Acting may not be an exact science, but there is a Method to the madness. A large part of choosing an acting school depends on finding the right fit with the technique the school emphasizes, but which technique is right for you? Stanislavsky, Method, Meisner, Strasberg, Adler? No doubt you’ve heard these terms bandied about, but what do they mean? There has been such a proliferation of styles and associated programs that the task of trying to figure out which technique to choose can be daunting. Once you familiarize yourself with the terrain, you’ll find that there are some styles that fit in with your outlook on the craft and others that do not. The key is doing your research and knowing what’s out there for you.
It all began with the Russian theater artist Konstantin Stanislavsky, who revolutionized acting by introducing psychology to the craft. Acting was no longer just about representation, but about making behavior real, turning it into a “believable truth.” He taught that an actor should make use of real-life situations and “emotional memory,” in which past experiences of fear or sorrow are drawn upon to recreate the emotions needed for a scene. Stanislavsky later developed physical methods of accessing emotions, such as repeated actions, to help an actor “become” the role.
The Stanislavsky system formed the bedrock of 20th-century acting technique. It made its way to the United States, where it was further developed into different schools of training. Other luminaries, such as Sanford Meisner and Stella Adler, pushed the ideas in different directions, but still with the intention of arriving at the same goal — truthful behavior. Adler emphasized the importance of imagination and its role in making strong decisions. “Your talent is in your choice,” she often said. Meisner focused on finding the right activities and behavior that had personal meaning to the actor.
And then there’s Viola Spolin, the mid-century improvisational genius who developed a host of games designed to release an actor’s natural creativity and sense of play, thereby opening up new avenues of self-expression.
The list goes on, but you get the idea. Each approach has something different to offer, and the important thing is to discover what works best for you.
No matter which technique you prefer, good, reputable teachers can show you the way. Acting is an art form, and pursuing a life in the performing arts makes you first and foremost an artist. Techniques are created to guide, to give foundations, to inspire to help you grow as an artist. If you’re in a class, everyone is using the same technique. But if you are on the job, no one cares what your technique is, unless it’s getting in the way of doing the work. At the end of the day any technique is about bringing you to be the fullest artist you can be. And since you never stop growing as a person, you should never stop growing as an actor.
The Method and Its Descendents
In 1923, Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya, two Stanislavski protégés, founded the American Laboratory Theater in New York, officially bringing the Stanislavski system to the U.S. It was here that actors Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Harold Clurman learned the system for the first time and realized that it was a breakthrough in the craft.
Clurman and Strasberg teamed up with the producer Cheryl Crawford and founded the Group Theater in 1931. The theater went on to include Stella Adler, Elia Kazan, Robert Louis, Clifford Odets, Paul Strand, Sanford Meisner, Anna Sokolow and many others. It was out of this group that the craft of modern acting in the United States developed by leaps and bounds.
Despite the great theatrical successes of the Group Theater, the organization did not last. With much internal and organizational conflict, the Depression, and World War II on the horizon, the Group Theatre closed in 1941. Yet, Stanislavski’s method was destined to live on in the U.S., and in 1947, a few years after the war was over, four of the original Group Theater alumni—Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Louis and Anna Sokolow—founded the Actor’s Studio. It was four years after it’s founding, in 1951, that Lee Strasberg joined the Studio and became its director. The Actor’s Studio still exists in New York City, with a branch in L.A., and is currently run by Harvey Keitel, Ellen Burstyn and Al Pacino.
Although the Actor’s Studio lives on, its founders continued to refine the Method in their own way. Strasberg, Adler and Meisner developed their own techniques and founded their own schools. Robert Louis became a famed acting coach and teacher. Others came onto the scene filling the holes of the technique, creating where there was need, all with their own backgrounds and insights.
The Lee Strasberg Method
Lee Strasberg’s Method continues in the tradition of the early Stanislavski system that was in place as of 1911, and some of what Strasberg used, Stanislavski himself abandoned later in his career. Stanislavski had the actor ask, “What would I do if I were in this circumstance.” The Strasberg Method has the actor ask, “What would motivate me, the actor, to behave in the way the character does?”
The Meisner Technique
Sanford Meisner broke from Strasberg on the subjects of affective and sense memory. He believed that Strasberg’s use of the actor’s own personal memories in his exercises caused actors to focus too much on themselves, thereby clouding their ability to fully tell the story of the script. Instead, he advocated fully immersing oneself in the moment, concentrating on one’s partner in a scene.
