• Coach: James Fowler
• Category: Acting Class
• Actors: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced

Acting Techniques – Stella Adler

Best Acting Classes Los Angeles

Acting is Doing

The actor must always do something on stage. He looks for actions in the script (for example, “to teach, to confess, to beg”, etc.) and finds the human conflict in them. He must have a justification for each action (know exactly why he is performing each action).

 Developing the imagination

An actor develops his imagination by first observing the world around him in very specific details. He can then create specific images in his mind in order to surround himself with things that are true to him on stage. If he succeeds, the audience will see through his eyes.

Training the mind

Actors must have a real understanding of the play in order to reveal its secrets to the audience. They must study the text and its ideas but also research the social situations of the play.

 

Size

Actors need strong bodies and voices for the stage so they can bring size to their actions. Adler encouraged actors never to be small. Her students learned to always bring a bigger meaning to the text. Below is a short video where she discusses this “sense of epic” the actor must have.

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