THE ACTORS' STUDIO'S GROUNDBREAKING APPROACH

Meisner, Strasberg and Stanislavski all agreed on three things: that the immediate reality of honest communication between two actors from moment to moment is the key foundation of truth and realism; that good performances should be vividly alive with real emotion; and that audiences are only truly transported by truthfully motivated actions. These modern greats all agreed that false externalisation ("indicating") of emotion and obvious theatricalism are archaic, inferior and tend to leave the present day audience cold and unmoved. What these men argued and disagreed upon was the process via which such vividly alive performances can be best achieved.

Stanislavski was the pioneer, the father of modern actor training in the sense that he identified the key elements of truth that need to be present in a good performance. Meisner and Strasberg took Stanislavski's work and advanced it, creating more effective and explicit 'how to' approaches for achieving those results. The systems of both Meisner and Strasberg each have their merits and their flaws. Meisner's technique is unique, original and very practical. His step-by-step system of repetition exercises grounds the actor in the immediate moment on stage and focuses their attention outwardly on the other actor. His hypothesis that imagination is more potent than memory is very often proven to be true.

Strasberg's system relies heavily on sense memory and affective (emotion) memory. These tools are a useful addition to the actor's toolbox, though probably aren't a practical foundation of an overall approach to acting. (Their application in the moment on stage can be troublesome and tends to draw the actor's attention away from the immediate truth of their exchange with the other actor). The more valuable part of Strasberg's teachings lies in his approach to character work. His animal exercises are very useful in creating physical characterisation and his vigilance in emphasising a detailed approach to character study is unsurpassed.

At The Actors Studio in Sydney we have pioneered a unique approach which encompasses the best elements of all of these systems. We believe that these techniques are not mutually exclusive, but rather, that they are best utilised in combination as part of an overall approach to teaching actors to work from a place of truth. A broad variety of tools should be practiced and mastered by the actor in training. Choosing which tool to apply to which performance situation is then up to the artistry of the individual performer. Why limit oneself to only using sense memory and affective memory when in some situations imagination may be far more effective and evocative? Why limit oneself solely to working from imagination when a particular scene may resonate so strongly with an experience in the actor's own life, that an affective memory exercise may be much more potent?

And so our approach has evolved, a new master process which encompasses and expands upon the teachings of the three greats Meisner, Strasberg and Stanislavski. Our unique system also adds some techniques of their contemporaries including Ivana Chubbuck, Hayes Gordon, Eric Morris and dare I say it, even the great heretic of the modern theatre, David Mammet (though we don't subscribe to his broader theories on acting!). As Mammet himself says "deny nothing". Any mechanism by which an actor is able to achieve a desired result in a given situation should be considered an integral part of his toolbox. The life of the actor is one of constantly being presented with new and different creative challenges to solve, therefore his repertoire of tools should be vast and varied enabling him to be prepared for any acting problem.