Lee Strasburg Contribution to Actor Training and Neutralism - Assignment Example

Running Head: Lee Strasburg Lee Strasburg Contribution to actor training and neutralism Introduction Lee Strasberg was an American director, actor and acting teacher. Strasberg has been considered as the ‘Father of method acting in America’ because he used the theories and concepts of some early writers and blended it with the modern psychology theories and came up with his own method of acting (Adams and Cindy, 1980). He is among the founders of ‘The Group Theatre’ that was established in 1931 and has been regarded as first true American theatre collective. The collective was created with the aims of providing a base of all kind of theatres. In 1924, Strasberg joined Clare Tree Theatre where he learnt about speech practice, ballets and other requisites for the actor (Barton, 2008). He along with his colleagues Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford pioneered the American acting techniques and significantly contributed towards the actor training and played vital role in promoting the naturalistic acting style on stage and screen (Cole, 1995). He developed and explained the naturalistic style of acting and teach the actors to create neutralism in their acting style be relating the roles to their personal life experiences and emotions. The use of this technique added depth to the performance of the actors and they become able to give enhanced performance at theatre and movies (Sharon M. 1999). The following essay aims to discuss the contributions of Lee Strasberg to the training of the actors and his role in the development and promotion of the naturalistic style of acting. Strasberg Lee’s contributions to actor training Strasberg was also an actor, director besides being a teacher of acting but the major proportion of his career journey was spent in developing and teaching different acting techniques (Barton, 2008). In the beginning of his career, Strasberg was interested in direction however soon he realized his passion for training the actors and then his complete attention was concentrated towards the training of the actors. In the ‘Group Theatre’ he taught several valuable acting techniques to the actors that later became successful and popular stars of the American theatre and film industry (Foster et al, 1989). In the Group Theatre he created the technique called The Method or Method Acting. Later he joined the non profit ‘Actor Studio’ in New York City in 1951 that was regarded as the most prestigious acting school of the country at that time (Sharon M. 1999). Later in 1969, Strasberg created his own acting academy entitled Lee Strasberg theatre and Film Institute. He established the institute in New York City and Hollywood where he worked to teach different styles and techniques of acting that he pioneered. His institute provided training to several generations of actors of films and theatres and worked to polish their talent through proper guidance and mentoring (Cole, 1995). Strasberg has drawn significant impact upon the performance of theatre and movies in America because he revolutionised the art of acting by teaching actor several new and enhanced style and techniques of acting. He keenly observed the acting practice of the actors to identify the weak areas where improvement is required. Based upon his observations and readings he worked out the weak areas and developed the acting styles to bring improvement in the acting styles of the actors (Adams and Cindy, 1980). There are numerous popular actors of American movies and theatres that received acting training from Strasberg and following his techniques and styles allowed them becoming popular and successful actors of the country. Some of the prominent actors trained by Strasberg include Marlon Brando, James Dean, Robert De Niro and Anne Bancroft. He also provided training to the directors like Elia Kazan who directed the academy awards nominated movie East of Eden in 1955 (Cole, 1995). Strasberg has been regarded as leading acting teacher in America that gave many skilled actors to the industry. He is also known as the guru of method acting in America. The students of Strasberg institute widely agreed that his training helped them a lot in pursuing their careers in the fields of acting, writing and directing. His students believe that his institute was the greatest school of theatres for the actors, writers and directors that teach them the methods of acting and significantly supported their works and professional careers (Foster et al, 1989). His teaching was based upon his philosophy of acting. He spotlights two major areas that need to be focused while teaching the techniques of acting. These areas include improvisation and affective memory (Sharon M. 1999). The use of these two techniques allows an actor to adequately express the appropriate emotions and expressions demanded by the character. Strasberg believes that acting required great discipline as well as depth of psychological truthfulness because these elements allow an actor to perform a certain character in appropriate manner (Adams and Cindy, 1980). Strasberg used to give his students several valuable and important tips for impressive and near to reality acting. He explains that performing the role of a character means that the actor is supposed to absorb all the elements and features of that character by having complete information about its past and present (Sharon M. 1999). He gives his students lesson that the actor should have deep insight to the life of the character he is going to play and at the same time, he should also well understand the background and history of the character because only this understanding could allow an actor to truly express the emotions and feelings of that character (Scharfenberg, 1963) Strasberg contribution towards the development of naturalistic style of acting Neutralism is the style of acting that strives to create perfect illusion of reality be employing wide array of dramatic and theatrics techniques (Counsell, 1996). Strasberg has been regarded among the major developers of the naturalistic style of acting because he presented the acting techniques based upon the idea of blending the personal experience of the actors with the expressions and role they are going to perform (Barton, 2008). He developed the idea of naturalistic style of acting from the work of Stanislavski of Russia along with the understanding of the modern theories of psychology and acting. He basically picked the idea of method acting from the writing of Stanislavski of Russia who wrote An Actor Prepares in 1926 and proposed different techniques and styles of acting. Based on his ideas, Strasberg created the first theatrical organization and developed the school for the professional actors to teach them about method acting (Foster et al, 1989). Strasberg was a keen observer that ultimately allowed him finding the reasons behind the variation of the acting standards of the actors in different scenes and plays. He noticed that some actors brilliantly acted in some parts of the play but in some other parts they failed to perform the same level of acting. He investigated the reasons behind this difference in the acting quality of the same actor and unveiled that the actors must know about the appropriate method and style of acting to comply with the demands of certain character (Counsell, 1996). In his view, the use of the method acting could work for maintaining the same level of acting quality of the actor in different scenes because the proper understanding of the character allows the actors to mould their selves into that particular character and observe its feelings and emotions that ultimately allows the actor to perform his role deeply and impressively. Contrary to the earlier style of acting, he didn’t insist that the actor should feel the role by going deep inside it but he proposed the idea that the actor should take the role to