Acting with Adler

Author: Joanna Rotte
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493085123
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Book Description
Stella Adler towers high among the memorable acting teachers in American theatre. Her methods of training, her principles of acting and character interpretation, and her analyses of the seminal plays of the modern theatre comprise a legacy for everyone who followed her. Acting with Adler looks at that legacy through the particular immediacy and authenticity of her own spoken words. Over three years in the 1970s, author Joanna Rotté worked under the direction of Adler as a student and actor, all the while taking copious notes that form the heart of this book. Rotté’s recounting of her time with Adler reveals a teacher speaking about her principles in a tough-minded, demanding manner, inspired by her overriding conviction that an actor “becomes bigger through working.” This new edition of Rotté’s acclaimed text includes an entirely new foreword from Isaac Butler, author of The Method; a preface that places Adler more fully in her historical context; and an afterword that reflects on Adler’s philosophical and practical contributions, considering what her teachings have to offer performers working today.

The Technique of Acting

Author: Stella Adler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781648374418
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In The Technique of Acting Stella Adler imparts knowledge gained over decades on the stage and years of training with such greats as Stanislavski. This book presents invaluable training and technique for anyone aspiring to the stage.

The Art of Acting

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Acting
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Book Description

Stella!

Author: Sheana Ochoa
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1480392561
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Book Description
Arthur Miller decided to become a playwright after seeing her perform with the Group Theater. Marlon Brando attributed his acting to her genius as a teacher. Theater critic Robert Brustein calls her the greatest acting teacher in America. At the turn of the 20th century – by which time acting had hardly evolved since classical Greece – Stella Adler became a child star of the Yiddish stage in New York, where she was being groomed to refine acting craft and eventually help pioneer its modern gold standard: method acting. Stella's emphasis on experiencing a role through the actions in the given circumstances of the work directs actors toward a deep sociological understanding of the imagined characters: their social class, geographic upbringing, biography, which enlarges the actor's creative choices. Always “onstage ” Stella's flamboyant personality disguised a deep sense of not belonging. Her unrealized dream of becoming a movie star chafed against an unflagging commitment to the transformative power of art. From her Depression-era plays with the Group Theatre to freedom fighting during WWII, Stella used her notoriety as a tool for change. For this book, Sheana Ochoa worked alongside Irene Gilbert, Stella's friend of 30 years, who provided Ochoa with a trove of Stella's personal and pedagogical materials, and Ochoa interviewed Stella's entire living family, including her daughter Ellen; her colleagues and friends, from Arthur Miller to Karl Malden; and her students from Robert De Niro to Mark Ruffalo. Unearthing countless unpublished letters and interviews, private audio recordings, Stella's extensive FBI file, class videos and private audio recordings, Ochoa's biography introduces one of the most under recognized, yet most influential luminaries of the 20th century.

Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov

Author: Stella Adler
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307787931
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
In her long-awaited book, the legendary acting teacher Stella Adler gives us her extraordinary insights into the work of Henrik Ibsen ("The creation of the modern theater took a genius like Ibsen. . .Miller and Odets, Inge and O'Neill, Williams and Shaw, swallowed the whole of him"), August Strindberg ("He understood and predicted the forces that would break in our lives"), and Anton Chekhov ("Chekhov doesn't want a play, he wants what happens in life. In life, people don't usually kill each other. They talk"). Through the plays of these masters, Adler discusses the arts of playwriting and script interpretation ("There are two aspects of the theater. One belongs to the author and the other to the actor. The actor thinks it all belongs to the author. . .The curtain goes up and all he knows are the lines. . .It is not enough. . .Script interpretation is your profession"). She looks into aspects of society and class, and into our cultural past, as well as the evolution of the modern spirit ("The actor learns from Ibsen what is modern in the modern theater. There are no villains, no heroes. Ibsen understands, more than anything, there is more than one truth"). Stella Adler--daughter of Jacob Adler, who was universally acknowledged to be the greatest actor of the Yiddish theater, and herself a disciple of Stanislavsky--examines the role of the actor and brings to life the plays from which all modern theater derives: Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, An Enemy of the People, and A Doll's House; Strindberg's Miss Julie and The Father; Chekhov's The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, and Three Sisters ("Masha is the sister who is the mystery. You cannot reach her. You cannot reach the artist. There is no logical way. Keep her in a special pocket of feelings that are complex and different"). Adler discusses the ideas behind these plays and explores the world of the playwrights and the history--both familial and cultural--that informed their work. She illumines not only the dramatic essence of each play but its subtext as well, continually asking questions that deepen one's understanding of the work and of the human spirit. Adler's book, brilliantly edited by Barry Paris, puts her famous lectures into print for the first time.

