Lee Strasberg & The Method

American Method Acting actually started in Russia with Konstantin Stanislavski and the Moscow Art Theater, opened in 1898. Stanislavski wrote about his approach to acting in An Actor Prepares, published in Russia in 1926 and in the United States in 1936. Some of Stanislavski's ideas made their way to America with teachers such as Richard Boleslavsky in the 1920s. Two of the American actors who learned this approach were Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, and in 1931 both were founding members of the Group Theatre, the first ensemble troupe in America and the first theatrical organization to espouse the Stanislavski system, the Americanized version of which is known as "the Method." Under Strasberg and the first Method school for professional actors, the Actors Studio, the Method was established as the preeminent acting style for American actors.

Strasberg has written about his life, his early years in the theater, and the development of the Method

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d what was only external skill. In view of the fact that I remember so little about the plays that I was involved in, it is odd that I remember so clearly certain performances I saw. Strasberg began to notice how some actors would perform brilliantly in some parts of a play and not in others, and he began to ask why it was that this happened. His period of investigation was also a period in which several important theatrical organizations developed, such as the Provincetown Players and the Theatre Guild. Strasberg discovered writings about the theater and pursued this interest more and more. The work of designer Edward Gordon Craig was highly influential on the young Strasberg and opened his eyes to the possibilities of the theater: By opening my eyes to the possibilities of what theatre could and should be, Craig's work planted the motivation for my ultimately becoming a theatre professional. In the 1920s, Luther Adler and Strasberg visited the Moscow Art Theater, and in 1924 Strasberg decided to become a professional actor. He at first joined a conventional theater, the Clare Tree Major School of the Theatre, and there he practiced speech, voice, ballet, and other generally recognized requisites for the actor. When f
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Approximate Word count = 1598
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)