Acting Colleges

Acting Technique Has Been Around For Many, Many Years

During your quest to become an actor you are going to come across certain acting techniques. These are simply disciplines that help train you to be an actor. They are usually named for the acting instructor that made it famous. Do you have to use one of these techniques to be successful? Not necessarily, but any class you take is bound to have taken something from the techniques listed below.

Meisner Technique

The namesake is Sanford Meisner, a famous acting coach for over 60 years, until his death in 1997. One of the best known exercises of the Meisner Technique is called Repetition, where one person spontaneously makes a comment based on his or her partner. The comment would be repeated back and forth between the two actors in the same manner, until it changed on its own. The object was always to react truthfully, allowing the repetition to change naturally rather than by manipulation.

Famous quote from Meisner: "Acting is the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances."

Method Acting

Method acting usually refers to the teachings of Lee Strasberg. The term is sometimes also applied to the teachings of his colleagues from the Group Theatre, which includes Stella Adler, Robert Lewis, and Sanford Meisner. The method is derived from Stanislavski's system and each of those mentioned above takes a slightly different approach. Among the concepts and techniques of Method acting are substitution, "as if," sense memory, and affective or emotional memory.

Stanislavski's system

The Stanislavski method is an approach to acting developed by Konstantin Stanislavski right before 1900. All the techniques on this page trace their pedigrees to Stanislavsky and his theories. The system is based around an actor being "in the moment" but always staying one step away from complete belief.

Michael Chekhov Technique

The star student of Stanislavski, Chekhov developed the use of the "Psychological Gesture." This is where the actor uses physical action to get a character’s need in the form of an external gesture. His book, On the Technique of Acting, was written back in 1942 but not published in 1991. It's a must read for those interested in acting.

Strasberg

Strasberg was a actor, director and acting teacher. He co-founded the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective". In 1951, he became director of the Actors Studio in New York City, which is considered one of the most famous acting schools in the world. He was the chief proponent of Method acting from the 1920s until his death in 1982.

Strasberg said: "The two areas of discovery that were of primary importance in my work at the Actors Studio and in my private classes where improvisation and affective memory. It is finally by using these techniques that the actor can express the appropriate emotions demanded of the character".

Stella Adler Studio

She founded the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York City in 1949 where she taught acting for over four decades. Adler was the only American actor to be instructed in the art of acting by Stanislavski. She has a difference of opinion with Lee Strasberg over the correct teaching of the Stanislavski System, which Strasberg developed into Method acting. Adler thought that if you studied the text and truly believed in the imaginary circumstances, all the emotions in the script would surface organically.

Improv

Improvisation is the practice of acting and reacting in the moment and in response to the actor's immediate environment and inner feelings. Think of it as an "on the spot" or "off the cuff" spontaneous activity. Some famous improve classes and/or troupes:

The Second City
The Groundlings
Improv Everywhere

Improv is usually, but not always, associated with comedy.


As you can see, many if not all of these acting techniques are intertwined in some from or another. The differences are just the interpretations of each individual teacher. You will find if you study one of these techniques, you will end up with your own interpretation as well.

In the end, that is what being a good actor is all about.