Method Acting Reconsidered Theory, Practice, Future

by Krasner, David

• ISBN13: 9780312223090
• ISBN10: 0312223099
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-09
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Method Acting is one of the most popular and controversial approaches to acting in the United States. It has not only shaped important schools of acting, but has been a fundamental constant of all American acting. This insightful volume explores Method Acting from a broad perspective, focusing on a point of equilibrium between the principles of the Method and its relationship to other theories of performance. David Krasner has gathered together some of the most well-known theater scholars and acting teachers to look at the Method. By concentrating on three areas of the Method--its theory, practice, and future application--the collection will serve to inform and teach us how to approach acting and acting theory in the 21st century.

Author Biography

David Krasner is Director of Undergraduate Theater Studies at Yale University. His previous book, Resistance, Parody, and Double Coinsciousness in African American Theater, 1895-1910 received the 1998 Errol Hill Award from the American Society for Theater Research.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Abbreviations	viii
Introduction
I Hate Strasberg: Method Bashing in the Academy	3	(40)
David Krasner
I. THEORY
Salvaging Strasberg at the Fin de Siecle	43	(18)
Marc Gordon
The Reality of Doing: Real Speech Acts in the Theatre	61	(20)
David Z. Saltz
Acting and Answerability	81	(16)
Marla Carlson
Just Be Yourself: Derrida, Difference, and the Meisner Technique	97	(14)
Louise M. Stinespring
Reconciling the Past and the Present: Feminist Perspectives on the Method in the Classroom and on the Stage	111	(16)
Elizabeth C. Stroppel
II. PRACTICE
Mining My Own Business: Paths between Text and Self	127	(8)
Deb Margolin
Standards and Practices	135	(12)
Doug Moston
Redefining Acting: The Implications of the Meisner Method	147	(12)
Brant L. Pope
Significant Action: A Unifying Approach to the Art of Acting	159	(10)
Jean Dobie Giebel
Burdens of Representation: The Method and the Audience	169	(10)
David Wiles
Practicing the Paradox: Addressing the Creative State	179	(10)
Peter Lobdell
The Heart as Center: Entering the Body and the Creative State	189	(12)
James Luse
III. FUTURE
The Method and the Computational Theory of the Mind	201	(18)
Rhonda Blair
Random Acts: The Method and Nonrealistic Theatre	219	(10)
Paul S. Kassel
Emotion Training and the Mind/Body Connection: Alba Emoting and the Method	229	(16)
Pamela D. Chabora
Method(ical) Hybridity: Stanislavsky Meets Suzuki: An Interview with Steve Pearson and Robyn Hunt	245	(16)
Terry Donovan Smith
The Paradox of the Method Actor: Rethinking the Stanislavsky Legacy	261	(24)
Dennis C. Beck
IV. METHOD SCHOOLS
The Actors Studio	285	(6)
Doug Moston
The Neighborhood Playhouse	291	(6)
C. C. Courtney
The Stella Adler Conservatory	297	(6)
Mark Hammer
Contributors	303	(4)
Index	307