Method Acting

Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko formed the Moscow Art

Theatre in 1898. The acting approach pioneered by Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art School was
then brought to the United States and served as the inspiration for the founding of the Group
Theatre in America in 1931. Lee Stransgerg, Harold Clurman, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, and
Robert Lewis all worked in the states on their own acting theories for the Group Theatre, derived
from Stanislavskys approach. Eventually the Actors Studio was formed in 1947. Elia Kazan,
Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis founded the Actors Studio, and for more than 6 decades it
worked with well-known actors and directors. Each member of the Group Theatre who continued
their career for the Actors Studio has formed their own distinct approach to acting, and many
(Adler, Meisner, Strasberg) have their own acting schools.

(It is important to note that while Stanislavsky began the Moscow Art School, his
followers continued much of the acting exercises actor practice in their training today.
The following thoughts and exercises are a combination of many different thinkers
from the Actors Studio and Group Theatre)

Well-known actors/playwrights/directors who studied with the Actors Studio:

Robert De Niro, Alex Baldwin, Jane Fonda, James Dean, Jon Voight, Marilyn
Monroe, Jack Nicholson, Tennessee Williams, Sidney Poitier, Edward Albee, Paul
Newman, Marlon Brando, Julia Roberts, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis
Hopper, Elia Kazan, Lee Strasberg, Gene Wilder, John Goodman, Kathy Griffin

It is also important to note that these founders also clashed heavily throughout
their years at the Group Theatre, which ultimately contributed to its demise.
Most notable amongst these clashes is Stella Adlers approach juxtaposed
against Stasbergs. If one wants more knowledge about this, check out the
book The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre and the 30s, written by Adler and
Harold Clurman.
Method Acting in India: Bollywood films usually follow a similar story of a
love conflict largely expressed through music, dance, and song. They have a
lot of spectacle and over theatrical body movement and gesturing attached to
them. All acting technique in Bollywood is heightened, meaning heightened
above the natural or truthful expression of day-to-day life. Bollywood is thus
an example of presentational acting.
May 13 2014 Hindustan Times Article Bollywood Following Hollywoods Method
Acting Technique: As of late, method acting has begun to creep into Bollywood and
Indian theatre schools. A Lee Strasburg Theatre and Film Institute opened in Mumbai
in 2009. Method actors in India include: Dilip Kumar, Anil Kapoor, VarunDhawan,

Article cites former example when popular western actors have been engrossed into their method
acting performances:
Daniel Day-Lewis: He refused to leave the wheelchair while preparing to play an individual afflicted with
cerebral palsy in My Left Foot (1989).
Marlon Brando: He lay in bed in a hospital for a month before making his debut, playing a paraplegic, in The
Men (1950).
Heath Ledger: The late actor had filled notebooks with strange writings as he buried himself in the persona
of The Joker for The Dark Knight (2008).
Adrien Brody: Before The Pianist (2002), he sold his car, apartment and most of his possessions; he also
remained isolated, and cut food intake to starvation levels.
Dustin Hoffman: To prepare for Marathon Man (1976), the actor deprived himself of sleep. Hoffman showed
up on set after staying awake for two days straight.

Its important to note that reaching into physical/mental depths such as these does not
necessarily equate to a powerful method acting performance. It means that these
actors sought to absorb themselves into the roles they were going to play, by enduring
the same physical and mental tests that their characters needed to.

Stanislavskys Principles of Acting:

Acting is not imitation, or mimesis, as Aristotle would assert in his Poetics. It is not
artificial, nor should it ever appear artificial. Acting is the is process of creating the
performance, not the end result. It is the actors responsibility to act out a role as
truthfully as possible, by creating links between the actors own personality and the
character he is playing. Actors must bring their own emotions and personal experiences
into their performances.
Stanislavsky believed that the creative moment is often unconscious. Conscious activity
in preparing and rehearsing a role needed to be coherent and so organized as to create the
condition in which spontaneous, intuitive creation could occur. You must link your
personal experience to emotive physical action. You must be able to express your inner
emotions in a physical way, that still remains truthful to your character and yourself.

______________________________________________________________________
Relaxation: Stanislavsky referredto tension as the occupational disease of the actor. Tension is
an actors greatest enemy. It can manifest itself in a number of ways: nervousness, slouching,
turning your body away from the audience, focusing on the audience and not your scene partner,
etc. Tension is anything that distracts you truthfully telling the story of the play.

