(2014 Reprint of 1947 Edition. Exact facsimile of the orig...)
2014 Reprint of 1947 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. "A wealth of material on the theory and practice of acting ... a book which may be read, re-read and absorbed by everyone who assumes the directing of actors or that most difficult task, the teaching of acting." --Quarterly Journal of Speech. Contains early contributions on the craft by Stanislavski, I. Rapoport, M.A. Chekhov, Vakhtangov, Giatsintova, Pudovkin, Zakhava and others. Also includes 25 illustrations related to the stage and the art of acting. Contents include: Introduction / Lee Strasberg -- The actor's responsibility / Constantin Stanislavski -- Direction and acting / Constantin Stanislavski -- The work of the actor / I. Rapoport -- The creative process / I. Sudakov -- Stanislavski's method of acting / M.A. Chekhov -- Preparing for the role: from the diary of E. Vakhtangov / E. Vakhtangov -- Case history of a role / A.S. Giatsintova -- From the production plan of Othello / Constantin Stanislavski -- Film acting: two phases / V.I. Pudovkin -- Principles of directing / B.E. Zakhava -- To his players at the first rehearsal of The blue bird / Constantin Stanislavski.
(The definitive source book on acting.Los Angeles Times...)
The definitive source book on acting.Los Angeles Times
Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper, Robert DeNiro, Marilyn Monroe, and Joanne Woodwardthese are only a few of the many actors training in Method acting by the great and legendary Lee Strasberg. This revolutionary theory of actingdeveloped by Stanislavski and continued by Strasberghas been a major influence on the art of acting in our time. During his last decade, Strasberg devoted himself to a work that would explain once and for all what The Method was and how it worked, as well as telling the story of its development and of the people involved with it. The result is a masterpiece of wisdom and guidance for anyone involved with the theater in any way.
A must for young actorsfor old ones, too, for that matter.Paul Newman
An exploration of the creative process that will reward all who are interested in the nature of inspiration.Library Journal
An important cultural document.Booklist
Lee Strasberg was a Polish-born American actor, director, and theatre practitioner.
Background
Lee Strasberg was born on November 17, 1901 in a part of Galicia, Austrian Poland, in what is now Ukraine.
He was brought to Manhattan's Lower East Side at age seven. Strasberg's father was a garment worker and was active in a trade union which supported community theater.
Education
It was in this Yiddish Theatre that Strasberg was first exposed to the naturalistic style of acting. While he was still a young boy he joined the amateur Progressive Dramatic Club, whose leaders were quite familiar with the theories of Constantine Stanislavsky, the great acting coach and director of the Moscow Art Theatre. After leaving Townsend Harris High School in 1918 to work as a clerk in a wig factory, he studied acting at the American Laboratory Theatre under Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya, both former students of Stanislavsky. He also gained his first experience as a director as a member of an amateur theatrical group that produced plays in the Christie Street Settlement House, a social center on the Lower East Side.
Career
Strasberg's professional career in the theater began when he joined the Theatre Guild as an actor and assistant stage manager in 1924. It was at the Theatre Guild that Strasberg met Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, two young Theatre Guild staffers who were dissatisfied with the commercial bent of the New York theater scene. Strasberg, Clurman, and Crawford began to meet informally with other similarly discontented young theater people, and eventually these informal meetings grew into rehearsals and workshops. In 1931 the Theatre Guild released the rights to Paul Green's The House of Connelly to the young idealists, and the Group Theatre was born on Broadway. The Group Theatre was a unique establishment in the history of the American theater. Under the leadership of Strasberg, Clurman, and Crawford, the Group attempted to establish a company of actors, designers, directors, and playwrights who would create artistically notable works for the Broadway stage while maintaining social accountability. The Group Theatre's policies and practices fostered the talents of such notable names as Lee J. Cobb, Clifford Odets, and Elia Kazan (who started with the Group as an intern actor), among others. Strasberg left the Group in 1937 and pursued interests in Hollywood through most of the 1946. He returned to Broadway to direct occasionally, achieving success with such works as Clifford Odets' Clash by Night (1941). He returned to New York to stay in 1948 to become the director and dominant force of the Actors Studio, an organization started by Kazan, Crawford, and Robert Lewis. The Studio was to be a workshop and training ground for actors, not a vehicle for public performance. Combining the theories of Stanislavsky and some modern psychology, he urged his students to create "backlife" for their characters, previous and subsequent histories based on assumptions from facts in the script. The areas examined were from the most tragic (such as loss of a parent) to the most mundane (such as brushing one's teeth). The object of this training was to break down the artificiality of acting by instilling in the actor such a familiarity with the character that the role ceased to be distinct from the actor's self.
In this way, the personality of the performer became a functional part of stage technique. His other film appearances included The Cassandra Crossing (1976), Boardwalk (1979), Going in Style (1979), and And Justice for All (1980). His television appearances included roles in The Last Tenant (1981) and Skokie (1981). Strasberg died of a heart attack on February 17, 1982, in New York City, several days after appearing in a benefit chorus line at Radio City Music Hall.
(2014 Reprint of 1947 Edition. Exact facsimile of the orig...)
Membership
Lee Strasberg was a founding member of the Group Theatre and as the main teacher of "Method" acting in the United States.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
In his account of the Group Theatre, The Fervent Years (1957), Harold Clurman described Strasberg as "one of the few artists among American theatre directors. He is the director of introverted feeling, of strong emotion curbed by ascetic control. .. . The effect he produces is a classic hush, tense and tragic. .. . The roots are clearly in the intimate experience of a complex psychology, an acute awareness of human contradiction and suffering. "
Interests
Strasberg's effectiveness as a teacher derived from his interest in the psychology of dramatic interpretation and from his emphasis on the actor's private personality as the raw material from which performance should be created.
Connections
Strasberg was married three times: to Nora Z. Krecaun in 1926 (she died in 1929), to Paula Miller in 1934 (who died in 1966), and to Anna Mizrahi in 1968. He had four children: two by Miller (Susan-an actress-and John) and two by Mizrahi (Adam and David).