Strasberg method pt1.

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Strasberg developed the method in two stages

First, as founder and director of the Group theatre. In the 1930's he worked to create emotional life

As the artistic director of the Actors studio. In the 1950's he sought to "release and theatricalize that emotional life"

Group theatre

Directed majority of Groups productions, and applied Stanislavskys theories e.g. affective memory based technique - this was based heavily in emotion. This was contentious and he left in 1937.

Later had limited success in broadway, but in hollywood 95 percent of the actors he trained for screen tests received a contract.

Actors studio

In 1947, Crawford, Kazan and Lewis set up Actors studio. Lewis and Kazan had two seperate methods, Lewis focusing on the "Imaginative" side and Kazan focusing on "interior emotion events". Eventually they needed someone else to take over "Actors studio" officially- Kazan didn't want Strasberg involved, however he took over in 1951. This is where Strasberg began his second revolution.

Second revolution - Strasberg was in the right place at the right time, as America had immersed itself in "private life and personal preoccupations" , "secrecy" and plays which began to discuss the "social pressures of today". Strasberg's method caught ablaze in the midst of this.

Though Strasberg said that actors had no place in the political world, he turned the actors studio into a place of research. He utilised secrecy akin to the CIA in that era (Mccarthy era), and method acting became " a marker of cultural value to shore up the identity and purpose of national culture." - elevating the style of individualsim over collectivity. Very patriotic and anti-communist.

Method actor - Symbol of freedom.

Diffference between "Group theatre" and "Actors studio": Group theatre reveled in language, Actors studio allowed for individual cultural protest, not carried outtext or dialogue but with behaviour as gesture. Reading in between the lines, or elevating them.

This technique did really well in film. However there was a counter reaction to Method e.g. Robert Lewis 1957 "Method - or Madness?" , and he called for a return to the principles of Stanislavsky, Redgrave "the actors work on himself" was "paralyzing and destructive". What this boils down to is an over-emphasis on emotion.

Nevertheless, Strasberg continued to adapt Stanislavskys technique. He developed the private moments exercise. He realised that " we do private things when we are alone, and we know they are pivate if we cannot continue to do them if someone comes into a room" - this task was vilified.

Later he was deemed a "poor mans psychiatrist", he discussed psychological problems with students - many who didnt seek help in fear of loosing their creatvitiy.

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