I am a former drama teacher turned educational theatre consultant. A VHS copy of the original PBS showing was an essential part of my advanced theatre courses, and my students found it riveting and so inspirational. I have tried for 15 years to find this program on DVD or in PBS archives in order to share it with the students and teachers I work with--to no avail. I am so grateful it has been posted. I had to immediately click to Shelley Winters' speech and watch it. I'm sitting here with a giant smile on my face and tears in my eyes. I can't wait to share this piece of history with other actors and directors.
Lee was a monster. Look how he treats the actress at 23:00. I've seen teachers like that and Lee was the epitome. In fact, many of the actors that became famous after "studying" with Strasberg at the Actors Studio had _already_ studied with Sanford Meisner at Neighborhood Playhouse. Meisner could be irritable and impatient but never treated actors like Strasberg.
Academy Award winning actress and Actors Studio member Lee Grant has said many times in interviews that she didn't feel comfortable with Strasberg's more regimented approach, that it was like he was up on a pedestal and you had to treat him as a god who you had to depend on. She said Meisner on the other hand (who was her first and most influential acting teacher) wanted his actors to always be searching and trying new things, and that he always encouraged them to fly. So many of the Meisner trained actors have the greatest things to say about him.
The things Strasberg says in this documentary are mostly trivial, too--they remind me of Ian McKellen's comedy sketch where he gives a course on film acting and just describes the basic job of an actor.
I had the good fortune of studying with Sanford Meisner and not only did he teach an acting techinique but also life techiniques that I continue to use to this day. I will never forget one day when a few of us sat with him after class and he told us the story of how Strasberg was asked in an interview how it felt to be a genius.. and Strasberg paused to think about it .. . Some of us got it.
All the great and moving acting in film, television and theater all has its roots and is thanks to the Group Theater. I only wish more people knew of the enormous contribution of the Group Theater and their profound contribution and impact on the craft of acting. Thank you for posting this magnificent documentary.
There are no words to express my gratitude! Along with many others online, I've been looking for this documentary for years. Thank you. 🙏🏼It’s an illuminating documentary about our theatre history; it complements the Adler and Clurman films in this series so well. And what a pleasure to get a few more magical glimpses of Stella!!!Best wishes! ★♥★♥★♥★
Just read Joan Kramer's and David Heeley's account of this (they were the filmmakers) in their book IN THE COMPANY OF LEGENDS. Fascinating. I wish somebody would upload their documentary on Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman that they made for 20/20.
The question re the Classics is interesting too - with Odets and then shortly Arthur Miller, there will soon be American classics to do in the theatre!
At 19 minutes into this documentary, you come to the point where Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler diverge, and very profoundly so, but, a thing going unrecognized, until some time into the future. The separation being where: Strasberg, and his "Method" asks the actor to go back, in time, and immerse himself into some older memory, in order to recall, drum up, its situation, its surroundings, its depth or lack of, its sounds and colors, finally, exactly, itself and its feeling, again...Stella would call that wrong. She anticipated it would lead to a certain sickness, in the actor...as he or she tries to duplicate a past association with an older, once real, now by-gone, feeling...but more importantly, within the acting, and finally, in the theatre, itself. I never studied the Strasberg-ian "method", but I have seen, witnessed, its results, its consequences, in people who have studied this type of technique. Stella was right. You witness performances lacking in the purity of imagination, replaced by a "thing" that Robert Lewis said, in this documentary, that Lee Strasberg condemned as wrong, abhorred, and said was born of the old fashioned Broadway-style of acting, as "indicating". You, the actor, aim for a feeling, instead of a "doing"...the latter being the one essential ingredient in truthful acting. Also being the foundation of the Stanislavsky "system" of acting. By aiming for, reproducing merely an old feeling, through what Strasberg entitles "sense memory", the actor puts himself inside the corral of that sense memory, which tries to lead him to a feeling. And, by this one, overbearing process, curtails any entrance into the newer, real-er world of the more creative imagination...by replacing it with a duplication of an old sense of the "truth". The faker feeling, rather than the real truth, the objective. Yes, this is a long analysis, to a short theme. Stella insisted the modern American theatre has replaced the mind with the feelings. See her own UTube videos and documentary of her biography. There is no mind in the American, possibly all, theatre, now and, perhaps, into the future. The mind and thinking, for Stella, was, is, the gateway to the feelings. Without that pathway, to lead you to your higher feelings, you are stuck on the lowest levels of our animal natures...those that take you round and round, but lead you nowhere significant. Yes, I know. Having studied, and been an intimate friend of, this greatest of all persons in the modern theatre.
Brando touts Stella Adler and pretty much rejects Strasberg’s approach. I recommend the recentish book ‘The Method’ - it’s fascinating and detailed about the beginnings of the group, Stanislavsky, the Moscow Theatre. It doesn’t do as well on the recent dudes (DeNiro, Pacino, etc.) but it covers the origins really well.
What do you mean self-importance? These are the greatest American theatre artists of the twentieth century. They were and continue to be important today.
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I am a former drama teacher turned educational theatre consultant. A VHS copy of the original PBS showing was an essential part of my advanced theatre courses, and my students found it riveting and so inspirational. I have tried for 15 years to find this program on DVD or in PBS archives in order to share it with the students and teachers I work with--to no avail. I am so grateful it has been posted. I had to immediately click to Shelley Winters' speech and watch it. I'm sitting here with a giant smile on my face and tears in my eyes. I can't wait to share this piece of history with other actors and directors.
It truly is a wonderful documentary! Be sure to also watch the Harold Clurman and Stella Adler docs we also posted.
The speech at the end? With the Shaw quote?
