Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Method Acting

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John Luzaich
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Topic: Method Acting - Q & A
Posted: 2/29/08 at 2:09pm

There are a lot of misunderstandings about method acting. Different descriptions and many misstatements I've heard over the years. There are many , many great books about this subject. Some are good and some are not so good. I studied acting with Lee Strasberg and, no I'm not the best actor around, but I have a good understanding of what method is. I took many notes in class when Lee was lecturing, talking, discussing, teaching, working with monologues, working with scenes, etc. If you have specific questions, please e-mail or post it here and we'll talk about it. But there is so much bad information out there that people have heard or read "somewhere". I like to clear it up whenever I have the chance. I went to NYU, I studied with Lee and many great teachers at the Strasberg Institute. I had many friends study with Stella Adler and Sandy Meisner and HB Studios, etc. So, any method comments, let's discuss it and clear it up.

Strasberg himself said "method is simply a certain way of understanding the ideas of Stanislavski". Period. Lee also said "Good acting is the ability to be private in public".

More later,

John

John
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pdavis69
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Posted: 3/03/08 at 8:57am

Thank goodness we have such an asset as you. I don't know how I ever made it through before this.

Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse

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John Luzaich
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Posted: 3/03/08 at 5:25pm

Best books for reading about method acting are: "A Players Place" by David Garfield ( a story of the actors studio). Garfield was a teacher at the Strasberg Institute and he wrote a great book. another good one is "On Method Acting" by Ed Easty. Also, "Method or Madness" by Robert Lewis. A great book by Uta Hagen is "Respect for Acting". George Henry Lewes wrote "Actors on Acting". After an understanding of the method, then go back to the source, Stanislavski. Great books by Konstantine Stanislavski include: "An Actor Prepares", "Bulding a Character", and "My Life in Art".

John

John
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TonyDi
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Posted: 3/03/08 at 11:00pm

Wait!! I think I know the BEST METHOD there is........THE ONE THAT WORKS!!! And I don't care who wrote it either. Experience....the best teacher. Time, the greatest experience, and failure the greatest equalizer. I say whatever works, well who can argue with it. COMMUNITY THEATER - by the way NOT Broadway. Doesn't mean you can't put out a professional level product but come on - who is going to go to THOSE extremes on the community level when they're not making any money to do it? Some might. And some might be better for it - or not. Depends upon how it's applied always. Further, EVERY ACTOR - I mean EVERY ACTOR I ever met who purported to employ some "method" was about as over-done as you could possibly get....both in acting style AND EGO!! I recall two specifically, who LOVED to "prepare" by publicly exhibiting their so-called "routines" to get ready. THEY WERE LAUGHABLE....and ONLY did it to draw attention to themselves - OBVIOUSLY too, such that EVERYBODY tired of it rather quickly. And they were no better ON stage as the next guy who did his homework, knew his lines, was on time, made the entrances when he was supposed to, did his job onstage and then came offstage, finished the show and went home....all in a day's work.

ALL GOOD BOOKS by the way most of which I've read at one point or the other - but for whom? GREAT to read ABOUT other possible approaches....most of which are dated now and quite frankly far, far more than anyone is going to do on a community level. NOT to say some don't use them....I'm sure they do. But again, all those who I ever knew who did use those sources, were far too full of themselves FIRST then only marginally if even, better than the run-of-the-mill actor who just did his or her job onstage.

Just MY opinion. Again - MY philosophy....is and always has been - whatever works to get the job done to the best of abilities available. No pretense there, no ego, just pure unadulterated hard work and experience with age, time and enough failure to realize what works for me...and some of those whom I've been priveleged to direct over the years.

TonyDi

"Almost famous"

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jayzehr
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Posted: 3/04/08 at 12:55am

Kramer: So my acting technique, my personal acting technique is working with color, imagining color, then finding the emotional vibrational mood connected to the color. See, if you look through my scripts, you'll see that all my lines have a special color, so I don't memorize language, I memorize color. This way I can go through red, yellow, green, blue. And I have a full palette of emotions.

Studio Guard: Hey, didn't I tell you to get out of here?

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B-M-D
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Posted: 3/04/08 at 9:02am

Originally posted by TonyDi

Wait!! I think I know the BEST METHOD there is........THE ONE THAT WORKS!!! And I don't care who wrote it either. ........

......whatever works to get the job done to the best of abilities available. No pretense there, no ego, just pure unadulterated hard work and experience with age, time and enough failure to realize what works for me...and some of those whom I've been priveleged to direct over the years.

TonyDi

Tony baby - verbose as usual but so on the money!

Whatever works for you as an individual and makes 'em laugh, cry and give you a standing ovation at the end (and makes me look like good as a director) is the "method" that works for me.

"Dying is easy, comedy is hard."

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TonyDi
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Posted: 3/04/08 at 10:01am

Ah to heck with whatever works, just cut to the chase, give me the standing O and I'll shut up and go home happy!! Pay me a little once in a while. HAHAHA!!

I'm soooo over all that hard work. Too much investment anymore for little to no return. Comfy watching someone else ply their trade, or hobby, or obsession like I did for far too long. VERBOSE? Yeah I guess so. But then as I ALWAYS disclaim - I just hate leaving anything unsaid so it causes ambiguity. So verbose? Yep, that's me.

Method, schmethod!! If it looks like a duck......well you know the rest.

TonyDi

"Almost famous"

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John Luzaich
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Posted: 3/04/08 at 11:43am

Tony, you were right about a few people that think they're method actors, give the craft a bad name. If an actor is working on some relaxation or some "internal technique", it should be invisible and should be about the work, not showing off. It should be done at home before you get to the theatre and then, while at the theatre, not visible to others.

I think we've all seen some people that want to show off on stage, or back stage, and has nothing to do with method at all.

Anyway, good comments.

Later,

John

John
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max_fischer
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Posted: 4/02/08 at 3:55pm

Well most of this thread seems like some sort of satire, but having said that, actors do often say strange things regarding "method" acting. Utilitarian acting is often the norm most places, but can lead to laziness. I had an actor the other day tell me he didn't want to think about any of his character's history and why he was on stage, because he wasn't into method acting! Which is just another way of saying that he had no idea what his character was doing on stage at any given moment. I usually simplify things with what was your character doing just before they made their entrance, why were they doing this? It makes things more immediate and practical.

max

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pmartin
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Posted: 12/26/08 at 12:46pm

Throughout the ages actors have been searching for a way to become more "real" onstage, bring a maturity to their playing. There was the fight between bombastic acting and commedie del'Arte which were both over taken by naturalistic acting. In the the 20th century the actors of the time knew more about psychology and therefore could explain what they were trying to do to make the acting more real.

As I normally state in regards to acting, all great art has a method behind it's madnesss. There are may ways to hold and swing a hammer, but there is a best way to hammer a nail. Do you want to do it the best way?

What actors need to realize is that the word "act" means "to do". What are actors suppose to be acting or doing? The objectives, a.k.a actions, of the character. To may people think "actions" are activity, and this is not the case. To many actors focus on silly voices, special stances, the unknown history of the character, and getting the laugh. They do this out of ignorance about the craft.

Doing what works, is a cop out. Acting is doing. If actors are not going after objectives, they are not acting.

Is Stanislavski better than Meisner or Stasberg? That's opinion. When directors are working with actors and actors work with directors the communication starts and stops with what the character is doing, and then the actor does it. No one can control emotions but they can control what they do.

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Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Producing Theater :Acting

Topic: Method Acting - Q & A( Topic Closed)
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