

The goal is to get very specific (shades of colors, texture, etc.) but to communicate what the object looks like in a direct simple way that speaks to your audience. So expect to do a lot of research, script analysis and paraphrasing of the play to make it your own. She also believed that an actor must completely understand the text of the play to be able to communicate it onstage without faking. Stella Adler believed that an actor’s most important tool is his mind. For example, if you are working on the ‘Where am I?’ in a scene, you will work out in your mind every minor detail of what surrounds you. If you study her acting techniques, you will spend a lot of time creating specific images for the circumstances of the play. Below is a short video where she discusses this “sense of epic” the actor must have.Īdler expected her students to prepare for every single activity and action they were going to have on stage. Her students learned to always bring a bigger meaning to the text. Adler encouraged actors never to be small. They must study the text and its ideas but also research the social situations of the play.Īctors need strong bodies and voices for the stage so they can bring size to their actions. Actors must have a real understanding of the play in order to reveal its secrets to the audience.If he succeeds, the audience will see through his eyes. He can then create specific images in his mind in order to surround himself with things that are true to him on stage.

He must have a justification for each action (know exactly why he is performing each action).Īn actor develops his imagination by first observing the world around him in very specific details. He looks for actions in the script (for example, “to teach, to confess, to beg”, etc.) and finds the human conflict in them. The actor must always do something on stage. Here are the main points of this approach to acting:

5 5) Famous Actors who studied the Stella Adler Acting Technique.3 3) Sample Stella Adler Acting Exercises.1 1) What is the Stella Adler acting method?.
