Lee Strasberg: Method Acting

ACTING UNIT

In the senior grades, drama students must hone their ability to create belief in a topic or character and then to make certain that others also believe them as well. This is not something that can be done once all the lines have been memorized and the blocking done; the realization of a character is an integral part of the work. Without that belief, without what Coleridge called " a willing suspension of disbelief," very little depth will be achieved in drama regardless of the teacher's and student's best intentions. There are a number of techniques or methods for character development. Some teachers prefer Stanislavsky's "method acting" and others follow Strasberg, Hagen or Brecht. Exercises are highlighted.

Lee Strasberg: Method Acting

Group Theatre, NYC, used Constantin Stanislavski's system: actors deeply analyze the motivations and emotions of their characters in order to personify them with psychological realism and emotional authenticity. Using the Method, an actor may recall emotions or sensations from his or her own life and use them to identify with the character being portrayed. Stan’s triad: Relaxation/concentration/sense of truth.

EMOTIONAL MEMORY

·  Relaxation – the heart of the Method; eliminate tension.

·  Concentration – helps the actor to develop and maintain relaxation by preventing extraneous thoughts that produce muscle tension.

·  Sense Memory – reliving (not just remembering) sensations that were experienced through the five senses.

·  Affective Memory – choose a personal experience associated with the emotional state desired; recreate all aspects.

Improvisation – helps to solve the “actor’s problems”: listening, habits, lack of concentration, inhibition, etc.

Exercises:

Chapter One - Part One - Background

One - Strasberg’s Method shows that an affective memory is a specific, disciplined process, not the production of some general uncontrolled emotion. It is a practical acting technique that was first defined by Stan in Russia and later developed by Strasberg and others in the U.S. (now the “American Method.”) Voice, speech, movement and dance are also important. Rewards of studying the “M”; Why the “M”? The basic problem of the actor is repetition. Can I do it again?

Inspiration is not enough, precisely because it is unpredictable. The “M” is a composite of the acting processes great actors have employed over the centuries to help them conquer the various problems that arise in performance. “M” is NOT used instead of any other form of acting - it is an adjunct to other forms. Train when young; unspoiled advantage. Acting is more than learning lines, etc.; It means creating an inner life of a character, including a character’s ongoing thoughts, sensations, perceptions and emotions.

Two - The Evolution of Strasberg's "M" “M” is the summation of the best. Stan and Stras discovered what actors had already done thru the unconscious use of memory. “M” allows the actor to work creatively rather than mechanically. “M” is a procedure , not a series of rules to be applied specifically. The actor must be able to make his body or impulses do what his mind conceives. Use of memory is essential to understanding the entire process that goes into acting, because otherwise, experiencing on the stage cannot be done night after night without an inner technique. Affective memory = memory of sensation and emotion.

Chapter One - Part Two - Actor Training

·  Eliminate tension, the occupational disease of the actor; stands between him and his character he hopes to create on stage. Can be caused by mental apprehension.

·  Relaxation is the tool that enables the actor to make the fullest use of his instrument - himself.

·  If an actor can control the physical aspects, then he has the key to control the mental and emotional.

·  Tension blocks and distorts thought, emotions and action.

·  Relaxation can be learned thru exercise and practice; must be done before any other work can begin.

·  Relaxation does not mean comfort; comfort is a habit.

·  Use straight back chair; go limp as if wish you could sleep right there; must see tenseness in actor to help them release it; make noises to release the tension or emotion while simultaneously moving - the mind commands the body.

·  Movement does not achieve relaxation; it draws attention to where it is needed, however.

·  Four specific tension areas: 1) brow and muscles at temples, 2) bridge of nose leading to eyes, 3) muscles along side of nose which lead to mouth and chin, 4) behind neck and down back. (4b: Back).

Chapter Two - Concentration

·  Concentration is the process of focusing one’s mind on an object or objects; object = real object, remembrance, situation, sensation, or what an actor recalls from his own experience or even a totally imaginary idea.

·  Concentration helps an actor develop and maintain relaxation by preventing extraneous thoughts that produce muscle tension. Focus and Concentration: support one another; the 2 processes must go hand in hand.

·  Students begin to improve concentration (and sense memory) by focusing on situations.

·  Concentration exercises in monologues: say lines AND thoughts.

·  Stras says: All of our work leads to what to put concentration on: during relaxation exercises, sensory exercises, on stage or before the camera, whatever the commitment is.

Chapter Three - Sense Memory

·  SM is reliving sensations that were experienced thru the 5 senses; reliving, not just remembering.

·  It is substantiated by psychology.

·  Practicing beginning sensory memory exercises can be compared to memorizing a poem.

·  Concentrate on the actual “object” and then test yourself by putting the object aside to see whether you can recapture the experience without actually using the object. When an actor repeats the action by going back to the real object, he concentrates on those sensory aspects that did not work or were not full for him.

·  “Work with objects”, SM exercises are as fundamental to an actor’s art as are daily singer exercises to a pianist. An actor should never strive for physical reactions; he should just let reactions happen. Never worry about the end result. Use will and effort to keep concentration on the proper object and let results happen. For example, don’t anticipate a slap.

·  Method acting courses teach specific exercises to stimulate the actor’s imagination and to instill the proper procedure to unleash an actor’s creativity.

·  1st: external sensory experience - shave, get dressed. . . leads to the creation of a sensory reality.

