Analyzing Different Acting Styles of the Great Acting Teachers

Throughout the past semester, we in Acting 2 have studied the different techniques and methods of acting adopted by the great teachers. From Stanislavsky to Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg to Michael Chekov, we have learned the many different views of what makes a good actor. While outside class we read about these techniques and took notes on their specifics, in class, we participated in workshops in order to get a true understanding of their ideals. This way, we could actually see which seemed to work for us and which did not. Different styles seemed to work for different people, on a purely individual basis. Through these studies and experiments, we were able to understand the differences in the techniques and the pros and cons of each.

The first acting teacher we studied was Stanislavsky. Stanislavsky was of the belief that everything an actor needs to know can be found in the script itself. According to this method, a character is found through analysis of the text. Actions and objectives are key; much of the analysis one does of a script should be identifying the character’s intentions. In any given scene, a character has at least two objectives; the first is the immediate objective. This represents what the character is attempting to accomplish or achieve in that very moment. The second is the super objective, or what the character is trying to achieve in the play as a whole. For example, in her first scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character of Lady Macbeth has the immediate intention of convincing her husband to kill the king, while her super objective is to gain power and control at any cost. Stanislavsky also stresses understanding the tactics used and obstacles faced by a character. Every character, lik...

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...on I had found during that exercise as part of my character in my scene for Hedda Gabler.

There are many different views of how to become a good actor. The six great teachers of acting we studied throughout Acting 2, from Stanislavsky to Chekov, all had largely varying methods. Each individual takes away different aspects from each method, all depending on his or her own natural style of acting. For me personally, I hope to incorporate a combination of many of the different methods in my future acting endeavors, including the script analysis and use of action words from Stanislavsky, the use of repetition to get real reactions from Meisner, the incorporation of human nature from Hagen and the qualities of movement from Chekov. Therefore, although I did not agree with every method we studied, I have found many new techniques to enhance and improve my acting.