Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
THE METHOD
An Acting Methodology
LEE STRASBERG
(1901 - 1982)
Crawford), Johnny Johnson, Sidney Kingsley's Men in White (which won the
Pulitzer Prize), Ernest Hemingway's The Fifth Column, and Clifford Odets
Clash By Night.
In 1949, Lee Strasberg joined the Actor's Studio in New York and within a
year became the Artistic Director, spawning two more generations of actors,
directors, and playwrights. The list of actors who have studied under Lee
Strasberg's tutelage is staggering (to name a few like Geraldine Page, Paul
Newman, Al Pacino, Kim Stanley, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Fonda, James Dean,
Dustin Hoffman, Eli Wallach, Eva Marie Saint, Robert DeNiro, Jill Clayburgh,
1901, the son of Ida and Baruch Meyer Strasberg. Lee Strasberg began his
preparation for the stage with Richard Boleslavski and Maria Ouspenskaya at
the American Laboratory Theatre in New York City.
Lee Strasberg made his professional acting debut in 1924, as the First Soldier
Garrick Theatre. Lee Strasberg also served as stage manager for the Guild's
a small theatre which bears his name), Tulane, Yale, UCLA, Brandeis,
Elia Kazan, John Garfield, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Franchot Tone, and
modern acting and directing techniques, as espoused at the Actor's Studio, has
Baby Want a Kiss, and Blues for Mr. Charlie. For the next twenty years he directed
dozens of original plays and classics for the Group Theatre, including the
revivals of Strange Interlude and The Three Sisters, and other such outstanding
Early in 1966, a West Coast branch of the Actor's Studio was established in
Los Angeles and three years later, The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute was
created in New York and then in Los Angeles, in order to make Strasberg's
greatest ambitions was to play the life of Albert Einstein - "During his latter
years, of course."
that endeavor, Lee Strasberg also organized study units for teenagers and nonactors to stimulate and train the development of the creative faculties in young
people. Hence, a Young People's Program was established for this purpose.
magazines, newspapers and reference works. Lee Strasberg was the only acting
teacher ever invited to write about acting, directing and production for the
With the demise of the major studios' system of contract players (and the
Encyclopedia Britannica. His own book, published by Little Brown, and titled
A Dream of Passion, has been printed in nine languages and is available in hard
copy as well as paperback editions, as is his Strasberg at the Actor's Studio. Lee
ACTOR. And because today's production budgets allow for less rehearsal time
Strasberg's book on directing is now being edited. The vast video collection of
and re-takes, the need for training is more essential than ever."
Mr. Lee Strasberg's work as teacher, director and actor are currently being
cataloged for future study.
Lee Strasberg did a bit of acting himself -- most notably, perhaps, with his
Academy Award nominated performance in The Godfather: Part II. Lee
Strasberg can also be seen in the film Skokie with Danny Kaye, a true story in
which he played a Republican contributor who withdraws from the American
Civil Liberties Union for defending the Nazi's right to march. He also played a
major role in the all-star film, Cassandra Crossing and his television acting debut
was in an ABC Movie-of-the-Week, The Last Tenant. The latter has Lee
Strasberg starring as an elderly Italian who, on the verge of senility, returns to
the old house he shared with his now deceased wife. Boardwalk also co-starred
Lee Strasberg, this time with Ruth Gordon, as a husband and wife in a study of
changing neighborhoods and the problems of being senior citizens in a jungle
society.
"Acting is relaxation for me. I enjoy it more than directing or teaching because
I don't have to argue with myself," quipped Lee Strasberg, adding humorously:
"I understand what the director wants more than he does himself." One of his
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comic parts, had a kind ofjoviality that did not seemat all
suitableto the character. Bromberg had to develop a much
more contained, much more mysterious,and much more
assertivequality. I suggestedwhar was called the "FBI
adjustment." In it, I had him imagine that he was an FBI
agent who had been sent to investigatethe Group Theatre.
He could not give away the fact rhat he wasan FBI agent,
nor could he tell any of the aclors. As in rhe shiob6ard
adjustment, this creaied a strange, new quality appropriate
to the character.
We faced the problem of creating a group adjustmenr in
GoldEagle Guy, a play by Melvin Levy which I directed in
rg3g. An arthquake was to take place at the end of the
second act, and the actors had to respond. In a real
earthquake, the rumbling and chaosis followed by people
running out of their homes to see what has happened.
Scenically,however, I needed a sharp, vivid reaction to the
evenl. I created an adjustment foi the actors by telling
them:
"You are escapingfrom one country into another." (At
that time, refugees were fleeing Germany, so this situation
was firmly imprinted in their minds.) "You have been
smuggled into hiding places on the edge of the border.
