Acting Techniques in the 20th Century

In 1907 a new form of actor training began developing by Konstantin Stanislavski, artistic director for the Moscow Art Theater in Russia. Stanislavski was already well known internationally as an actor and director and he searched for a training system that would awaken a performers emotions. To achieve the creative state of mind in an actor was his ultimate goal. He thought the performer's past emotional experiences could be relived on stage. He based his thoughts from preparing great actors and the knowledge of yoga. Stanislavski taught the Moscow Art players through physical exercises with emphasize on relaxation, concentration and belief. Stanislavski believed that stimulation through the five senses, one could reawaken and control these memories only indirectly.

Continuous revisions were made over several decades and many variations of Stanislavski system became the touchstone of 20th century actor training. Attention to truthful emotional awakening in a n actor through facial detail made it a great technique for television and naturalistic films. Experimental and traditional directors however, sparked counter theories and opposing approaches to Stanislavski teachings.

Vsevolod Meyerhold and Mikhail Chekhov, both students of Stanislavski in Russia, created actor-training that ignored the psychological stimulation and was more geared to physical and imagination. In the 1930s German playwright Bertoit Brecht and French theorist Antonin Artaud, Avantgarde theater practitioners, also challenged Stanislavski. They believed his training was overly realistic and internalized. In countries such as France and England, where theatrical traditions were firmly planted, ignored Stanislavski's clarion call.

Stanislavski had his greatest success in the United States. Stanislavski's idea that was known as the method became popular with the Group Theater in the 1930s and the Actor's Studio two decades later. The Method was the postwar foundation for the motion-picture Acting in Hollywood. Directors of the alternative American theater in the 1960s, especially the ones who were influenced by Artaud and Polish director Jerzy Grotowski, explored innovative Acting techniques that gave emphasize to external and super physical qualities of the performer. In the late 1990s many American Acting teachers borrowed Asian theater and modern dance traditions.

An American director and actor, Lee S trasberg (1901-1982) was the leading teacher of Stanislavski's Acting technique known as the method. Born in Budzanow, Austria-Hungary, Strasberg came to the United States in 1909 and became a naturalized citizen in 1936. Strasberg helped to found the Group Theater in 1931; he directed many of its Broadway plays and productions.

Strasberg became an artistic director of the Actors Studio in 1951 and the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute was founded in 1969. Strasberg was responsible for the training of may leading American actors using the American exponent of the Method, an emotion-oriented Acting technique. The American exponent o f the Method was based on the teachings of the Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski.

Some of his students included: Anne Bancroft, Maureen Stapleton, Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando and Dustin Hoffman. Even though his students had much success, some members of the Acting community often criticized him because of his approach; which was regarded as undisciplined. Strasberg made his debut as an actor in The Godfather Part II in 1974.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Acting

Author:: Michael Russell
Keywords:: Acting
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