Howard Kissel

Stella Adler

preface by Marlon Brando compiled and edited by Howard Kissel (Applause Acting Series)

Stella Adler - The Art of Acting

Drawing on an archive of notebooks, transcriptions, and audiotapes, the lessons and insights Stella Adler brought to the craft of acting are presented.

The Art of Acting

A disciple of Konstantin Stanislavski and a member of the Group Theatre in the 1930s, the noted actress and teacher offers advice on acting preparations, the demands of characterization, and dramatic exercises, as well as personal memories

The Technique of Acting

Barry Paris

Legendary acting teacher Stella Adler gives her insights on the dramatic work of Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and Anton Chekhov--the three fathers of modern drama--and their influence on the modern theater. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov

Por el Stella Adler Studio of Acting, fundado en 1949 y con sedes en Nueva York y Los Ángeles, han pasado actores y actrices de la talla de Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Melanie Griffith, Benicio del Toro y Mark Ruffalo. Su fundadora, Stella Adler, criada en la tradición del teatro yidis del Lower East Side de Manhattan, aplicaba un método propio, basado en los principios de Stanislavski pero con diferencias notables: en su versión del célebre «método», insistía sobre todo en el conocimiento y la conciencia de uno mismo. Para ella, el talento, el esfuerzo, así como la autoestima —«un actor no triunfa si en su interior no siente, toda la vida, que es Dios»—, son los pilares de una buena interpretación. Sus clases fueron reproducidas y reunidas en el año 1988 por Howard Kissel con la ayuda de Glenn Young, ambos importantes críticos teatrales, basándose en grabaciones, en notas tomadas por sus alumnos y en conferencias y entrevistas. El arte de actuar, pues, constituye un valioso compendio de sus enseñanzas, basadas en la atención, el reconocimiento y una actitud abierta al mundo. Para Stella Adler, actuar es hacer, y para ello los actores y las actrices deben estar predispuestos a creer, como niños, que todo es verdad.

El arte de actuar

In her long-awaited book, the legendary acting teacher Stella Adler gives us her extraordinary insights into the work of Henrik Ibsen ("The creation of the modern theater took a genius like Ibsen. . .Miller and Odets, Inge and O'Neill, Williams and Shaw, swallowed the whole of him"), August Strindberg ("He understood and predicted the forces that would break in our lives"), and Anton Chekhov ("Chekhov doesn't want a play, he wants what happens in life. In life, people don't usually kill each other. They talk"). Through the plays of these masters, Adler discusses the arts of playwriting and script interpretation ("There are two aspects of the theater. One belongs to the author and the other to the actor. The actor thinks it all belongs to the author. . .The curtain goes up and all he knows are the lines. . .It is not enough. . .Script interpretation is your profession"). She looks into aspects of society and class, and into our cultural past, as well as the evolution of the modern spirit ("The actor learns from Ibsen what is modern in the modern theater. There are no villains, no heroes. Ibsen understands, more than anything, there is more than one truth"). Stella Adler--daughter of Jacob Adler, who was universally acknowledged to be the greatest actor of the Yiddish theater, and herself a disciple of Stanislavsky--examines the role of the actor and brings to life the plays from which all modern theater derives: Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, An Enemy of the People, and A Doll's House; Strindberg's Miss Julie and The Father; Chekhov's The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, and Three Sisters ("Masha is the sister who is the mystery. You cannot reach her. You cannot reach the artist. There is no logical way. Keep her in a special pocket of feelings that are complex and different"). Adler discusses the ideas behind these plays and explores the world of the playwrights and the history--both familial and cultural--that informed their work. She illumines not only the dramatic essence of each play but its subtext as well, continually asking questions that deepen one's understanding of the work and of the human spirit. Adler's book, brilliantly edited by Barry Paris, puts her famous lectures into print for the first time.

(Applause Books). Stella Adler was one of the 20th Century's greatest figures. She is arguably the most important teacher of acting in American history. Over her long career, both in New York and Hollywood, she offered her vast acting knowledge to generations of actors, including Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. The great voice finally ended in the early Nineties, but her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly caught and encapsulated by Howard Kissel in the twenty-two lessons in this book.

Stella Adler

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