Actor Studio

The Amazing Innovation of the Actor Studio

The actors studio: it has been utilized by many brilliant actors, directors, and even writers. It got its start many years ago and is still very well known today. It was started a good many years ago with hopes for many actors within its walls. This was a place of learning for many actors and is perhaps, one of the greatest for learning method acting.

The actors studio was founded in 1947 by three aspiring actors with a love for theatre and the method acting of Constantin Stanislavski. To truly understand the essence of the actors studio, we must first understand the greatness of Stanislavski. Stanislavski was a young boy when he began acting in his home of Russia. He wanted to be a great actor and discovered something about acting that had not really been utilized before. That to be a great actor, you could not act, to be an actor you had to live the role truthfully, actually believe in it or it would never really be considered great or believable. He designed his methods of acting around this and eventually taught a good many people about them. He is one of the greats we think of when we think about the methods of acting. This is what the actor studio was based upon when it was formed so many years ago.

Not long after it was formed, a man by the name of Lee Straus berg joined, and by 1951, he led the actors studio. Straus berg had his own method of teaching that he based on that of Stanislavski’s rule of living truthfully in the role. He also had his own take, that to live truthfully in the role, you could use your emotion jar. This concept is that all emotions should be kept in this metaphorical emotion jar, and be recalled when they are needed for a particular emotion too be found in a role. For example, if a role was presented where the actor must cry, then the actor could think of something that happened to him or her in their past that made them upset and that would help them be able to cry. Straus berg also felt that any tension in the body was energy that was not being utilized for a performance and that being relaxed would maximize energy for the role. Straus berg led the actors studio with his take on the Stanislavski method, and created a new version entirely his own. Straus berg stayed in the actor studio, leading it until 1982, when he died.

The actors studio is still alive today and it is home to many members that consist of actors, directors and playwrights in New York City. Here, actors have some freedom from a normal show. They are able to work on and expand their abilities and develop skills in an environment where they are allowed to take risks in their performances without any pressure against them. They feel free to relax and create characters as they see them.

The actor studio may have been started a long time ago, but the principles of it will still be recognized for used to come. Stanislavski's teachings and methods are still used, as a matter of fact; his method is the most widely used method. Thanks to the actors studio, who based the founding on his work as an actor, may other actors have had great opportunities to be trained in this great method, as well as that of Lee Straus berg. The lives of many actors have been enriched thanks to the actors studio.