his private life so that he could feel the real essence of certain emotions and experiences that he could reflect in his acting and ultimately the performance could become enhanced and real (Adams and Cindy, 1980). Strasberg gained knowledge about the acting styles and techniques by gathering information about acting from maximum possible resources available at that time. He discovered various writing about theatre and acting and grasped valuable information from these writings to pursue his interest in the field. He read different writing about theatre and came to know that there were wide array of possibilities in theatre but it is important for the associated people to understand that what actually theatre could and should be. He got motivation from the work of Designer Edward Gordon Craig and decided to become theatre professional to transmit the acquired knowledge to other people and generations (Sharon M. 1999). . He discovered the role of memory in keeping consistency in the acting. He found that memory is the most important and essential element that allows understanding the entire process of acting. If the actor has emotional memory be could be able to repeat the same performance in different acts of the play otherwise the same actor would perform differently in different acts of the same play (Foster et al, 1989). He taught the actors in details about the emotional memory that according to him is the key element behind acting. He explains that the emotional memory consists of elements including relaxation, concentration, sense memory and affective memory. Relaxation is the basic factor in the emotional memory because it eliminated the tension after which the actor becomes able to concentrate on the character while preventing the extraneous thoughts they could produce muscle tension (Barton, 2008). The sense memory allows the actor to remember as well as relieve the sensations that the actor has experienced through his five senses and the affective memory allows linking the personal experience related with the emotional desires. Along with emotional memory improvisation is another major element that helps the actors in solving the problems related with the listening, concentrating and inhibition (Barton, 2008). Strasberg developed the acting method based on the belief that the actor must know about the body language, memory and concept of reality to be trained for acting. He developed different exercises for the students of acting that he teach them in class and let them experience the process of relaxation and recalling the emotions. He explains that while recalling the emotions it is imperative that the actor must also recall all the sensations and circumstances that were generated with that emotion in the first place. It allows the actor to sense the reality of the emotions and ultimately he become able to perfectly act certain character and emotion (Counsell, 1996). Strasberg is the major contributor towards the naturalistic style of acting because he believes that the actor must learn to create perfect illusion of reality through practicing range of dramatic and theatrical strategies. Strasberg explains the neutralism style of acting and proposed that psychologically motivating the performance in the personal terms rather simply the textual terms makes the difference in the level of the acting standard. He advocated the naturalistic approach towards acting and teaches the acting students that they must take elements from the text and characters and then project them in to their personal lives so that they could be able to reproduce the same emotions and expressions that ultimately lead towards the naturalistic acting style (Cole, 1995). He insisted upon personalizing the imaginative activity of the actor because it assured great realism. He believes that what an actor think real at a particular moment affects his acting so the make believe thinking help actor playing the role more perfectly as it adds reality to the performance of the actor. Strasberg stresses upon the point that the actor is required to include the concrete objects of the personal level so that he could react to them rather just including the make-believe objects in the play (Adams and Cindy, 1980). When the actor is directed to believe something for a moment it does not add depth to his acting but when he becomes able to react to the object or experiences of his personal life he becomes able to deeply observe and recreate the emotions and expressions of the character and role he is performing. The actor is not only required to remember the emotion in abstract way but he should also define precisely the intensity of the emotions and the feelings associated with his experience (Sharon M. 1999). He developed the naturalistic style of acting by presenting the thought that recalling thinking sometime that is real generated realistic performance and for becoming successful the actor must be able to invoke the realism of the objects in his emotional expressions. He teaches to blend the role and personal experience to follow the style of neutralism. He compels the actors to go beyond the written lives and their verbal meanings and insist them using their sense to feel and express the emotions because in this way they would become able to add realism to the acting (Barton, 2008). Strasberg had great interest in the psychology of dramatic interpretations. He combined the theories of Stanislavsky and some modern psychologist and presented the concept of neutralist style of acting that view the private personality of the actor as a raw material that has to be sued for the creating of the performance. The personality of the actor and his past experiences play major role in determining the level of his acting and the capability of the actor to relate the character and role with his personal life decides how well the actor could be able to perform that particular role (Sharon M. 1999). His deep interest, observation, readings and thinking allow him coming up with the ideas about the development of the acting method that benefited generations of actors by adding depth and reality to their performance. It could be said that the high level performances of many of the Hollywood actors are based upon the teaching of Strasberg that taught them how to bring neutralism and reality in their performance (Scharfenberg, 1963). The entire discussion could be sum up with the conclusion that Lee Strasberg truly deserves to be called as the pioneer of method acting because he explains certain new and effective methods of acting and his teaching allows the actors to become highly successful in their careers. He has significantly contributed towards the training of the actors in America and many enhancements and refinements in the acting of the Hollywood actors could be seen as the outcome of his concentrated and dedicate training and techniques. In sum, it could be said that Strasberg has played very important role for the American theatre and film industry because his invented acting techniques have allows the actors to perform better at stage and movies and in the end the entire industry of America is benefited from his work, teaching and techniques. References Adams and Cindy H. (1980), Lee Strasberg, the imperfect genius of the Actors Studio, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Barton, R (2008), Acting: Onstage and Off, London: Cengage Learning Cole, T. (1995), acting: a handbook of the Stanislavski method, California: Crown Trade Paperbacks Counsell, C. (1996), Signs of Performance: An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Theatre. London and New York: Routledge Foster, Arnold W., and Blau, Judith R. (1989) Art and Society: Readings in the Sociology of the Arts, State University of New York Press Sharon M. C. (1999), Lee Strasbergs Paradox of the Actor," in Screen Acting, New York: Routledge Scharfenberg, J (1963), Lee Strasberg: teacher, the University of Wisconsin - Madison Read More