Lee was a monster. Look how he treats the actress at 23:00. I've seen teachers like that and Lee was the epitome. In fact, many of the actors that became famous after "studying" with Strasberg at the Actors Studio had _already_ studied with Sanford Meisner at Neighborhood Playhouse. Meisner could be irritable and impatient but never treated actors like Strasberg.
Monster?
You are from the snowflake generation, clearly.
Academy Award winning actress and Actors Studio member Lee Grant has said many times in interviews that she didn't feel comfortable with Strasberg's more regimented approach, that it was like he was up on a pedestal and you had to treat him as a god who you had to depend on. She said Meisner on the other hand (who was her first and most influential acting teacher) wanted his actors to always be searching and trying new things, and that he always encouraged them to fly. So many of the Meisner trained actors have the greatest things to say about him.
That clip reminded me of the football coach who yells at the athletes to motivate them.
The things Strasberg says in this documentary are mostly trivial, too--they remind me of Ian McKellen's comedy sketch where he gives a course on film acting and just describes the basic job of an actor.
I had the good fortune of studying with Sanford Meisner and not only did he teach an acting techinique but also life techiniques that I continue to use to this day. I will never forget one day when a few of us sat with him after class and he told us the story of how Strasberg was asked in an interview how it felt to be a genius.. and Strasberg paused to think about it .. . Some of us got it.
This program won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Special.
Morris Carnovsky's reading of Awake and Sing brought tears to my eyes.
Amazing! I'm so grateful for this group! The group only lasted for ten years, but this group legacy lives on well past those years!
All the great and moving acting in film, television and theater all has its roots and is thanks to the Group Theater. I only wish more people knew of the enormous contribution of the Group Theater and their profound contribution and impact on the craft of acting. Thank you for posting this magnificent documentary.
Brando even delivers his ‘I’m Marlon Brando’ line with full Brandoisms.
Brilliant!! Wish I was born in that era and was member of that great group. They were all so devoted and driven to create, create something great.
There are no words to express my gratitude! Along with many others online, I've been looking for this documentary for years. Thank you. 🙏🏼It’s an illuminating documentary about our theatre history; it complements the Adler and Clurman films in this series so well. And what a pleasure to get a few more magical glimpses of Stella!!!Best wishes! ★♥★♥★♥★
Jonathan, I have also!! So excited to find this!!!
thank you for posting this. I'm fascinated by the Group.
Just read Joan Kramer's and David Heeley's account of this (they were the filmmakers) in their book IN THE COMPANY OF LEGENDS. Fascinating. I wish somebody would upload their documentary on Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman that they made for 20/20.
56:56 ... The dream was reality... and reality is the dream.
Thank you so much for posting this.
Love all the information. Thank you for sharing.
The question re the Classics is interesting too - with Odets and then shortly Arthur Miller, there will soon be American classics to do in the theatre!
At 19 minutes into this documentary, you come to the point where Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler diverge, and very profoundly so, but, a thing going unrecognized, until some time into the future. The separation being where: Strasberg, and his "Method" asks the actor to go back, in time, and immerse himself into some older memory, in order to recall, drum up, its situation, its surroundings, its depth or lack of, its sounds and colors, finally, exactly, itself and its feeling, again...Stella would call that wrong. She anticipated it would lead to a certain sickness, in the actor...as he or she tries to duplicate a past association with an older, once real, now by-gone, feeling...but more importantly, within the acting, and finally, in the theatre, itself. I never studied the Strasberg-ian "method", but I have seen, witnessed, its results, its consequences, in people who have studied this type of technique. Stella was right. You witness performances lacking in the purity of imagination, replaced by a "thing" that Robert Lewis said, in this documentary, that Lee Strasberg condemned as wrong, abhorred, and said was born of the old fashioned Broadway-style of acting, as "indicating". You, the actor, aim for a feeling, instead of a "doing"...the latter being the one essential ingredient in truthful acting. Also being the foundation of the Stanislavsky "system" of acting. By aiming for, reproducing merely an old feeling, through what Strasberg entitles "sense memory", the actor puts himself inside the corral of that sense memory, which tries to lead him to a feeling. And, by this one, overbearing process, curtails any entrance into the newer, real-er world of the more creative imagination...by replacing it with a duplication of an old sense of the "truth". The faker feeling, rather than the real truth, the objective.
Yes, this is a long analysis, to a short theme. Stella insisted the modern American theatre has replaced the mind with the feelings. See her own UTube videos and documentary of her biography. There is no mind in the American, possibly all, theatre, now and, perhaps, into the future. The mind and thinking, for Stella, was, is, the gateway to the feelings. Without that pathway, to lead you to your higher feelings, you are stuck on the lowest levels of our animal natures...those that take you round and round, but lead you nowhere significant. Yes, I know. Having studied, and been an intimate friend of, this greatest of all persons in the modern theatre.
This is an excellent analysis of the flaw in Strasberg's "Method".
How do you account for all the great actors who had nothing to do with Strasberg or Adler?
How about Richard Boloslovsky!
Haven’t got to hear about him yet? …..?
Brando touts Stella Adler and pretty much rejects Strasberg’s approach.
I recommend the recentish book ‘The Method’ - it’s fascinating and detailed about the beginnings of the group, Stanislavsky, the Moscow Theatre. It doesn’t do as well on the recent dudes (DeNiro, Pacino, etc.) but it covers the origins really well.
The self-importance of this group rankles when one considers the amount of fine, legendary acting that went on outside the group.
What do you mean self-importance? These are the greatest American theatre artists of the twentieth century. They were and continue to be important today.
GOLD!!!
👌👍👏
I would love to be able to study online with people from this school. Via Skype or something similar.