Stella Adler - The Art of Acting

Author: Howard Kissel
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 147684562X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Book Description
(Applause Books). Stella Adler was one of the 20th Century's greatest figures. She is arguably the most important teacher of acting in American history. Over her long career, both in New York and Hollywood, she offered her vast acting knowledge to generations of actors, including Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. The great voice finally ended in the early Nineties, but her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly caught and encapsulated by Howard Kissel in the twenty-two lessons in this book.

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights

Author: Stella Adler
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0679746994
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Book Description
Stella Adler was one of the most influential acting teachers of all time, a legendary force of nature whose generations of students include Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Anthony Quinn, Diana Ross, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, and Mark Ruffalo. This long-awaited companion to her book on the master European playwrights brings to life America’s most revered playwrights, whom she knew, loved, and worked with. Brilliantly edited by Barry Paris, Adler’s lectures on the giants of twentieth-century theater feature her indispensable insights into such classic plays as “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” “The Skin of Our Teeth,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Come Back, Little Sheba,” “The Glass Menagerie,” and “Death of a Salesman,” while shedding new light on such lesser known gems as Tennessee Williams’s “The Lady of Larkspur Lotion” and Arthur Miller’s “After the Fall.” Illuminating, revelatory, inspiring—this is Stella Adler at her electrifying best.

Creating a Character

Author: Moni Yakim
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9781557831613
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
Actor and mime artist Moni Yakim reveals his time-tested techniques and step-by-step exercises for physically evoking a character. Beginning with a chapter on looking inward, Yakim gives exercises on discovering aspects of one's own character. Then he teaches the actor how to identify with qualities outside the self. Finally, he shows how to apply these techniques to 12 classical theatrical roles.

Stanislavski in Practice

Author: Nick O'Brien
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136945598
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Book Description
Stanislavski in Practice is an unparalleled step-by-step guide to Stanislavski’s System. Author Nick O’Brien makes this cornerstone of acting accessible to teachers and students alike. This is an exercise book for students and a lesson planner for teachers on syllabi from Edexcel, WJEC and AQA to the practice-based requirements of BTEC. Each element of the System is covered practically through studio exercises and jargon-free discussion. Over a decade’s experience of acting and teaching makes O’Brien perfectly placed to advise anyone wanting to understand or apply Stanislavski’s system. Features include: Practical extension work for students to take away from the lesson Notes for teachers on how to use material with different age groups Exam tips for students based on specific syllabi requirements A chapter dedicated to using Stanislavski when rehearsing a text A glossary of terms that students of the System will encounter

Sanford Meisner on Acting

Author: Sanford Meisner
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307830632
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
Sanford Meisner was one of the best known and beloved teachers of acting in the country. This book follows one of his acting classes for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, it is essential reading for beginning and professional actors alike. Throughout these pages Meisner is a delight—always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges. With an introduction by Sydney Pollack, director of Out of Africa and Tootsie, who worked with Meisner for five years. "This book should be read by anyone who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisner's way of teaching, it is the straight goods."—Arthur Miller "If there is a key to good acting, this one is it, above all others. Actors, young and not so young, will find inspiration and excitement in this book."—Gregory Peck