Unit 11 dissertation

What are the similarities between the Stanislavski System and Lee Strasberg's method and how are they effective and useful in Acting.

I have decided to base my dissertation on effective acting techniques and the use of Stanislavski. As an aspiring actor , learning about these techniques in depth and researching them will help me develop as a performer. I am also interested as these techniques are used by many actors and have helped them become the practitioners they are today. I have used a number of sources for research including secondary sources such as YouTube , a range of websites and books. I've also used primary sources including personal experimentation and interviews . I hope to find out what makes these methods so useful and beneficial for the actor.

As we know there have been many techniques that have helped acting to evolve as a craft including The Stanislavski System, Method acting , Stella Adler Method and Ivana Chubbuck, I have chosen to focus on The Stanislavski technique and the Acting Method. The Stanislavski method was created by Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863-1938) , who was a Russian Actor and Director. His principles of directing and his theories were influential in the late 19th Century and are widely used today.Stanislavki began training as much as he could and also took singing and dance classes. He enrolled at a drama school from the age of twenty-one but didn't stay long as he felt as he was only being taught how to imitate rather than act.(Benedetti, 1990)From 1884 , he officially was known as his stage name Stanislavsky . In 1887 , he further developed his training by attending a semi professional company where he had the opportunity to work with directors who had been trained in the Realistic School of Acting, he was told to start from scratch in developing his character and to forget about clichés and false theatrical tricks and told to base his acting on observation of real life. At the same time ,Stanislavski used this opportunity to develop his skills as an director. By 1897, he had opened the Moscow Theatre,owning his own professional companies alongside Vladimir Nemiro-Danchenko; as he was a theatrical practitioner he made very careful notes and evaluated his work in depth .He then went on to write major texts on the art of performance called; My Life in Art , An Actor Prepares,Building a Character and Creating a Role.(Biography, 2018)

The Stanislavski method is a technique used by actors to portray emotion by exploring and placing themselves in the role of the Character. This technique was developed in the early 1900s and is still used actors of today to create realistic and believable emotions and actions to help portray the character they've been given. With the Stanislavsky method you have to be able to answer the five following questions ;Who am I?, Where am I ?, When is It?,What do I want? Why do I want it ?. Through this exercise you explore your character in depth rather than just reading about it(Ltd, 2018).This was developed tocreate a more realistic character on stage. It was a good way to receive an natural reaction from the audience. He also wanted his students to observe other with main attention to physicality. Another reason why this technique was used was to look deeper into the reason why your characters does particular things , For example, with a text direction such as ;“she falls gently to her knees with tears falling down her cheeks”, the Stanislavski method allows you to question and look deeper into why this has happened rather than just doing it, this way your able to portray the character in a more realistic manner. This is known as motivation.(thoughtco.2018). I have used Stanislavsky technique when playing the role of Liz in Chicago. This method really allowed me to create more of a purpose for my character and helped me to use real life events and emotions I felt at the time to help portray my character's; using this technique gave me more of an understanding of my character. For example Liz lives with her husband who doesn't pay her any attention , doing nothing but drinking beer and chewing gum. I used my own similar experience as a young child when I never got much attention from my older brother as all he would do is play video games . This built lots of emotions in me such as frustration, loneliness and want which I then in bedded that into my characters presence on stage. I also used these techniques when exploring the character of “Grizabella The Glamour Cat” from the musical CATS . He story is sentimental and a lot of emotion is built up through her song “Memory”. I used my own experience of a sad time that I had come across in my life. I used that emotion to understand more of how my character was feeling.

Method Acting was influenced by Stanislavski and developed by Lee Strasberg. The Actor , Director and Teacher was born in 1901 and died in 1982. His technique was very similar to Stanislavsky's, with Strasberg's Method consisting of actors striving for a realistic performance by using their emotional memories as a way to explore character and create emotion. He taught his method to many A-List actors and actresses including Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier  in the show “The Prince and The Showgirl” in 1957.

For example , the star Actors Laurence Olivier ,Marilyn Monroe and Dustan Hoffman approached to their roles using method; with Olivier being an director as well as actor himself trained many other Actor’s himself using this method , For example the difference between Marilyn’s use of Method and Olivier’s classical training was the Olivier only wanted her to “hit her marks and get her lines out a written”, whereas for Olivier 1976’s Marathon Man in which he starred the opposite of  Dustin Hoffman, “The young actor showed up on set exhausted and dishevelled one morning” “ Olivier asked why Hoffman said he stayed up all night as a preparation to play a character who is meant to me exhausted and dishevelled” “ Try acting , dear boy”  Olivier responded “It’s much easier”(Handy,2019)

Strasberg took his Method further than Stanislavsky, and it requires actors to go beyond emotional memory and use a technique called substitution.

Substitution is understanding elements in your character's life and comparing them to element in your own life. Method acting was looked at as being potentially rather very extreme as some actors would do whatever they could get similar experiences to those which the character had been through

Although this is a temporary situation it can lay the actor open to longer term effects if they put themselves into traumatic circumstances just to relate realistically to their character.

One actor who has used method acting principles is Daniel Day Lewis. In an interview he talks about Method Acting and the strategies he used when taking on the character of Abraham Lincoln He mentions “ I and my colleagues go to extra lengths to create a world for ourselves and the lives were expressing” He mentioned “it was crazy jumping in and out of the character” and how “it was interesting how the character had gone through what they did” .(Youtube,2018) Another Actor that used method was Heath Ledger who played the Joker in The Dark Night. He mentioned that“ I made an commitment to the role seriously” and “I had a very long time to obsess about it and think about what I really was going do to figure it out. I isolated myself , writing and collaging images to help me get inside my characters head” also mentioned “ I sat around in a hotel room in London for months , locking myself away, forming an diary and experimented with voices”. From this interview also demonstrates the deep effect Method Acting had on him. He mentioned “I had to take medication to help my restlessness and to help me sleep at night. Reviews of him playing the role state that overall people loved the way he took on the role of the joker that his “presence on screen makes you horribly nervous” and that he is “pure powerful and immense” (Long et al., 2018). Another Actor that used Method was Marlon Brando in On The Water Front' He mentioned “ I try to note the he picture I was in”(Youtube ,2018) Viewers also mentioned “what was extraordinary about his performance, I feel, is the contrast of the tough-guy front and the extreme delicacy and gentle cast of his behaviour” and that “It would have been the high point of another kind of film, but against Brando's more sinuous acting, it feels like a set piece”(Ebert,2018)

In conclusion I feel like both Methods are effective and that they both have their advantages. However, I feel that is if the Stanislavski is more of a safer way to explore your character in depth and create realism, rather than putting yourself in danger to feel an exact emotion. Method Acting can also affect your health and can potentially cause long term damage. As for the film, Apocalypse Now, that nearly killed the two Actors Francis Copella and Martin Sheen. Marlon Brando an Actor in the film put on huge amount of weight and only asked to be filmed from a particular angle, he hadn’t bothered to learn his lines and depended on his reputation to get him through. Martin sheen had been under an enormous amount of stress not eating properly , smoking and drinking too much. (The Vintage News, 2019) With all this being said it makes you realise how stressful and serious Method acting was when done to the extreme like in the Films mentioned above.

 There are many similarities between both of the Methods, as both require you to do more than just “act “, and that is important. These two Methods are useful because not only do they help you develop your character, they enable you to become more believable to the audience which can provoke emotion and better the performance.