I would take her all the telegrams and notes she has
receivedin her dressingroom," the student said.
STELLA:
Excellent,Sarah.You gaveus a play that explained
what it meansto take care of an animal.In taking care of
the rurtle you found she had a life of her own. You also
showed us there are no small stories. Onlv the actor
makesthem small.
"That's too much," I said. "It's too big. Measure is the most
important thing you do on the stage.You have to measure how
much time you can take to do something on stage before it
becomes boring. You musm't bring on stage a lot of things you
don't care about."
V
Lett look at the action "to teach." This action is relatetl to
the action "to explain." But it is far more consequential.Ti)
explain is simply to clarif' something to another person. lt is
factual and down-to-earth.
The anatomyof "to teach" is that I give you what I know and
what you needto know.In order to teachyou somethiniI rnust
know something, although as an actor it may be as far from nry
experienceas how to use a machine gun or how to cut a diamond. If those activitiesare not known to you either fron.rpcrsonal experience or direct observation you mtrst put thcn)
tl-rroughyour imagination.
A very useful exercisein leaming thc action "to tcach" is to
instructthe classhow to rnakepenicillin.I assurncnonc ol-yorr
but yr>uurrtlerstancl
thc prirrciplcofhow pcrricillilr
arescientists,
wrtsrliscovcrcrl.
It wrtsit rttoltl,ittr orrlirtrtryrrrolrlthrrthrtscrrrrttivc propcrlit's.l)c,tsrrtrts
Iltvc krrorvrrrtlrorrtsrrr'lrrrrolrlslirr t t'lr
Tu Ano
r rl c r r n t 1 1 9
119 Srulllnlrn
turies, but scientistsonly came to understandthe properties of
us what you were going to do. To teach is not to tell the students
how we feel about the world. It's not about attitude.There's no
prelude, no introduction. The impulse to teach how to make
penicilJinsrartswith your experiments.
It helps if you create circumstances for yourself, if you see
the classroom full of students - there's no olace for them to sit
down becausethe room is ftrll of laboratory equipment. This
createsan air of expectationand tension that should feed the
urgency of your address.
You start with the action. Acting is an extremely disciplined
art. It doesn't start with, "I'm here to tell you about this play."
It starts with acting. When the curtain goes up, you don't tell
the audienceyou're going to do a sceneby ltnnessee Williams.
You start the scene.
In an action you must know what you do, where you do it,
when yoo do it, and why yott do it. But you don't know how you
do it. The how is spontaneousand unexpected.
An action can be broken up into steps or "beats." (The
expressionbeats,by the way,isn't a musicalreference.We began
calling steps "beats" becausemembers of the Moscow Art
Theatre, in discussingtheir techniqueswith American act()rs
some yearsago, couldn't pronounce "bits.")
V
We're going to work on an exerciseto help us understancl
the action "to escape."
A revolution has broken out in a Latin Anerican coluttny'.
One village with a children's hospital has been overraken.
Outside the hospital gunfire blares. Some Anrerican Pcircc
Corps workers on the hospitalstafTn'rustevacuatcrrnrlcrossfhc
borclcrto get badly needcdnrctlicalsupplicsfrorn Arncricrrnlletl
Orosspcrsonrrcl.
'lir
r l o t h i sl l r c vr r r r r sptr s st h r o r r g hc l r c r n yl l l c . l l r t .t t . r ' n r rrns
t 2 0 S r ut Lt At L ln
difficult and dangerous.A swamp, infestedwith deadly snakes,
must be crossed.Ahead are barbed-wirebarricades.The undergrowth is thick. The PeaceCorps workers will brave intense
cross-fire.
Left behind in the hospital lying wretchedly on their mats'
the children are without food and water. Some need blood
others oxyeientents.The PeaceCorps workers are
transfi-rsions,
carrying a vital medical prescriptionwhich must be brought out
safely to the Red (lross authorities.The lives of the children
depend on it.
To escapethe cross-fire,the workers find temporary shelter
in a mud l-rut.C)neof them takesthe medicalprescriptionout of
his pocket and attemptsto read it in the rnurlry dampnessof the
hut. The crumpled prescriptionis muddied and blurred and difficult to decipher.
Searchinga clearing in No Man's Land, one of the Peace
Corps workers spotsa Red Cross helicopter overheadand frantically signalsto attract its attention. In the midst of this actron
a shot is fired, and tl.reworker, wounded,falls to the ground and
di es.
This exercise,which involvesa pair of actorsin a scenewithout dial()gue,lastsperhapsfwo minutes. It illustratesthe action
"to escaoe."Within this action are a number of other actlons'
the sum coming under the umbrella of an overall action - to
savethe children.
