Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located in the Old Labor Stage at 432 West 44th Street in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Founded in 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis. Anna Sokolow taught movement for actors, but the Studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method acting. This approach was originally developed by the Group Theatre in the 1930s based on the innovations of Constantin Stanislavski. promotes a naturalistic style; more commonly called in the U.S. "the Method".
The Studio came to worldwide recognition under the leadership of controversial and celebrated Lee Strasberg, who took over the helm in 1951. Its members have included such greats as Marlon Brando, Robert de Niro, Norman Mailer, Eli Wallach, Sidney Poitier, Edward Albee, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean.
While at the Studio, actors work together to develop their skills in an experimental environment, where they can take risks as performers without the pressure of commercial roles. The above founders created a place for professional actors where they could continue their development and to experiment with new forms of theatre. membership is selective and done by audition; once accepted actors are lifelong members and do not pay fees. unlike SAG
History
In 1967, the west coast branch of The Actors Studio was opened; exists in City of West Hollywood
Constantin Stanislavski
declared war on conventional 19th century theatre Moscow Art Theatre
Lee Strasberg
Refined the acting principles of Stavlinski to create what is more commonly referred to as "the method" style of acting where actors draw on their own experiences to tap into emotional reserves in portraying characters.draw on sense memory to recreate emotions on stage or screen.
Method Acting Procedures
New School collaboration
From September 1994 through May 2005, the Studio collaborated with The New School in the education of masters-level theater students at the Actors Studio Drama School (ASDS). In 2005, New School President Bob Kerrey chose not to renew a contract with the Actors Studio, ending the collaboration and causing much controversy.
collaboration ends
New collaboration
Since fall 2006, the Actors Studio has offered a three-year MFA degree program through Pace University. [1]
TV program
The television program Inside the Actors Studio airs on the cable television network Bravo. It is hosted by James Lipton, Dean Emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School, and provides in-depth interviews with actors, directors, writers, and other artists, some of whom are members of the Studio. The program was taped in front of the students of ASDS, and served as a class seminar for them, until the school's dissolution. Beginning with the twelfth season, in the fall of 2005, Inside the Actors Studio is taped at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University's New York City campus.
Famous alumni
Over its long history, many famous and successful actors, directors and playwrights have come out of the Studio, including:
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Legacy
Fame, fortune, and celebrity, from my perspective, are the wrong reasons for choosing acting as a way of life. Real actors are artists first. They make their choices based on living acting as a way of life, not as a career. For most, it's a struggle of monumental proportions for which there will be no reward. That fact does not concern the real actor, who has no choice but to continue to find ways to illuminate the life of the human spirit through art, because it must be done. Harry Governick Artistic Director TheatrGROUP, Inc.
[2] [3] We want to work toward making it that kind of place again, a place of refuge from the commercial world," said Estelle Parsons, the artistic director.
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Adams, Cindy Heller. 1980. Lee Strasberg, The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. ISBN 0385124961
- Frome, Shelly. 2001. The Actors Studio: A History. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN 0786410736
- Garfield, David. 1980. A Player's Place: The Story of the Actors Studio. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0025426508
- Hirsch, Foster. 1984. A Method to Their Madness: The History of the Actors Studio. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0393017834
External links
- The official web site of The Actors Studio.
- The Actors Studio
- A Method to Their Madness
- The Cambridge History of American Theatre
- Stanislavsky in Focus
- PBS American Masters Series profile. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- Inside the Actors Studio.
- The Actors Studio MFA Program at Pace University.
- Stars to make Method work at Actors' Studio
- THE METHOD, STILL DISPUTED BUT NOW UBIQUITOUS
- Noises Off at the Venerable Actors Studio
- Actors Studio to Teach Program at New School
- New School, in Split With Actors Studio, to Create Own Program
- Gussow, Mel. 1997. Once-Exclusive Actors Studio Reaches Out to the Public Query.nytimes.com.
- Audio collection of the Actors Studio from 1956-1969 at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
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