There’s only five names you need to know
Three concepts
And at the end of the day…
One choice you need to make
Let me explain
1800’s
A young Italian actress named Eleonora Duse.
Regarded as the first modern actor
Because she actually blushed on stage!
She prioritised her truth over demonstrating her characters emotions
(which was the norm at that time)
One day
A Russian man in the crowd saw her
His name was Stanislavsky
He was so inspired that he created an entire system - known as “the system” - which sole purpose was to technically be able to produce truthful work on stage repeatedly
Stanislavsky then taught multiple American teachers who they selves taught more teachers who would change the landscape of modern day acting forever
The three most important
Stella Adler - who focussed on imagination
Lee Strasberg - who focussed on emotional memory
Sanford Meisner - who rejected emotional memory and imagination and focussed instead on finding truth in present responses to your partner
Basically every else’s work over the last 100 years is an off shoot of those three core philosophy’s
Truth coming from imagination
Truth coming from emotional memory
Truth coming from the person opposite you
Now if any one of those teachers heard an actor say
“I’m an Adler actor, I’m a Strasberg (method) actor or I’m a Meisner actor”
They would rolled over in their fucking graves
There is only one choice you have to make:
Do you want your acting to be believable or not?
Convincing or not convincing?
Then use your imagination, or emotional memory, or be present with your scene partner or do a combination of whatever you like - no one fucking cares!
You don’t get work because of you use a particular technique over another
If it helps you contribute more generous art to society - great!
If it doesn’t, try something else! Experiment!
Point is
Stop reading acting books
Make the choice to be convincing
Then use whatever works for you
Hope that helps
X