·  All taught is cumulative.

·  An actor’s concentration should be focused on recapturing the physical sensations generated and the muscular efforts involved in a simple, daily activity.

·  Students are encouraged to investigate and explore a simple object dealt with many times in their daily routine; it develops the imagination so they can advance to more complicated and difficult realities.

·  Train your senses to remember more and more vividly.

·  When you recapture the original feelings, you must then recreate them for the stage.

·  Good acting? The use of affective and sense memory: the cornerstone of the modern method of training an actor.

Chapter Four - Sequence And Description Of Sensory Exercises

·  Sequence and Description of Sensory Exercises:

·  Begins pg.45: Breakfast drink, Mirror - prepare task in mirror and do for class; with and without the props.

Chapter Five - Affective Memory

·  In using AM, Stras had an actor choose a personal experience associated with the emotional state desired.

·  Actor is to recreate all aspects.

·  As senses were stimulated, the emotions associated with the sensations of the particular experience would be relived and take possession of the actor.

·  Emotion is not directly controllable; based on Proust scientific approach; remember place, sound, taste. . . then senses come to you.

·  For realistic, believable acting, external imitation of an emotion is never effective.

·  Strive for honest emotion repeated at will; choose proper stimulus to make you behave as you would under the conditions in the play.

·  HOW TO FIND? Beginning actors should not do it too soon. Begin with an unusual event, not too dramatic; go back at least 7 years because more recent events are harder to control.

·  An actor must learn to face stored-up experiences or memories;only thru self can you experience on stage.

·  Try 100 memories, only 8 may work; intensity will differ and determine the training time; if trained, you should be able to control it.

·  IN ORDER TO REPEAT A PERFORMANCE, YOU HAVE TO HAVE EMOTIONAL MEMORY.

·  Exercises: pg.87; should be able to stop actor at any time; if too into it, stop and focus on other item; emotion should never be consciously remembered; steps lead to emotion.

·  3 years of training produces consistent results; beginner needs 1 hour +; trained needs 20 minutes; well-trained needs 2-3 minutes. 1) Recall one sense at a time; add each on; recall 3-5 minutes before event; finished when actor has recalled all possible sensations, physical, then emotional; do it again soon before lose feeling; ask actor questions and make them verbalize answers, 2) Do the same exercise without verbalizing; when ready perform a physical task, 3) Next improvise a scene, 4) Add a few lines, 5) Self-guide completely.

·  Use AM to prepare or propel yourself into a scene before you enter.

·  Often this process is painful for the actor, but Stras stressed that learning to use the pain is an important element in the development of a fine actor.

·  AM is the only procedure that works in shock moments.

Uta Hagen: Moment to Moment and Physical Sensations

1. Hide something in the class and ask 4 people to look for it. Gradually elevate the tension by adding a time line. Whether it’s found or not, return to circle and discuss the process ‘moment to moment’. Moment to Moment: actors learn how to repeat selected actions at every performance from moment to moment, as if for the first time. It is achieved by a suspension of knowledge of what is to come, by “forgetting” everything except what is needed at the moment with the profound innocence that is part of an actor’s soul. The final presentation of this exercise should truly test the actor’s ability to direct their full attention to one need at a time. The actor must believe in the existence of each new moment. The goal/motivation must have meaning to the actor, so that their stakes remain high while trying to achieve it. See if students can re-create each moment again as though they were looking for the object.

b.  Re-creating Physical Sensations: actors learn to endow objects and the conditions prescribed by the playwright with imagined realities, producing sensations at will. Test sensory responses to visible and tangible objects that have been imaginatively endowed with properties that cannot or should not be real on stage. Objects can include weapons, violent heat/cold or other pressures, alcohol/drug consumption, and any other dangerous or high risk activity that cannot be staged do to lack of control.

Sandford Meisner: Repetition Exercise

Bases on the principle that acting found its most profound expression in specific behavior that came out of the actor's real human response to circumstances and other people (IMPULSE). The training method relies heavily on accessing the actor's impulses, through which real responses and real behavior are accessed in the moment. This technique was not only applied to improvisation with another person, but also to the actor's way of finding things to do in rehearsal, interpreting a script, and creating the specific physical characteristics of each character the actor played. The basic exercise that Meisner invented to train the actor's responses is called the Repetition Exercise. To get impulsive, truthful responses, Meisner chose the other person as the vehicle. In life, if you have a relationship with another person, you will deal with them ina relatively truthful way. You won't act at them. This is a concrete situation that can be emulated on stage. Of course, both people have to make their best effort to give their honest response and bypass their sense of performing or contriving what they do. They need to have a device by which their normal self -consciousness and inhibitions can be loosened. They need to become more flexible and open, more able to observe, be affected and respond to what they are encountering in the other person.

o  In this exercise, two actors sit across from each other and respond to each other through a repeated phrase. The phrase is about each other's behavior, and reflects what is going on between them in the moment, such as:

a.  You look good today

b.  Were you late this morning

c.  I’m tired, ok

d.  You need to try harder

e.  Move on, please

f.  You look a little stressed

o  The way this phrase is said as it is repeated changes in meaning, tone and intensity to correspond with the behavior that each actor produces towards the other.

o  Through this device, the actor stops thinking of what to say and do, and responds more freely and spontaneously, both physically and vocally. The exercise also eliminates line readings, since the way the actor speaks becomes coordinated with his behavioral response.