Exercise: Stanislavskys relation exercise involves the actor sitting straight-backed in an

armless chair. From there, the actor assumes a position in which he/she could fall asleep.
From this position, he/she explores his/her entire body for tension. When you feel a spot

of tension, ask yourself why you have tension there. Find a way to let go of it. Pay special
attention to the facial muscles. The actor must do this every day for 15 minutes.
Exercise: This exercise is called the song, and is designed to point out the unconscious
tensions the actor carries within his/her body. In the first portion, the actors chooses an
easy song he will sing in front of the audience, such as Happy Birthday. Facing the
audience, the actor must sing the song one syllable at a time, filling his/her lungs fully
before releasing each note. They must do this for each syllable of the entire song, while
maintaining eye contact with their audience. While this seems easy, often times the actor
is unable to carry out the exercise. He/she may start moving their hands, facial muscles,
laughing. The instructor stops the exercise to reveal the actors hidden tension, such as
movement of hands. Once his tensions are revealed, it is interesting to note that the
former tensions will usually return to the actor. It is an important relaxation exercise, and
important to note that actors will also struggle with maintaining eye contact.

Emotion Memory:Stanislavsky believed that an actor had to unlock the unconscious by

recalling past experiences that directly relate to the emotional state of the character. These
experiences are personal, and genuine. The actor and the character become one, both conscious
and unconscious.
Example to talk through: Nan from Max stores.
Given Circumstances: The actor must be aware of everything which surrounds him in the
scene. He/she must be aware where they are, what they are doing, where they just came from,
what the weather is like, what the room next door looks like, where other characters are on/off
the set, etc. Every single surrounding, including color, shape, texture, smell, etc. the actor must
be aware of. The given circumstances are incredibly important, because the in the actors mind
nothing is fake or artificial.
If Relaxation is the foundation upon which rests the "house of method", then Sense Memory is
the structure of the house. "sense memory" is the experiencing of all senses engendered by our
given circumstances. These impressions are stored in the subconscious. The actor can learn to
recall these sensory impressions from the subconscious by concentrating on the stimuli
associated with them. If you have ever been hungry enough, and thought about your favorite
food, chances are your mouth "watered". This is an example of your senses remembering the
taste of the food, and responding accordingly by activating your salivary glands.

Sense Memory Exercise: helps an actor formulate his Given Circumstances.

Remember each memory at your disposal, and decide what it is. What do you smell, taste,
hear, feel, and see? Set up various scenes for the actor to walk through, ex. a crowded
railway station, the emergency ward of a hospital, a marketplace in Delhi, etc.

A further example:

You are waiting for a bus in Delhi. Its around 40 degrees, and the bus is an hour late.
Now you are waiting for a bus at the same location in Delhi, but its -1 degrees out and
the bus is an hour late.

The Magic If: Stanislavsky developed this concept in order to help his actors create
inspiration for their scene. Start out your scene by asking yourself as an actor what would I do if
I were in these circumstances? Or ask yourself what would I have to do in order to do what the
character does in these circumstances? For example, if you are playing a character who attacks
someone in the scene. Ask yourself, what would make me actually attack someone in my life?
Use that as inspiration to continue on with the scene.

Exercise: Sit, stand and walk with justification.

- Sit at a window to see why the police car stopped in front of the house next door.
-Sit in order to rest.
-Stand to be photographed.
-Stand in order to see better.
-Walk to pass the time.
-Walk to annoy people in the apartment below.
Gauge the differences in each walk, pick out the tensions.You can also do complete
scenes: pack to go on vacation. Pack to leave for war.
- Look for your lost keys.
Exercise: This is an exercise designed to help with concentration. Count together to thirty.
Clap your hands once when a number includes or may be divided by 3. Then repeat the
exercise, but clap twice when a number includes 5 or may be divided by 5. If the number
may be divided by both 3 and 5, clap three times.

Affective Memory: This is a widely known procedure of method acting. Lee Strasberg did a lot
of work on this technique. It means that when an actor has to act in a particularly intense,
painful, or frightening experience in a scene, it helps for the actor to recall experiences in his
own life he invokes into his character. This exercise should only be used in advanced acting
courses with a trained acting coach.
Substitution: Substitution is not part of method acting, but some actors use it in tricky situations
when they feel lost. It is substituting your scene partner or scene situation for another that you
have personally experienced. For example, some actors substitute family members or lost lovers
for their scene partners.
Moment-to-Moment: There are some moments in plays/scenes, when the unexpected happens.
A prop falls on the floor, a technical misfire happens and a loud BOOM goes off backstage, you
accidentally knock your drink over, etc. What do you do? You live moment-to-moment on the
stage. You must accommodate for unexpected occurrences. If you hear a loud boom,
acknowledge it. If your prop falls on the floor, pick it up. If your drink spills, clean it. As an

actor, dont be afraid to look dumb if you make a mistake on stage. Deal with it just as you
would spilling your drink in real life. Mop it up, move on.