Tonight, you are locked up, and tomorrow you will be
taken acrossthe frontier. Suddenly, there is a fire."
I then created sensorycuesfor them that were triggered
by lights: someone smells smoke, someone then realizes
that their hideaway is on fire. Finally, people understand
that they are trapped. The effect of the group's reaction
was tremendous.
The purpose in each of these substitutions was never
one of creating emotion per se, nor was it to create the
emotion which the actor himself would naturally express
in those circumstances.Rather, the purpose was to find a
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procedures of improvisation, work with imaginary objects,
and emotional memory. It is in these areas that the
Method has made a significant contribution. In my work
with the Group Theatre, most of the procedures were
applied within the context of rehearsing for a particular
production.
The aim of these experiments with improvisation was to
permit the actor, both in the process of training and in
rehearsal, to develop the necessaryflow of thought and
sensationwhich leads to the development of spontaneity
on stage. This spontaneity must encompass both the
prepared actions and memorized lines, and also leave
room for "the life of the moment." This createsin both the
actor and the audience the sensationof something taking
place here and now.
Improvisation leads to a process of thought and response and also helps the actor to discover the logical
behavior of the character,rather than "merely illustrating"
the obvious meaning of the line.
Another problem arose in terms of expression that
required a heightened theatricality. While the Group
actors were already known for their detailed realistic
characterizations,we foresaw a specialproblem in dealing
with heightened theatrical forms such as Shakespeare,
commedia dell'arte, Molidre, and musical comedy. The
task was to create a procedure that would school the
Group actors to perform in a stylized manner without the
lossof inner justification and truthful motivation. Among
the exerciseswe developed were those involving improv!
sations with objects (both real and imaginary), words,
paintings, and improbable adjustments.These improvisations often led to an understanding of a heightenec
theatrical style. Someimprovisations basedon paintings by
George Grosz were very successful,as was the work done
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rather than theory. It was a way of testing what we had
learned from the Stanislavskysystemas prisented by our
own teachers;it was also an attempt to checkour knowledge and our ability to use those principles to achieveour
own results,without imitating what Stanislavsky
and his
other followers achieved.
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TheActorsStudioandMyClasses
is true not only lbr actors, but for all human beings. I
began to seek its sources.
It wasnot hard to discoverthem. Whatevercapacitiesthe
human being is born with, it is by meansof training and
conditioningthat he learnsto use them. He learnsto walk
of the mechanismsthat go
and talk without any awareness
into theseorocedures.He learns to make musicalsounds
without knbwing what his throat hasto do to achievethem.
ofthe
He learnsto pronouncewordswithoutany awareness
musclesand nervesthat participatein that activity.It takes
five yearsfor a child to learn to put his shoeson and tie the
laces.Once he haslearnedhow to do it, he simplydoesit by
habit.He developshabitsofthought, ofspeech,ofbehavior,
of attitudestoward his environment.
He alsodevelopshabitsof expression.He is conditioned
to expresshis feelingsand emotions not by the nature,
character,and strength o[ his own emotionalresponses,
but by what societyor his environment will permit. He is
usually aware of his physicalhabits, but has little knowledge of his sensoryand emotional reactions.
By the time an individual arrives at the age where he
beginsto aspireto be an actor, he is to someextent aware
of his physicalattributes,such as his voice, speech,and
movement patterns.He has little or no knowledgeof the
strengths and weaknessesof his sensory and memory
equipment;even lessdoeshe understandthe behaviorof
his emotionsand the way in which he expressesthem.
Often he doesso in wayswhich becomeso limited that
we call them "mannerisms."Since to the individual these
he thinks of them asbeing real
are his natural expressions,
and true and doesnot perceivethat they are mannered.At
the Actors Studio I had to find ways of dealing with an
actor'smannerismsthat obscuredthe truth of expression
that involvesthe relationshipbetweenintensityoi fceling
and emotion.
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nately, have confused the existenceof emotional memories
with ihe difficulty that most peoplehavein recallingthem
at will. It is preciselythis problem of recall that was ot
becauseof its application
maior significanceto Stanislavsky
to ill scfioolsor stylesof acting'
Ribot cited his own investigationsin which he asked a
variety of people to revive or recapture an emotlonal
In one of his studies,a young man of twenty
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,nrde an effort to remember the feeling of ennui that he
had experienced on his first day in the. barracks' The
yo,rng -^r, shut his eyesand abstractedhis thoughts' He
hr., ?at a slight shiver down his back, a feeling of
something unp"leasantthat he would prefer not to- hav
felt aeain. Thii uncomfortable feeling was connected wrth
a uagire sensationthat did not firmly materialize' t1: 'h:l
visuilized the barrack yard where he used to walk; thls
imase *.s replaced by that of a dormitory on the third
g""i. rn." he saw himsetf seated at a window, looking
through it, viewing the endre camp grounds' While the
i-un.'t"on disappEared,there remiined a "vague idea of
bein"sseatedat a window and then a feeling of oppression'
*.ur'in.rr, rejection and a certain heavinessof the shoulders." ThroJghout, the feeling of ennui p-ersisted
-^
Ribot noted that a characteristic peculiar to attectrve
memorv is the slownesswith which it developed' Actually'
I discoveredthat after sufficient exercise,the recall can be
accomplishedin one minute.
