Lee Strasberg's method — “textbook of life”

At one time, Lee Strasberg was shocked by the performance of the great theater actress Eleanor Duse. He noted that Duse does not just play, but lives his role. This is exactly what Strasberg tried to achieve from the actors when he developed his method. To begin with, he urged not to play, but to live, and only then to reliably reveal the created image. He opposed abstractions, spoke about the need to take a specific problem and solve it. The Lee Strasberg method is based on the actor's creation of his own reality, a personal reality in which you can invest your experience and understanding of what truth is. Getting acquainted and mastering the method, a person actually gets to know himself, learns to remove psychological blocks created in childhood, establishes a connection with his emotions and experiences. A significant part of Strasberg's developments is devoted to the removal of clamps and barriers, the ability to relax psychologically. He argued that without mastering the ability to focus and relax, it is impossible to succeed in the acting profession. How successful and effective the method turned out to be can be judged by its adherents — the most brilliant actors in Hollywood. Among them are Marilyn Monroe, Angelina Jolie, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro.

To achieve this goal, Lee Strasberg has developed a number of exercises, and very specific, practical, far from abstractions. For example, he suggested remembering or imagining a particular place, feeling yourself in it, describing everything that you hear, see, smell, experience sensations in the smallest detail, recognize and accept any little thing. This exercise is still recommended for novice actors to work independently in order to develop imagination and emotional memory.

The same goal is for the next exercise, which is called “A cup of coffee”. It is very simple and at the same time complex: it is necessary to recall in the smallest detail the process of the morning “coffee drinking” - all your emotions and feelings from the usual cup of coffee in the morning (cups of tea, shower procedures, etc.). To do this, you need to work deeply and responsibly with your own memory, pull out the smallest details of this “ritual” from it and the feelings associated with it. We emphasize: not to play feelings and emotions, but to remember what really is.

Actors and not only them will be very useful exercise “Relaxation” — “Relaxation”. Its essence is as follows: first you need to sit on an uncomfortable metal chair. Sitting on it, a person should disconnect as much as possible from all external stimuli and feel like a soft blanket or blanket that is about to slip off the chair. And then mentally walk through your entire nervous system to remove all bodily clamps. The purpose of the exercise is to feel the maximum freedom of the body and mind. I would like to warn you right away that it will take from 20 to 40 minutes for high-quality execution. But professional actors who have mastered the exercise well can relieve tension and relax in just 5-10 minutes. It perfectly helps to overcome the fear of performing, shooting, casting.