The purpose of the exercise is to work in difficult and
to react to outsideforcesfrom moment
changingcircumstances,
to monent. While the overall action is to savethe children, the
immediate aim, ancitherefore the first of a seriesof actions,is to
pietacrossthe border to sumrnon help.
As an actor, you need to agitate the circumstanccsto feecl
vour action. In this casethe circutrstancesare tlrritc agitatedby
-['he
chi]clrenarc itt tlangcrfi'ottlctrctlrygrrnfircits
thenrselvcs.
u c l l r t sf i ' o r t irl l r r c s sl.' h c t r t o l t ' ls r t r v i t ' icl ' t h e r l l c r l i c i r rt cl o c s l r ' t
r t : r t h l l r t t t t . l ' , s t ; t l l t t l t r , t r r q l t I l t t ' s * ' l t t t t 1 ri s t t t ' t , l t ', l l l t t l l tt t , t t s l t v
T ml n r o rl r r r t ' c t 2 l
the snakesand the crossfire. Barbed wire and landmines lie
ahead.
The second action is to decipher the prescription. But thc
paper is so soggyand mud-stainedit's no longer legible.In your
mind you go back over the instructions.Your action is to try to
commit them to memory. The third action is to communiclrc
with the helicopter flying overhead by waving the Aunclicirn
flag. The fourth action is to fall to the ground and die frorn thc
shot fired asyou exposeyourself signaling.
As an action, "to escape"is to run away from a troubling
thought or imap;e,or to run away from danger,but whcrevcr
you run you seethe danger,take it in and run awayfrom it, like
confronting your own image in a chamber of mirrors again and
again and never finding an exit. Going from dangerto dangJer
is
the action "to escape."It! the action of Hamlet, Ophelia and
Macbeth. The dramatic anatomy of escapeis there'sno esc2rpe.
This exercisereinforcesour sensethat asactorsour prinrary
job is to /0, and the doing comesaheadofthe words, or elsc the
words will be false.
The action embracesa number of other actions- gerrinEl
across the borcler, deciphering the prescription, signaling for
help - but escapingis what you are doing most. What yorr do
most is your action.
An action must have a specificend: in this case,to sunllllolt
help. The end of the action determirresthe action and rnrikcsit
strong or weak.
An action is complicated,in this caseby thc tlifficult tcrr:rin,
the enemy gtnfire, the barricades.
An action rnust be truthfully donc so that we may bclicvc in
it continuously irsit moves through changine circurnstarlccs.
An action rurrsthavc the possibilityof a prrrtner,which crrrr
be rn objcctsrrclrrs the hclicoptcr()r a l)crs()nstrchus thc clriltlrcn who lcqrrirch cl1l.
. ' \ r rr r t t i o nn r r r s l r e j r r s t i l i c r l c. s t ' r r p et o l l n r l r r r c r l i t r rt tl s s i s
T t rl n r o tA c r n r i 2 3
t tD L I n
i22 SToLA
lDrIn
124 sTILlA
CLASS EI,EVEN
II{STANT
AI{D
Il{I'IIR
JUSTITICATIOI'IS
\ tr F"" we act, primarily we perform an action. Our second
Y Y objectiveis creatinga reasonfor the action.This is called
justification,and before we continue examiningactionswe must
look into it.
The justification isn't in the lines, but in you. Whar you
chooseas your justificationshould agitateyou, should help you
experiencethe action and the emotion. Ifyou experiencenothing, you've made a dead choice.It doesn'twarm you. It doesn't
agitateyou. You haveto choosesomething that will awakenyou.
Your talent consistsin how well you "shop" for your justification. Your justification is what gives size to your actions.You
must make every action you perform epic.
Working in that way makes you grow. You grow rhroufih
acting more than through living. The ideasyou g;etfrom plays
will make you bigger.
Justification gocs on continuously ir.rthe rnind of thc actor
for as long rs he'.son stage.Finding reasonsfirr cvcrythirrgyou
do on the stagekecpsyour actionstruthful.'l'hc crcrrtivcgurt ol'
your work, justification,is wh:tt vrlr.rlivc on in tlrc thcrrtrc.
'l'hclc
r r r c t r v o k i n r l s o l ' i u s t i l i c r r t i o ni n. s t i u ) tr r r r r li r : r r c r ' .
T r rl n r o l A c r n c 1 2 7
1 2 6 S m l L tl l L t R
ROBERT:
I'm thirsty.
STELLA:I know that sounds obvious, but itt not good.
Why is "I'm thirsty" not a good justification?Becauseit's
too subjective.It's a stateofbeing. You needto find a 1ustification that you can do. "I need water as a chaserfor
my drink." "I need water to wipe a spot off my dress.""I
need water to take an aspirin."