Ribot's discoveries obviously played a great role in
Stanislavsky'sgrowing awareness of the actor's unconscious proiedu-res duiing the creative process' This pre,.ttt d't solution to p.oibl.m that had previously evaded
"
comprehension: Whaihappens when the actor is inspired'
o. *iut is the nature of the actor's inspiration?
Memory can be divided into three categories' First'
there is mental memory, which can be easily controlled'
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We try to remember where we were yesterday at this
particular time, and most people will be able to do so. The
second kind is physical memory, which teachesus how to
control our muscles. During the processof learning, we
are quite consciousof what we are doing, but after we have
achieved it, it continues to be repeated automatically by
memory. For example, at the age of five, my son David
grandly announced that he was able to tie his shoelaces.It
took five years to train his muscles to deal with that task.
After a while, tying his shoelacesbecamehabit; the memory functioned automatically.The third kind of memory is
affective memory. It consistsof two parts: sensememory
and emotional memory.
Affective memory is the basic material for reliving on
the stage,and therefore for the creation of a real experience on the stage.What the actor repeats in performance
after performance is notjust the words and movementshe
practiced in rehearsal, but the memory of emotion. He
reachesthis emotion through the memory of thought and
sensation,
Psychologistsdisagree on the actual nature of emotion:
What takes place psychologically? In what area is an
emotion localized?How are emotions stimulated?How are
they expressed?Many of these questions have not been
answered sufficiently.
A startling study on the presence and the workings of
affective memory (both sense memory and emotional
memory) is the work of a Canadian brain surgeon, Dr.
Wilder Penfield. In the course of surgically treating patients who suffered from epileptic seizures,he stumbled
on the fact that electricalstimulation ofcertain areasof t}re
brain occasionallyproduced a state in which the patient
"relived" a previous experience. On first encountering
these flashbacks in rg33, he was incredulous. A young
mother told him she was suddenly aware of being in her
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kitchen, listening to the voice of her son playing in the
yard. Each element of the original exPeriencewas reProduced: the neighborhood noises,the passing motor cars.
Another patient relived an experience in a concert hall;
each individual instrument was clearly defined.
In an effort to confirm his findings, Dr. Penfield was
intersted in further exploring the source of these sensa'
tions. He restimulated the samepoint thirty times. In each
instance the subject "relived" the experience. Dr. Penfield
called such responses "experiential." In real life' this
process is stimulated by some conditioning factor that
irouses it. For example, when someone tells you that he
met a particular individual whom you have strong feeling-s
to*rrd, yorrr heart starts pounding. You will find yourself
reacting merely to the mention or suggestion of that
even in his absence.
person,
While mental or physical actions can be controlled at
will, emotions cannot. You cannot tell yourselfto be angry'
to hate, to love, and so forth, Conversely,you cannot tell
yourself to stop feeling any of those emotions once they
are aroused. Iiis in this area that the starding methods of
Boleslavsky and Madame Ouspenskaya have made the
contribution in acting.
greatest
The "inspiration" I had noted in my earlier years had
occurred *hen a great actor worked unconsciously and
wasable to relive an overwhelming experienceand express
it in performance. I have spoken of Ben-Ami's inspiration
in I ohn thzBabtisr.But theseactors were not alwaysable to
reieat the eiperience at will. Recreating or reliving an
iniense emotional experience at will was at the core of our
work.
The actor trains himself to control "inspiration" through
an "emotional-memory" exercise. To try to recaPture or
relive an experience, the actor needs to be first of all
relaxed. so ihat there is no interference between the
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tcrm unfortunately has often been misunderstood becausetht
a
Once
connotatiohspoPle,
suSSestive
Psychiatrisi
some
h"s,
fo,
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'one ot.lnosr
ca edmv of6ce to ask if it miSht be possiblefor him to observe
or
him
somethlngrePrenenslore
"
to
orirak.6bsccnc moments Pnr'at! suggested
rn Prtvare
Lxual. While there certainly are incidents and examples ot thls
behavior. thc exercis itself is not like that at all'
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