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| Inspiration rather than imitation | ||
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The Method arose to resolve an age old issue for the actor – how to become inspired on cue. Actors have to be able to summon inspiration when the curtain rises or when action is called. This can be a hit or miss experience for many actors. If inspiration does not occur, the actor is forced to imitate or indicate the experiences of the character, rather than actually experience them. This can leave the actor feeling unfulfilled and the audience unmoved. The Method is a technique allowing the actor to inspire him or herself at will, in part, by reliving life experiences and channeling them through the character. This produces real experiences on stage, bringing a high level of depth, believability and spontaneity to the work. Acting a role is not just learning lines, stage business, set responses and imitating what you did before - it is creating the inner life of the character, including the character’s ongoing thoughts, sensations, perceptions and emotions. |
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| Training the instrument | ||
| In order to do this, the actor must first master his instrument – ‘himself’. Unlike a painter who has a paint brush, or a violinist who has a violin, an actor only has himself as his instrument. An actor’s instrument is capable of a huge range of emotions, sensations and experiences, and each actor brings his own unique personal make-up; mental, physical and emotional. In order to sensitise the actor and allow him to use what is available within his instrument, we begin by training the senses. We all experience the world through our senses - we see, we hear, we touch, we smell and we taste. When the actor trains and uses these senses in conjunction with his or her own memories, it can have a powerful effect on the actor. The actor then fuses his own personal emotion with that of the character and event he is portraying. This allows acting to go beyond the conventional and effective way to act, and make the work more human, more alive, more exciting, more amused and entertained - not on a light level, but on the utmost level which acting is capable of. |
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History |
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The development of the Method arose from the workings of Konstantin Stanislavsky in the early 1900's, who formulated one of the first concise actors approach to training called 'the System'. Following Stanislavsky's death, Lee Strasberg continued along the same train of thought in his approach to acting, which led to 'The Method'.
Strasberg's aim was to develop the actor's creative expressiveness, in part, by increasing his awareness and concentration both on a physical and emotional level, enabling the actor to 'live through' the moment. |
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