Stella Adler's method: “your talent is in your choice!”

Stella Adler is known as the only American actress who studied with the great Stanislavsky. Initially, she was close in her views with Lee Strasberg, whose system we talked about quite recently. But later rejected his method. She had questions about the correctness of searching for similar emotions and feelings in her own experience to create the right image. According to Adler herself, if this is acting, then she does not want to participate in it. A key turning point in her career was the meeting with K. S. Stanislavsky, who by that time had come to the conclusion that imagination, and not emotion at all, is the driving force of acting. Rethinking the experience of the great director and her own, Stella Adler comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to create her own acting school. And the school appeared — in 1949, in New York.

The basis of Stella Adler's method, as it can already be understood, is imagination. And its necessity for the successful creation of an image requires the actor to constantly grow as a person, self-improvement and self-education, learning new things. According to Adler, an actor must constantly grow above himself, set new goals and achieve them. For personal growth, it is vital: knowledge of nature (including human), art (in the broad sense of the word, not limited only to theatrical), history. Stella Adler considered nature to be an inexhaustible source for the development of the actor's imagination, a metaphor for life itself, its luxury and diversity. For example, among the basic exercises of her method was the following: to observe a natural object (a flower, a blade of grass, a leaf, a pebble), and then describe it in class so that the others present this object with their own eyes. And only then proceed to creating the image of a flower on stage.

The importance of observing human nature was also constantly emphasized by the teacher. She compared actors to secret agents who constantly observe and study the facets and nuances of human character. Adler called art a dialogue between people of different cultures and eras, and history an attempt to see their own lives against the backdrop of grandiose civilizational events.

Adler's method is based on the “three whales". The first is imagination at the heart of everything. Special techniques and exercises are used for its development. Special attention is paid to mastering actions and understanding exactly how they are determined by external circumstances. The second is the work on the image, the character. The actor, according to the method, must “enter” into a new image, having found himself — a new, more perfect one. As Adler herself said, the more an actor gets used to the image he creates, the closer he becomes to himself, to his essence. The third is the interpretation of the script, the analysis of the text, which should also be built on imagination.

Stella Adler pointed out that half of the acting work is connected with internal experiences (training of will, emotions, imagination), and the other half — with external actions (physical exercises, practicing gait, voice training). And these “shares” are equal, otherwise it will not be possible to create a reliable and vital, living image. Her catchphrase is “your talent is in your choice!” — has become the motto for several generations of wonderful actors