Method acting

Method acting is an acting technique in which actors try to replicate the emotional conditions under which the character operates in real life, in an effort to process an acting role.

Technique

Characterized by lack of any specific or technical approach to acting, it usually forms an antithesis to cliché, unrealistic, and so-called "rubber-stamp" acting.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Depending on the exact version taught by the numerous directors and teachers who claim to propagate the fundamentals of this technique, the process can include various ideologies and practices such as "what if", "substitution" and "emotional memory".

Related Topics:
Substitution - Emotional memory

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sanford Meisner, another Group Theatre pioneer, championed a separate, though closely related, school of Method acting. Meisner broke from Strasberg on the subject of "sense memory" or "emotion memory", one of the basic tenets of Method. Meisner's theory revolves around fully immersing oneself in the moment of a character, and experiencing all sensations as the character would, while his contemporaries used their own experiences as springboards into the emotional life of the character that he or she plays.

Related Topics:
Sanford Meisner - Group Theatre - Tenet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~