The method, p.50
The Method, page 50
119 Even writers like Clyde Fitch Wainscott, “Plays and Playwrights: 1896–1915,” in The Cambridge History of American Theatre, Volume Two: 1870–1945, 275. Clyde Fitch does have his defenders due to the way he married social drama to the shopworn tropes of melodrama. But even Ronald Wainscott, who clearly has some affection for Fitch, concedes that one of the major differences between Fitch’s work and that of, say, Ibsen, is that in a Fitch play “one could count on a happy ending, even if essentially grafted onto the conclusion.”
119 “Our drama has no permanent literary value” Quoted in Atkinson, Broadway: A History, 22.
119 External, presentational techniques like those of François Delsarte Naremore, Acting in the Cinema, 52–53. As Naremore details, Delsarte’s techniques heavily influenced the original curriculum at the Lyceum Theatre School, which soon became the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. The Lyceum was co-founded in 1884 by Delsarte’s American disciple, the actor, writer, and inventor Steele McKaye.
119 a few notable exceptions Watermeier, “Actors and Acting,” in The Cambridge History of American Theatre, Volume Two: 1870–1945, 168.
119 Laurette Taylor, a forerunner of the naturalistic style Atkinson, Broadway: A History, 37.
119 the Little Theatre movement Bigsby and Wilmeth, “Introduction,” 11.
119 In the early 1910s, thirty thousand people Atkinson, Broadway: A History, 133.
119 the Neighborhood Playhouse … the Washington Square Players … the Provincetown Playhouse Ibid.
120 O’Neill won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1920 For a timeline of the Pulitzer Prizes, see pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/218.
120 The Guild was formed in December 1918 Fearnow, “Theatre Groups and Their Playwrights,” in The Cambridge History of American Theatre, Volume Two: 1870–1945, 356.
120 particularly George Bernard Shaw Atkinson, Broadway: A History, 212.
120 The Guild used a subscription model Fearnow, “Theatre Groups and Their Playwrights,” 357.
121 “with this single play … they put in evidence a technical mastery” Corbin, “Moscow Players Open to a Throng,” New York Times January 9, 1923, Amusements Hotels and Restaurants, p. 26.
121 Stanislavski wrote to his wife Senelick, Stanislavsky—A Life in Letters, 409.
121 John Barrymore declared that seeing Benedetti, Stanislavski: His Life and Art, 285.
121 Some of the Little Theatres … offered acting training. Baron, Modern Acting, 113.
121 Jehlinger … even had his own version of the Magic If Ibid., 143.
121 “We would get our Monday part on the Saturday” Gilbert, Stage Reminiscences, 31–32.
122 “would tuck the parts just anywhere” Ibid.
122 By the 1920s, even stock companies had declined Frick, “A Changing Theatre: New York and Beyond,” in The Cambridge History of American Theatre, Volume Two: 1870–1945, 201.
122 40 Clinton Street Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 44.
122 His father, who had been an innkeeper in Poland Ibid.
122 Zalmon who brought Srulke to the Jewish National Radical School Ibid., 49.
122 as the makeup artist for the Verband Ibid., 54.
122 “to improve, beautify, and elevate the cultural conditions” Quoted in Sandrow, Vagabond Stars, 254.
122 “his death did something to me” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 59.
123 “I needed something” Quoted in ibid., 65.
123 Heinrich Ewald, a scholar whose interpretations of biblical stories Ibid., 70.
123 “When I read a script, I became used to seeing the life” Quoted in ibid.
123 Strasberg was so bowled over by the Moscow Art Theatre Ibid., 76.
123 Even the smallest of roles felt like a real person! Ibid.
123 “introduce yourself into the circle of feelings” “Moscow Art Theatre Maxims,” MG 17.23.
123 “the ensemble work … is obviously excellent” A transcript of this debate is available in the Morris Gest papers, MG 17.24.
123 “we are in the dark ages of the theatre” Unsigned, “Modern Theatre in the Dark Ages,” New York Daily News, 23.
124 When Russia invaded Poland in July 1920 Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 87.
124 “Boleslavsky preferred the poverty” Quoted in Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 92.
124 “in America due to some unfortunate enterprise” Stanislavski, Complete Writings, vol. 6, 216.
124 Stanislavski had finally made acting a “systemic science” Boleslavsky, Acting: The First Six Lessons, 27, 74.
CHAPTER 9: THE COMING OF A NEW RELIGION
126 Man cannot live without art! Boleslavsky, “Creative Theatre Lectures,” JWRP JR-18, 1.
126 a collective creation that expresses Ibid., JWRP JR-18, 44. Underlining in the original.
126 “lives his parts” Ibid., 23.
126 “by developing his intellect, his will and his emotions” Ibid.
126 Now, according to Boley, you could use any combination Ibid., 65–66.
127 “one of the most important factors of our art” Ibid., 69.
127 Humans crave and move toward mysteries Ibid., 15–16.
127 “the coming of a new religion” Quoted in Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 108.
127 “get its roots into American soil” Quoted in ibid.
