Lee Strasberg was an **** actor, director, and acting teacher. He is considered as the “Father of method acting in America”. He trained several generations of theatre and cinema’* most illustrious talents. He gained reputation with the Theatre Guild of New York and helped form the Group Theatre in New York in 1931. There he created a technique which was known as “the method” or “method acting”. His teaching style owed much to the Russian Director, Stanislavsky, whose book ‘An Actor Prepares’ dealt with the psychology of interpretation in acting.
His teaching philosophy includes improvisation and effective memory. By using these techniques, the actor can express the appropriate emotions demanded of the character. Strasberg expected great discipline as well as great depth of psychological insight from actors. He felt that In life, the stimuli to which we respond are always real. The actor must constantly respond to stimuli that are imaginary, and yet this must happen not only just as it happens in life, but actually more fully and more expressively. Although the actor can do things in life quite easily, when he/she has to do the same thing on stage under fictitious conditions, he/she has difficulty because he is not equipped as a human being merely to act at imitating life. He/she must somehow be able to convince himself/herself of the right aspect of what he is doing in order to do things fully on stage. Strasberg said that an actor, when preparing for a role, should delve not only into the character’ life in the play, but also, more importantly, into the character’ life before the curtain rises. In rehearsal, the character’ prehistory, perhaps going back to childhood, is discussed and even acted out. The play becomes the climax of the character’ existence. In 1947, Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford, who are also members of the Group Theatre, started the Dark Actors Studio as a non-profit workshop for professional and aspiring actors to concentrate on their craft away from the pressures of the commercial theatre. Strasberg assumed leadership of the Studio in 1951 as its artistic director. As a teacher and acting theorist, he revolutionized the **** actor.
Stella Adler was an **** actor and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City (1949) and the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles (1985) She grew up acting alongside her parents, often playing roles of boys and . Her work schedule allowed little time for schooling, but when possible, she studied at public schools and New York University. She made her London debut, at the age of 18, as Naomi in the play Elisa Ben Avia with her father’ company, in which she appeared for a year before returning to New York. According to Adler, “The ultimate aim of the training is to create an actor who can be responsible for his artistic development and achievement.” She made her English language debut on Broadway in 1922, as the Butterfly in the play ‘The World We Live In’and also spent a season in the vaudeville circuit. In 1922-1923, the renowned Russian actor-director Konstantin Stanislavsky made his only US tour with his Moscow Art Theatre. Adler and many others saw these performances; this had a powerful and lasting impact on her career, as well as the 20thcentury **** Theatre. Adler joined the **** Laboratory Theatre in 1925; there, she was introduced to Stanislavsky’ theories. In 1934, Adler went to Paris with Harold Clurman and studied intensively with Stanislavsky for five weeks. During this ****, she learnt that Stanislavsky had revised his theories, emphasizing that the actor should create by imagination rather than memory. Upon her return, she broke away from Strasberg on the fundamental aspects of Method Acting. Stella Adler Studio was established in 1941.She also taught at the new school, and the Yale School of Drama, for many years. Adler led the undergraduate drama department at New York University, and became one of America’ leading acting teachers. Stella Adler was much more than a teacher. Through her work, she imparted the most valuable kind of information – how to discover the nature of the actor’ emotional mechanics and therefore those of others. In her words,"My ability to bring out the student' talent is somewhere deep inside me, and I must do whatever I need to pull it out."
