The Actors Studio

by Frome, Shelly

• ISBN13: 9780786423200
• ISBN10: 078642320X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-30
• Publisher: McFarland Publishing

Summary

Over the years there has been much controversy and confusion about the true nature of The Actors Studio, a secluded workshop in New York City that for decades has had a marked influence on the stage and screen and yet functions like a secret society behind closed doors. It all began when Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theater brought its brand of "realism" to the United States in 1923. The legendary Group Theater of the 1930s followed. Then came the creation of a studio workshop incorporating the provocative acting and directing techniques of Elia Kazan, and the emergence of Lee Strasberg as Studio head following Kazan's departure. Strasberg's background and the encounters between him and the actors he guided are presented in detail. The lives and careers of early icons like Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean are examined. Also covered are a progressive trans-Atlantic view of the subject, the Studio's short-lived efforts to form a world-class production company in the 1960s, and a later set of transitions leading to an altered image of the Studio and a change of venue for the 21st century. Such luminaries as these (and many more) have been associated with the Actors Studio: Edward Albee, Lauren Bacall, Glenn Close, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall, Danny Glover, Julie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper, Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Mike Nichols, Al Pacino, Julia Roberts, Eva Marie Saint, Neil Simon, Steven Spielberg, Sylvester Stallone, Rod Steiger, Meryl Streep, Eli Wallach, and Tennessee Williams.

Author Biography

Shelly Frome is a Professor of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	viii
Prologue	1	(8)
Beginnings	9	(11)
The Group Emerges	20	(10)
Days of Glory and Beyond	30	(13)
Garfield and Kazan: Variations on a Theme	43	(19)
The Actors Studio: Phase One	62	(10)
The Enigma of Clift and Brando	72	(20)
Inside Strasberg's Studio	92	(16)
The Case of James Dean	108	(13)
``Marilyn'' and Julie Harris: Celebrity, Instability and Art	121	(18)
Testing the Waters	139	(9)
The Studio Theater Chronicles	148	(13)
World Theater and the U.K.: A Closer Look	161	(11)
Shifting Gears	172	(13)
Reinventing the Past	185	(13)
Epilogue	198	(5)
Notes	203	(6)
Bibliography	209	(6)
Index	215