127 “The creation of such laboratories of the theatre” Boleslavsky, “The Laboratory Theatre,” 7, 2.
128 “It happens very rarely” Boleslavsky, “American Lab Theatre Catalogue 1924,” JWRP JR-373.
129 The best of these actors would then form a company Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 116.
129 Boley’s vision Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 114–15. Boleslavsky discussed this idea in an address to the Conference on the Drama in American Universities and Little Theatres in November 1925.
129 “a most unactory sort … he was distinctly withdrawn” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 78.
129 one day a fellow student told him Ibid., 79.
130 “the reverse gypsy in me’ ” Quoted in Beebe, “Stage Asides,” 96.
130 as the tour wound down Ibid., 95.
130 The second year of the MAT’s stay in America Benedetti, Stanislavski: His Life and Art, 291–92.
130 “If they get here and start to perform the earlier productions” Quoted in Smeliansky, “In Search of El Dorado: America in the Fate of the Moscow Art Theatre,” 64.
130 he fired Ouspenskaya Ibid.
130 “be considered political defectors” Quoted in ibid., 66.
130 In January of either 1924 or 1925 In Strasberg’s notebooks from his studies at the ALT, he puts the date of his first class as January 1924. But by the third entry, he dates the notebook 1925. While he likely simply got the first date wrong due to its proximity to the new year, in Cindy Adams’s Strasberg biography, in his own book A Dream of Passion, and in J. W. Roberts’s Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, he’s listed as attending in 1924. If he attended in 1925, that means it was almost a full two years between when he first saw the Moscow Art Theatre and when he enrolled, which seems unlikely. But it also seems unlikely that he would get the date wrong in later entries rather than earlier ones.
130 First, he was told to interact with an imaginary object Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 79.
131 when she studied with Suler at the Adashev School Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 120.
131 Her students suspected that Maria was in love with Richard Ibid.
131 Maria lived with the Boleslavskys Ibid., 121.
131 Ouspenskaya cultivated a severe persona Brault, “Theory and Practice,” 80.
131 wearing a monocle Heilman, “The American Career of Maria Ouspenskaya,” 95. The monocle was an actual necessity, but it added to her fearsome presence.
131 “to be in one of Madame’s classes could be an agonizing emotional experience” Quoted in Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 147.
131 She also drank bathtub gin Ibid., 120.
131 her verbal brutality served a pedagogical purpose Brault, “Theory and Practice,” 80–81.
131 “Make for me friendly atmosphere!” Quoted in Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 147.
132 Little documentation of these classes survives Brault, “Theory and Practice,” 72.
132 “The first thing Mme Ouspensk[aya] asked us was to get up and walk” Strasberg, “Notes,” 1 LSP, Box 49.
132 “Always have a reason/problem … a cause for appearing on the stage” Ibid.
132 “the main points in the system are Concentration and Affective Memory” Ibid.
132 “One deals with dead and imaginary things on the stage” Ibid.
132 They would recall how touching velvet felt Brault, “Theory and Practice,” 73; the grapefruit comes from Strasberg, “Notes,” 5 LSP, Box 49.
132 “see a sailboat, supposedly I was on the sea-shore” Quoted in Brault, “Theory and Practice,” 73.
132 “one minute plays” Ibid., 75.
132 “give them a problem” Ibid., 108.
132 “had to be Indians” Strasberg, “Notes,” 6 LSP, Box 49.
133 “You didn’t feel like crying” Ibid.
133 Later in the semester, they began scene study Brault, “Theory and Practice,” 78.
133 “10 lines of comedy; 10 lines of tragedy” Gresham to J. W. Roberts, JWRP JR-368.
134 “Mr. Boleslavsky, you say, is genius” Quoted in Keyes, unpublished memoir, JWRP JR-368.
134 “the most important and most difficult and precise part” Boleslavsky, Acting: The First Six Lessons, 150.
134 “in art you cannot deal with unreal things” Quoted in Brault, “Theory and Practice,” 132.
134 a step-by-step method for building a catalog Boleslavsky, Acting: The First Six Lessons, 156–63.
135 “golden book” There are a plethora of terms for the mind’s storage vessel for emotional memories, most of which tend to have “gold” in their name. Most commonly it is referred to as some kind of book or box. Boley sometimes used the far more evocative “golden casket of feelings,” but that does not seem to have caught on.
135 “This is very interesting” Strasberg, “Notes,” 10 LSP, Box 49.
135 “What I had gotten was extraordinary … means of understanding” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 81.
135 “born into a Kingdom” Quoted in Ochoa, Stella! Mother of Modern Acting, loc 542.
135 given Jacob’s world-spanning lechery Ibid., 1116.
135 “She’s yours too!” Quoted in Smith, Real Life Drama, loc 503.
135 her father told her to go to the library Ibid.
136 She had two governesses—one German, the other French Ochoa, Stella! Mother of Modern Acting, loc 624.
136 wooed Sergei Prokofiev Ibid., 809.
