Do you know your Method from your Meisner? Or why Stanislavsky was so influential? Read on for a rundown of the acting techniques every performer should know.
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Before Russian theatre maker and actor Constantin Stanislavsky came along at the beginning of the 20th century, acting focused on outward expression rather than the inner life of a character. But Stanislavsky took a more psychological approach. This involved deep analysis of the script and a character’s motivation, as well as the notion that to create a believable performance, an actor needs to tap into their own feelings and experiences. One of the key tenets is the Magic If. In other words, when approaching a scene or character, an actor should always ask, “What would I do in this situation?” As Stanislavsky’s acting methodology spread to America in the 1920s, it was eagerly adopted by several key figures in the New York theatre world. These disciples would go on to adapt and evolve Stanislavsky’s work, each emphasising different aspects of their master’s philosophy.
Theatre director and actor Lee Strasberg was one such disciple of Stanislavsky. The techniques he developed at the Group Theatre, and later at New York’s famous Actor’s Studio, became known as the Method or method acting. It is this approach that most closely follows the work of Stanislavsky. But where it differs slightly is that there is greater emphasis on the actor’s inner life and on actually becoming that character to perform as them. Strasberg thought that imagination would only take an actor so far and that they should try to experience – as much as possible – the circumstances of their characters; to quite literally walk in their shoes. That’s why Method acting has sometimes been blamed for the extremes actors go to for a role. Daniel Day-Lewis supposedly only wore period clothing throughout the shoot of Gangs of New York (leading him to catch pneumonia), and Christian Bale lost 62 pounds to play the emaciated Trevor Reznik in The Machinist.
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Another Stanislavsky disciple was Sanford Meisner. He famously said, “Acting is the ability to behave absolutely truthfully under the imaginary circumstances.”
Unlike Strasberg, Meisner believed that it wasn’t necessary – or fruitful – to over-intellectualise the acting process or rely on one’s own emotional experiences to build character. Instead, he believed actors could discover their character by being in the moment and acting spontaneously to the circumstances in which they found themselves. For example, if the scene involved a woman confronting a friend who had betrayed her, Meisner believed that the actress could authentically generate feelings of hurt and anger if she imagined herself in that scenario and then acted on instinct. As he said, “Act before you think. Your instincts are more honest than your thoughts.” Meisner also became wary of the potential harm digging into one’s own psyche could bring, saying, “Actors are not guinea pigs to be manipulated, dissected, let alone in a purely negative way.” His approach is also very much about responding to other actors in a scene rather than the more solitary inner work favoured by other acting methods. It contains three main building blocks: emotional preparation, repetition exercises, and improvisation. In repetition, two actors face one another and one makes an observation about the other, like, “Your eyes are brown”. Their partner then repeats the same line back to them, and so it goes on. The idea is that this allows an actor to, as Meisner put it, “get out of their heads” and focus their attention on their fellow actor.
Stella Adler’s famous maxim was “Don’t be boring”. Like Strasberg and Meisner, she was part of New York’s influential collective the Group Theatre and was well-versed in the teachings of Stanislavsky. (She was the only one of the three to travel to Paris to study with the Russian master.) But Adler thought the Method – relying on an actor’s own experiences – was limiting. After all, how many people would have experienced the extreme circumstances often found in a script?
Like Meisner, she considered an actor’s imagination to be a far better tool. But Adler went further than Meisner; she encouraged her students to go out and observe the world, to pay attention to its sounds and textures, so they’d have a richer palette to draw from when constructing their characters. In contrast to the Method, actors go out into the world to observe rather than inhabit their potential characters. Additionally, Adler encouraged actors to enrich their wider knowledge of history, literature, and culture, believing this would help them create more authentic characters. She also emphasised deep script analysis to better understand the character, setting, and writer’s intentions.
Like Strasberg, actor Uta Hagen believed actors should bring their own experiences and emotions to their roles. She evolved this idea into the concept of substitution or transference, in which an actor brings their own experiences to bear on the circumstances of a scene. But Hagen also created a rigorous step-by-step series of practical exercises to help an actor get into character. And unlike the Meisner Technique, which involves working with and responding to other actors, these are all things that an actor can do on their own.
Some of these exercises include:
The Basic Object Exercise
Actors focus intently on all aspects of a familiar, ordinary action, like making breakfast.
The Endowment Exercise
Actors endow an object with a particular, often dangerous, quality. For example, they might imagine that the empty cup in their hand is filled with boiling water or that a rolled towel is a delicate baby. They then pay attention to the feelings that come up when they imagine themselves in this scenario.
Immediacy Exercise
The actor searches for an item they need and, in the process, pays attention to the thoughts that come up. The idea is that this will help the actor tune into the sensations they feel when an outcome is uncertain.
Three Entrances
An actor enters the stage or a set. As they do so, they ask themselves: “What did I just do? What am I going to do? What is the first thing I want?”
The Nine Questions
Hagen also created a series of questions that an actor should ask of their character. They include:
- Who am I? (What are your likes and dislikes, fears, physical traits, etc.)
- What surrounds me? (What’s your environment, including the weather, people, objects, etc.)
- What is in my way? (What is stopping your character from getting what they want?)
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Developed by director and playwright David Mamet and actor William H. Macy in the early 1980s, this technique involves two key stages that might, at first glance, appear to be in conflict. First is the idea of ‘Thinking before you act.’ This involves a deep and rigorous analysis of the script to interrogate a character’s motives and break down the actions that make up the scene. Second is the notion of ‘Act before you think’, which uses the repetition exercises devised by Meisner to get actors to pay closer attention to their stage or scene partners and to act with greater spontaneity. But unlike other techniques, which blur the line between actor and character, in Practical Aesthetics, there is a clear separation.
Viola Spolin is the godmother of improvisation. Born in 1906, she went on to work as a teacher, director, and actress. She founded Chicago’s famous improv enterprise Second City, where greats like Bill Murray, Tina Fey, and Catherine O’Hara honed their comedy chops. Spolin developed a number of improvisation exercises into what she called the Theatre Games System. It’s a methodology that prioritises playfulness and doing rather than thinking. Through it, actors are encouraged to shed any self-consciousness and be in the moment. Many of the system’s exercises have a childlike quality, which is not surprising considering Spolin spent many years working with children. These exercises include talking in gibberish (in which an actor tells a story without using any real words) and mirroring (in which one person copies exactly what the other is doing).
Laban Movement Analysis focuses solely on movement and is most often used by dancers. However, a number of drama schools use this technique in their programmes. It’s an approach that was created by dancer and choreographer Rudolf Laban at the beginning of the 20th century and grew out of his research and observations into movement. LMA offers a way for actors to think about how their characters move. It divides movement into two key elements: body (how movement transfers from one part of the body to the next) and effort (how movement creates sensation or feeling). Laban outlined eight efforts: Dab, Float, Press, Wring, Glide, Punch, Slash, and Flick.
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Named after Jacques Lecoq, who founded the École Internationale de Théâtre in Paris, this technique is rooted in physical theatre, prioritising movement over speech. At the famous Paris school, students learn mime, clowning, and the use of masks, all of which are intended to help performers develop greater awareness of their physical movement. Lecoq’s techniques also emphasise both the importance of working as an ensemble and the relationship between performers and the audience.