"Method acting, informally known as The Method, is a range of training and rehearsal techniques, as formulated by a number of different theatre practitioners, that seeks to encourage sincere and expressive performances through identifying with, understanding, and experiencing a character's inner motivation and emotions."
The study and application of various techniques and approaches to acting, including Method, Meisner, Stanislavski, and more, to help direct actors and elicit performances that serve the story.
Actor's Tools: This refers to the actor's body, voice, and mind which they use to bring life to their character.
Stage directions: This refers to the movements of actors on stage, including blocking and positioning.
Character Analysis: This teaches the actor to understand and analyze the character they are playing in order to effectively embody them.
Script Analysis: This is a technique where the director analyzes the script to determine the character's motivations, intentions, and emotions.
Improvisation: This technique explores the actor's creativity and spontaneity by the creation of a scene on the spot.
Vocal Techniques: This teaches actors how to use their voice effectively and expressively, including techniques such as projection, inflection, and modulation.
Movement Techniques: This involves the development of physicality and movement that supports character's expression and interactions.
Objectives and Obstacles: This explores the character's goals, motivations and obstacles they face in the story.
Emotional Memory: This is a technique where the actor uses personal memories or experiences to connect with and portray the emotions of their character.
Subtext: This technique explores unspoken messages and hidden meanings of the script in order to understand the character's true intentions and feelings.
Method Acting: This technique encourages actors to fully immerse themselves in their characters by using their own emotions and experiences to bring authenticity to their performance.
Meisner Technique: This is a technique that involves focusing on the actor's connection to their scene partner in order to create a truthful and spontaneous performance.
Stanislavski Technique: This is a technique where the actor is encouraged to "live truthfully under imaginary circumstances" by understanding the experiences and emotions of their character.
Blocking: It refers to the positioning and movements of actors, as well as the use of props and set pieces in a scene.
Character Development: This involves developing a character's backstory, needs, goals, and principles in order to fully embody them.
Voice and Speech: This refers to vocal techniques, including use of pitch, tone, diction, and enunciation, in order to improve communication and verbal expression.
Scene Analysis: This technique teaches actors to break down a scene in order to understand the character's motivations and objectives.
Ensemble Work: This emphasizes the importance of working as a team in order to create a cohesive and compelling performance.
Movement and Physicalization: This includes the development of physicality in order to support character expression and interaction.
Audition Techniques: This teaches actors to prepare and present themselves effectively during an audition in order to enhance their chances of booking a role.
Stanislavski Method: A system of actor training developed by Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski. It emphasizes the actor's emotional and psychological preparation for a role.
Meisner Technique: A method of acting that emphasizes the actor's emotional preparation by focusing on listening and responding truthfully to their scene partner.
Method Acting: A technique that emphasizes the use of personal experiences and emotions to bring a character to life.
Practical Aesthetics: A technique developed by David Mamet and William H. Macy that emphasizes understanding the mechanics of storytelling and improvisation.
Viewpoints: A technique that emphasizes the actor's awareness of their body and how it moves through space, and how this can be applied to performance.
Suzuki Method: A Japanese acting technique that emphasizes physical training to develop an actor's strength, flexibility, and awareness of their body.
Classical Acting: A technique that emphasizes the study and mastery of classical texts and forms of performance, such as Shakespearean drama.
Commedia dell'arte: A tradition of improvised physical comedy that originated in Italy in the 16th century.
Biomechanics: A technique that emphasizes the actor's physical training and the use of spectacle in performance.
Grotesque Realism: A technique that emphasizes the physical and emotional grotesque in performance, often used in avant-garde and experimental theater.
Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed: A technique that emphasizes audience participation and interaction in order to explore and challenge social and political issues.
Grotowski's Poor Theatre: A technique that emphasizes the actor's physical and vocal training, often stripping away the use of elaborate sets and costumes to focus on the actor's performance.
Michael Chekhov Technique: A technique that emphasizes the use of imagination and physicality to create a character.
Improvisation: A technique that involves creating performance on the spot, without a script or pre-planned story.
Physical Theatre: A technique that emphasizes the actor's physicality and expression, often using dance and movement to tell a story.
"These techniques are built on Stanislavski's system, developed by the Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski."
"...captured in his books An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, and Creating a Role."
"Among those who have contributed to the development of the Method, three teachers are associated with 'having set the standard of its success'..."
"...each emphasizing different aspects of the approach: Lee Strasberg (the psychological aspects)..."
"...Stella Adler (the sociological aspects)..."
"...Sanford Meisner (the behavioral aspects)..."
"The approach was first developed when they worked together at the Group Theatre in New York."
"...and later at the Actors Studio."
"Notable method actors include Marlon Brando, James Dean, Heath Ledger, Joaquin Phoenix, Christian Bale, Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino."
"Lee Strasberg (the psychological aspects)"
"Stella Adler (the sociological aspects)"
"Sanford Meisner (the behavioral aspects)"
"...that seeks to encourage sincere and expressive performances..."
"...through identifying with, understanding, and experiencing a character's inner motivation and emotions."
"Method acting, informally known as The Method..."
"...Konstantin Stanislavski..."
"...An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, and Creating a Role."
"The approach was first developed when they worked together at the Group Theatre in New York..."
"...and later at the Actors Studio."