Meisner extended the behavioral strand of Stanislavski’s system that dealt with communication and adaptation, by working to develop an actor’s ability to improvise and to bring the spontaneity of improvisation and personal response to script work. He emphasized a moment-to-moment truthful spontaneity between actors within fictional circumstances. Meisner is quoted saying that he taught actors how to “live truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”
Meisner training is also heavily based on actions, reminding actors to commit to a task and objective rather than focus on the words of dialogue. Consequently, by focusing an actor’s attention on a partner and having him or her commit to an action, the technique forces the actor into what he called “the moment,” while propelling the actor forward with concentrated purpose.
The Stella Adler Technique
In 1934, Stella Adler went to Paris and studied directly with Stanislavski (the only Group Theatre member to do so). By this time, Stanislavski had revised his theories, and now emphasized that the actor should create emotion by imagination rather than memory.
After acting for several years in Hollywood, she eventually returned to New York. Having broken away from Strasberg after her time with Stanislavski, Adler founded her own school in 1949. Where Strasberg used an actor’s personal emotional memories, Adler’s developed techniques that would conjure true emotion through a scene’s given circumstances. She also agreed with Meisner regarding the importance of an actor’s actions, believing in “acting as doing.” She taught that an actor must have a justification for performing each action on a stage or on screen.
Adler was also an advocate of “size.” She believed that actors fell into a rut while trying to be natural and organic on stage. She found that with their goals to be “natural,” they became ordinary, boring and small, spending too much time in their heads. Thus she worked to incite a sense of “epic” in all acting—which is not melodramatic or forced, but created an emphasis on being heard and seen through voice and action.
The Spolin Technique
Deemed “The Mother of Improvisational Theater,” Viola Spolin was the only seminal acting teacher who did not descend from any of the progenitors of the Method. Yet, she took the art of improvisation and the use of acting exercises to a level that the greats of the Method had never done. Stanislavski fully believed, particularly in his later years, while working on his methods of physical actions, that improvisation was one of the only ways to reach the subconscious through the conscious and thus deliver true emotion. In this sense, Spolin delivered beyond others of her generation.
Spolin’s techniques were birthed in Chicago in the 1950s. She created theater games that would aid the actors in focusing on the present moment, and find choices through improvisation as one does in real life. She developed these techniques out of need. When she was directing a piece, she would see a need to get an actor to a certain performance point and thus she would create a theater game that would get them there. Her philosophy was the first of its kind to consider the audience as a player in the theater. The audience played too. Nobody was passive. She later called this work the “Kindergarten of the 21st century,” because it represented the fundamental skills needed for both actors and audience to meet and interact.
The theater games and exercises she developed were designed to fool spontaneity into being, and create a liberating effect, freeing an actor from tension and preconceptions. Her techniques also increased spontaneity, physicality, and a deepened knowledge of the character beyond the body’s sensory equipment, leaning on intuition.
From 1960 to 1965, she worked with her son Paul Sills as workshop director for the Second City theater troupe and continued to teach and develop Theater Games theory and practice. To this day, Second City is one of the foremost troupes for developing comedic talent, and Spolin’s systems are in use throughout the country in many forms from professional theater training programs to self-awareness programs and nonverbal communication studies. Her book, Improvisation for the Theater, is considered the bible of improv.
Everyone is Unique
It’s important to keep in mind that every actor develops his or her process in a different way. All art is interpretation. If acting is your calling, your medium is your own body. You are the instrument by which you render a writer’s and director’s artistic voice.
The good news is that instructors and program directors are on your side; they’re not out to intimidate. They just want to open doors for aspiring actors and allow them to learn and grow. Good instructors will try to get the best out of their students, regardless of style. If a technique doesn’t feel right, you should explore other options. New York benefits from an abundance of acting schools, and there is simply no excuse for staying with an instructor if you believe he or she is not looking out for your best interests.
Upgrade Your Skills
Show Business highlights some of the best theater, drama and
writing programs in New York City and beyond.