136 She modeled coats for a dollar an hour Adler, letter to Boleslavsky and Ouspenskaya, JWRP JR-79.
136 looking up “techniques of acting” Adler, “Interview with Ronald Willis,” JWRP JR-372.
136 he asked her if she had seen the production Ibid.
136 “I was astonished at a number of things” Quoted in ibid.
137 Boley offered her a role in The Scarlet Letter Ibid.
137 Lee met a young actor and pianist named Sanford Meisner Smith, Real Life Drama, loc 415.
137 “very short, intense-looking” Clurman, The Fervent Years, 9.
137 he would gain a second obsession in baseball Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 28.
137 “a vehicle of human meaning” Clurman, The Fervent Years, 12.
138 “the arch-rebel of the French theatre” Roche, “Arch-Rebel of French Theatre,” New York Times.
138 “very nice … we did it differently” Quoted in Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 91.
138 “a man terrified by his own fears and insecurities” Ibid.
138 “Who said ‘hello’?” Ibid., 9.
138 “I could get it out of her” Clurman, The Fervent Years, 15.
139 It is unclear whether Strasberg ever attended the class The directing class’s attendance records place Strasberg there, but Clurman claims he never attended. Another student says Lee dipped in and out.
139 Like Strasberg, he found the Lab’s productions lacking Roberts, “Interview with Harold Clurman,” JWRP JR-368, 22.
139 “When you are born” Brault, “Theory and Practice,” 103.
139 “a collection of problems in which you wish and you do” Ibid., 104.
139 It is also likely that from his teaching we get “the beat” Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 169. There is additional discussion of the uses of the term “beat” in Brault, “Theory and Practice,” 114–15. There’s a dispute in the interviews that Roberts conducted as to whether Boleslavsky meant to say “bit”—as in Stanislavski’s small units of action—or “bead,” as in beads on a necklace. What seems most likely was that he was using “bit” to mean what we now call “acting beat” and “bead” to mean what we now call a “story beat.”
139 His body lay in state at the Hebrew Actors Club Smith, Real Life Drama, loc 503.
139 “a note telling your reasons exactly for leaving the Lab” Adler, letter to Boleslavsky, JWRP JR-79.
140 “my home, my playground, my temple” Ibid.
140 Richard earned only $2,600 a year from his job there Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 192.
140 “When Boleslavsky first started it” Quoted in ibid., 219.
141 “one simple thing—that the repertory theatre is the particular product” Boleslavsky, “Reasons for Repertory,” New York Times, 179.
141 In early 1929, he divorced Natasha Roberts, Richard Boleslavsky: His Life and Work in the Theatre, 221.
141 “The prophets of repertory in America” Boleslavsky, “Reasons for Repertory,” New York Times, 179.
141 They wanted a name for their technique that was in a lower key Smith, Real Life Drama, loc 885.
CHAPTER 10: I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS THING!!
142 “We Americans are new” Clurman, All People Are Famous, 66.
142 “not simply as individual talents” Ibid., 54.
143 In 1928, they had briefly had an opportunity Clurman, The Fervent Years, 23–24.
143 Harold was stuck working at the Guild Ibid., 25.
143 Lee was working on its stages as an actor Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio, 84.
143 the duo were joined backstage by their friend and colleague Cheryl Crawford According to Cheryl Crawford’s memoir, the play they were all working on at the time was Lynn Riggs’s Green Grow the Lilacs, which became the musical Oklahoma! Lee played “A Syrian Peddler.” In the eventual musical, the character is named Ali Hakim, and is Persian.
143 her “eccentric, and consequently ‘unreliable’ behavior” Crawford, One Naked Individual, 17.
143 “a sugar daddy” Ibid., 39. Whether the “sugar daddy” was a man we may never know. Crawford’s lesbianism was an open secret, but it was never publicly discussed. Euphemisms for her sexuality abound in writing from the time, including Clurman’s The Fervent Years, in which he calls her “a sturdy girl.” In his pugnacious memoir Original Story By, Arthur Laurents accuses Crawford of “persona murder” because she both “had the appearance and manner of a stereotypical butch lesbian” (326) and should have been a suspected Communist as a member of the Group Theatre, yet no one in the New York theater world ever mentioned either.
143 Theatre Guild Studio Smith, Real Life Drama, loc 623.
143 “admirers rather than makers” Clurman, The Fervent Years, 25.
143 Just look at Alfred Lunt! Ibid., 15.
143 “This isn’t what you want,” he said Quoted in Crawford, One Naked Individual, 51.
144 “It had taken four years” Ibid.
144 “There was something about Clurman’s persuasiveness” Quoted in Ochoa, Stella! Mother of Modern Acting, loc 1334.
144 Clurman began delivering his “extremely magnificent” statements Smith, Real Life Drama, loc 151.
144 even throw a chair or two Ibid., 161.
144 “America has as yet no Theatre” Clurman, Collected Works, 1.
145 “presence of the actor” Ibid.
145 “actors and playwrights … common language” Ibid., 3.
145 “If life was the starting-point” Clurman, The Fervent Years, 34.