Private Moment Exercise: This is an exercise pioneered by Lee Strasberg, derived off of
Stanislavskys belief that the actor must be able to appear private in public. For this exercise,
the actor is asked to do something on the stage that they do in life, but it is so private, that if
someone walked into the room they would have to stop doing whatever it is. Strasberg was also
quick to point out that there is a difference between private and personal, meaning dont do
anything inappropriate.
Justification: As an actor, you must be able to justify all the actions you make on the stage. If
you cross the stage to sit, know why you are going to sit. Dont just move around for the sake of
it. Whenever we move in real life, we have reasons for it. Maybe we are restless and start pacing,
maybe we are tired and sit on our bed, maybe we cross our legs because they are falling asleep.
YOU MUST JUSTIFY ALL YOUR STAGE ACTIONS. If a director gives you your blocking,
justify it in your mind. If your movement is not justified, it looks like you are trying to fill up
space. It also looks artificial.
Objectives: The actor must have his/her character objective. This character objective is the one
thing their character wants in the play. It is their main objective, and they must keep this in mind
while saying every line/scene/gesture.

Strasberg believed this was most important to the actor, he called it the object. Your
concentration on the object is how the actor established a sense of belief and faith, which
then leads to unconscious experience and behavior.
Michael Chekhov, considered by Stanislavsky as his most brilliant student, also
pioneered this approach, preferring to call the objective the character will. Chekhov
encouraged the use of more than just personal experience while acting, but also the use of
the actors imagination and physical life.

Actions: The actor must break their script up into character actions. Each line of text MUST
have a character action. This is something they are doing to their scene partner.

Example:

Sarah: Would you please give me that banana?

John: I dont want to give you the banana.
Sarah: But John, I really want the banana.
John: Fine, take the banana.
End Scene.

Sarahs objective in this scene is to get the banana from John; that is what she ultimately wants to
do. Make your character objective as strong as possible: Sarah needs to get the banana from
John, or she will die of starvation. Then break the script down into character actions. Sarahs
first line is would you please give me that banana?lets say her action is to beg John. The
action MUST BE A VERB THAT IS BEING DONE ON THE SCENE PARTNER. Johns action
will then be to shove Sarahbut not physically, only with his line. He will speak the line as if
he is shoving Sarah. It is now Sarahs turn to choose an action with her line, and it must be
something different from beg, because beg did not work before. She still does not have the
banana. Therefore, lets try her demanding the banana from him. With her line, she will
demand the banana. John will then surrender to her demand with his line, which then ends
the scene.

There are numerous actionbook available on Amazon for eager actors that have trouble
finding fitting/interesting actions for their lines.

Here is a popular one:

Caldarone, Marina, and Maggie Lloyd-Williams.Actions, The Actors' Thesaurus. Drama
Pub, 2004.
As an actor, each one of your lines should have an accompanying action. You cannot use the
same action more than once, or all your lines will sound the same. Character objectives and
actions are tools used to make the scene both more realistic sounding and interesting.

Animal Exercise: The animal exercise is a very valuable acting tool. Not only does it
encourage and inspire new acting choices, it can be particularly useful when the actor
has to play a character very physically unlike himself. Ex. young actor playing an 90 year
old man. You simply decide which animal you are, and act as if you are that animal. The
first part of the exercise is literally being that animal, ex. being on all fours, crawling,
making the animal noise. Then you must blend those characteristics into the role you are
playing.

__________________________________________________________________________
Open Scene Work: Have group divided into pairs. Each must take an open scene and mold it to
their own personal given circumstances. They must have a conflict and develop a relationship
between their characters. They also must write a character bio on their characters. They must
mark their actions and know their character objectives. They must also include BLOCKING.
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:

Can you believe that?

No.
What are we going to do?
We?
This is really big.

B:
A:
B:

We can manage it.

Got any ideas?
Yes. But dont tell anyone.

OPEN SCENE 2
A: Shoot
B: Oh
A: Oh no
B: Can you uh .
A: No here use this
B: Come on
A: I told you to be careful
B: I was it just happened
A: There, let me see
B: Oh, where are you going
A: For help
B: And leave me here you can't leave me here
A: You stay here I'm off to get help
B: No, no please one more time try it again
A: Stay here I'll be right back
B: Ah
OPEN SCENE 3
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:

Well
How are you?
Im not all that well, really.
Why. Whats the matter?
The usual things. How are you?
Im fine
Mmm Its been a long time
Yes I thought of you the other day
Why
Its nice sometimes to think back, isnt it?
Absolutely. Hows everything?
Oh not bad. Do you know how long its been since we met?
Uuh.
Two years
Long time

OPEN SCENE 4
A: What are you doing?
B: Cant you tell
A: Well, I think so but

B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:

It should be obvious
You shouldnt
I know
I mean, I really wish you wouldnt
You should have thought of that
Is this because of what I did
Partly yes, mostly no
Can I make it up to you somehow
I very much doubt it
Stop doing that and really listen to me
You dont recognize No do you
I just asked you to listen
I said No thats it

Open Scene 5
A:Hi!
B: Hello.
A:Hows everything?
B: Fine, I guess.
A:Do you know what time it is?
B:No. Not exactly.
A:Dont you have a watch?
B:Not on me.
A:Well!
B:Well what?
A:What did you do last night?
B:What do you mean?
A:What did you do last night?
B:Nothing!
A:Nothing?
B:I said nothing.
A: Sorry I asked
B:Thats alright.

MORE CONTEXT:

Bertolt Brecht
Epic Theatre is the theory and practice of influential theatre artist and director
BertoltBercht. In this approach to theatre, the societal message is what is most important. The
catharsis was detrimental to the success of Brechtian theatre; therefore, he focused on making the
audience THINK, not FEEL. He believed that for the audience to feel over-emotional was
damaging to their ability to think rationally.
Alienation: Developed by Brecht in the 1920s and 30s. It is a technique which 'estranges' the
audience and forces them to question the social realities of the situations being presented in the
play. Brecht achieved this by breaking the illusion created by conventional plays of the time. He
believed that the 'suspension of disbelief' created by realistic drama was a shallow spectacle, with
manipulative plots and heightened emotion.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Involves the characters directly addressing and acknowledging the
audience. This is presentational, and allows for the audience to become aware of the fact that
they are watching a play with a powerful societal message.
Presentational Acting: The Brechtian theatre does not show the human nature of an individual
but reveals collective human relations. The story is the point of interest, not the characters.Acting
in Epic Theatre means that an actor is required to play characters believably without convincing
either the audience or themselves that they are, indeed, the characters. There is an audible and
visual distance between the actor and their character and the actors will often 'break the fourth
wall' and address the audience, play multiple characters, and use exaggerated or repetitive
actions to make their distance and social commentary known.

Gestus: It is the combination of a gesture and a social meaning into one movement,
stance or vocal display. A physical movement the character makes to suggest her social
state, emotional state, economical state, etc. For ex. Mother Courage shows her inner
emotional turmoil not through words, but through a physical presentation. She looks at
the audience and delivers a silent scream. Again, it is not the action alone that makes it
gestus, but rather the combination of this action and the social meaning.

Jerzy Grotowski
Jerzy Grotowski (August 11, 1933 - January 14, 1999) was a Polish theatre director and a leading
figure of theatrical avantgarde of the 20th century.During a stay in Moscow, until 1956, he
learned about new trends in theatre pioneered by leading Russian figures such as Stanislavsky,
Vakhtangov, Meyerhold and Tairov. He wrote Towards a Poor Theatre (1968), where he declared
that theatre should not, because it could not, compete against the overwhelming spectacle of film
and should instead focus on the very root of the act of theatre: actors in front of spectators.

His theatre technique is called poor because Grotowski believed that what was most
important in acting was the actors body and his relationship with the audience. In his
laboratory theatre of Poland, he stripped all costumes, set, props, etc. away from the
actor. This is why his technique emphasizes the body and voice so much,Grotowski
believed they are the only things the actor needs.

Priesthood: An atheist, Grotowski believed that the actor enters priesthood. By this, he means
that the moment the actor enters the performance space, he/she is entering a sanctuary which
behold the holy relationship between the actor and audience. This sanctuary is the place where
audience members are transformed by theatre.

Grotowski sought out the intensely personal forms of training that would allow an actor
to personally identify blocks inhibiting his total expression and eliminate them in order to
grow closer to the holiness of his craft.

Themes:Grotowskis work was largely political in theme. The audience became pivotal to
theatrical performance, and theatre became more than entertainment: it became a pathway to
understanding.
Relationship to cinema: Grotowski preferred to stay with his small ensemble in the midst of his
laboratory theatre, often declining the invitation to bigger theatrical events. He also thought that
theatre could not/should not compete with cinema, because theatre was about presence. He also
wanted his audience to be experimental, open, and creative.
Works Cited
"Master Acting Teacher Biography ."The Jason Bennett Actor's Workshop.N.p., 2012. Web. 3 Jul
2012. <http://www.jbactors.com/actingreading/actingteacherbiographies/stellaadler.html>.
Stanislavsky, Konstantin. An Actor Prepares. New York: Theatre Arts Book, 1991.
"What is Method Acting?." TheatrGROUP Theatre Company. TheatrGROUP, 2012.Web. 3 Jul
2012. <http://www.theatrgroup.com/>.