Colleges and Universities
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts
New York City Campus
120 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
NYC: 800-463-8990
Los Angeles Campus
1336 N. La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90028
LA: 800-222-2867
www.aada.org
The American Musical and Dramatic Academy
Contact: Mark Brooks
New York City Campus
211 West 61st Street
New York, NY 10023
NYC: 800-367-7908 or 212-787-5300
Los Angeles Campus
6305 Yucca Street
Los Angeles, CA 90028
LA: 866-374-5300 or 323-469-3300
www.amda.edu
American Repertory Theatre
Loeb Drama Center
Harvard University
64 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2668
www.americanrepertorytheater.org
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
1-2 Downside Road
Bristol, UK BS8 2XF
44-117-973-3535
www.oldvic.ac.uk
California Institute of the Arts
24700 McBean Parkway
Valencia, CA 91355-2340
661-255-1050
www.calarts.edu
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama
Carnegie Mellon Office of Admission
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
412-268-2082
www.cmu.edu/cfa/drama
Central School of Speech & Drama
University of London
Eton Avenue
London, UK NW3 3HY
44-207-722-8183
www.cssd.ac.uk
Columbia University
School of the Arts
305 Dodge Hall, Mail Code 1808
2960 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
212-854-2134
wwwapp.cc.columbia.edu/art/app/arts
Five Towns College
305 N. Service Road, Dix Hills,
Long Island, New York 11746-587
631-656-2110
www.ftc.edu
Florida State University
The School of Theatre
Cameron Jackson, director
600 W. College Avenue
Tallahassee, FL 32306
850-644-7257
www.theatre.fsu.edu
Long Island University, C.W. Post
Department of Theatre, Film and Dance
C.W. Post Campus
720 Northern Boulevard
Brookville, NY 11548
516-299-2353
www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/culture/
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Clarendon Road, Wood Green, London N22
020 8881 2201
www.mountview.org.uk/acting.asp
Muhlenberg College
Theatre & Dance
2400 Chew St.
Allentown, PA 18104
484-664-3335
www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/theatre
New School for Drama
University Admissions Office:
151 Bank Street
New York, NY 10014
877-528-3321 or 212-229-5859
www.newschool.edu/drama/
Northern Illinois University
School of Theatre and Dance
Alexander Gelman, director,
DeKalb, IL 60115-2854
815-753-1334
www.niu.edu/theatre
Pace University
The Actors Studio Drama School
1 Pace Plaza
New York, NY 10038
800-874-PACE
www.pace.edu
Paul A. Kaplan Center for Educational Drama
101 West 31st Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10001
212-652-2820
www.sps.cuny.edu/about/paul_kaplan.html
Rutgers University
Mason Gross School of the Arts
33 Livingston Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1959
732-932-9360
www.masongross.rutgers.edu
Sarah Lawrence College
1Mead Way
Bronxville, NY 10708
914-395-2371
www.sarahlawrence.edu/theatre
Skidmore College
Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater
815 North Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-1632
518-580-5431
www.skidmore.edu/academics/theater/
SUNY Buffalo
Department of Theatre and Dance
Alumni Arena, Room 285
College of Arts & Sciences
University at Buffalo, North Campus
Buffalo, NY 14260-5030
716-645-6897
www.theatredance.buffalo.edu/
The Theatre School at DePaul University
Jason Beck, Director of Admissions
2135 N. Kenmore Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
773-325-7999
800-4DEPAUL x57999
theatreschool.depaul.edu
UMASS Department of Theater
Dept. of Theater, Fine Arts Center 112
University of Massachusetts Amherst
151 Presidents Drive
Amherst, MA 01003-9331
413-545-3490
www.umass.edu/theater/graduate.php
University of Maryland, School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies
2810 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-1610
301-405-6676
tdps.umd.edu/
University/Resident Theatre Association
National Office and General Information:
1560 Broadway, Suite 1103
New York, NY 10036
212-221-1130
www.urta.com
University of Rhode Island
Theatre Department
Paula McGlasson, Department Chair
Fine Arts Center
105 Upper College Road, Suite 3
Kingston, RI 02881
401-874-5922
www.uri.edu/theatre
Studios, Schools & Conservatories
ACTeen
Rita Litton: ACTeen Director
35 W. 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
212-391-5915
www.ACTeen.com
The Atlantic Acting School
(Offers accredited program through NYU Tisch School of the Arts)
76 Ninth Avenue, Suite 537
New York, NY 10011
212-691-5919
www.atlanticactingschool.org
Circle in the Square Theatre School
1633 Broadway at 50th Street
New York, NY 10019
212-307-0388
www.circlesquare.org
Collaborative Arts Project 21
18 West 18th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10011
212-807-0202
www.cap21.org
Gotham Writers’ Workshop
555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1402
New York, NY 10018
212-974-8377
www.WritingClasses.com
Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute
115 East 15th Street
New York, NY 10003
212-533-5500
www.strasberg.com
Singers Forum
49 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10010
212-366-0541
www.singersforum.org
The Stella Adler Studio of Acting
(Offers accredited program through
NYU Tisch School of the Arts)
31 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001
212-689-0087 or 800-270-6775
www.stellaadler.com
The Ted Bardy Studio
153 West 27th Street, Suite #301
New York, NY 10001
212-725-7575
www.tedbardy.com
Tribeca Performing Arts Center
199 Chambers Street #S110c
New York, NY 10007
212-220-1459
www.tribecapac.org
Weist-Barron
35 West 45th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10036
212-840-7025
www.weistbarron.com
William Esper Studio
208 West 37th Street
New York, NY 10018
212-904-1350
www.esperstudio.com