Avoid subjectivereasonswhen you're making an instant justification. Why am I rapping on the table?I'm going to give you
severaljustifications.You tell me which one is not acceptable.
To try to get attention. To kill a cockroach. BecauseI'm angry
That wasn't hard, was it? To say you're angry is to makc
something up inside yourself. You can't go to the emotions for
instant justification. You must go to the immediate crrcumstances,to something readily doable,
Why are you opening the desk drawer? To get a pencil. Tir
take out my keys.To get stampsfor a letter. To seeif the handle
has been repaired.Each justification must have a logic that will
enable you to extend the logic. To get a pencil and so re stationery to write a letter. To take out rny keys so I can lock thc
desk and leave.
Justificationmust go on all the time in even the most mundane actions of daily life. It is your prime sourceof awakening
to doing and to feeling.
Let's imagine that in the spacein front of us is a garclenwith
trees and a pool. Lnagine three things you can do in tl.rissp:rce,
and createa rc:rsohfor each.Practicing instantiustific.ation,yorr
Itrustderl only with whlt'.sdirectlyin front of yorr.
"['rn going t0 c]irrrbrr trec."'l'his stiltcnlcnt,tlcscrilringrrn
a c l i 0 l rw i t h 0 r r rl rs l i l t c (ll) r r r l ) ( ) si cs ,n o t c n o U g l rl .t ( l ( ) c sn ( ) tl ) r o v i t l t 't l r c r r ' l r 1" .l ' r n g o i t t g1 , rc l i r r r lrrrt r t t t ( ) l ) i (k i t n r r p p l t ' .N
" ,rrv
T u ri n r o t A c r r n c1 2 9
128 St lt loLin
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T l l I n t o rl c t r l c
13i
ent can't follow. How many of you play an instrument.(A nurnber of stud.ents
raisetbeir hand.s.)
Y
Instant justification is what gersthe moror started.To keep
it running you haveto haveinner justification.Instanr lustification doesn'taffectme inside.Inner justificariondoes.Ii arouses
and movesme. Inner justification is what the actor contributes
to the playwrightt lines.
Relatingto what lies behind the text, inner iustificarionhas
lessto do with the object,more ro do with why the objectis used
in a certainway or why the action is done in a certainway.
The "why" is personalto the actor and belonssto him. The
author givesyou the outlinesbut you asthe actormustwrite the
play.When I sayto a person,"You ought to stoprushing,"what
I'm really salng is, "You're too anxious."
A scenetakesplacein a hospitalcorridor.The script hasthe
doctoraskingthe nurse,"Did you givehim the medjclne?',
She
answers,"No," but her answerhasmore force than the manerof-fact word becauseher inner justification is that the patrenr
hasstoppedbreathing.
fn a restaurant
a man asksa womanif she,dlike somesusar.
She says,"No, thank you." Her answerhas great strength
because
her inner.justification
is that shehasdiabetes.
In classI can turn to my assistantPearl,who is wearrnga
black dresslike mine. I say to her, ',Pleasedon't wear blac.k."
This is the only line. What I'm reallysaying,my inner rnonologrre,is, "I don't want thc :r^tudents
t() scc tclchcrs illwitvs
rlrcssctl
irr lrl:rtk lrec:rusc
itlstlcprcssing."
T i l oA R T
oricTtilc 13,
STELLA:
Do you have any picruresof your family?
A]\NE:Yes.
STELLA:
Do you think of yourself as being very modern?
ANNE:No, I clon't at all.
STELLA,
Have I talked to you very much?
ANNE:Not personally.
sTELLA:All right, let me tell you what I was thinking. I
asked the first question becauseyou seemedto have a
feeling for traditional clothes.You've been influencedby
another generation.What I was thinking when I asked
the secondquestionwas that you looked like an old-fashioned painting. It wasn't entirely a conpliment becauseI
T ml n r o r A c r n c i ) 7
1 3 6 S m l r ,lln l l n
V
Here are someexercisesto help you understandjustification:
Give me five reasons why you complimented somebody, why
you left your job, why you helped someoneon the street, why
the man crossedthe street so fast,why the mother left the package at the departmentstore.
Give five reasons why you opened the window, why you
closed the window.
Tiace what you do in circumstances when you feel these
emotions:I'm so happy,I'm so angry I'rn so pleased.
Justi$zon a dark level in ten different ways the line, "He'll
glad
about that."
be
Give ten inner justifications for rcacling a book, gcttirtg
dressed,going downtown.
Clivefive rcrsonsfirr cotttplltiningin tltc tltcrltrc,itt lt story,
on thc sLrltwrrv.