The Acting Technique that made Hollywood what it is today
Stanislavsky Method Acting and Michael Chekhov Acting Technique empowered many Hollywood stars to create their most memorable work on stage and film: Marilyn Monroe, Anthony Quinn, Mala Powers, Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Robert de Niro, Clint Eastwood, Patricia Neal, Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper... the list goes on.
Natela's renowned Acting Techniques are based on a combination of Stanislavsky Method Acting, Michael Chekhov Acting Technique and years of being a professional Actor, Director and Acting Coach. Her unique and inspirational approach has helped many actors around the world to find their authenticity and become the actors they are born to be. Click here to read Student Testimonials.
Stanislavsky Method Acting
Stanislavsky Method Acting is the conscious and professional approach to acting. When it is mastered it gives an actor exceptional possibilities for achieving creative results in the field of dramatic art. It was developed by Konstantin Stanislavsky – a Russian actor, theatre director, teacher and co-founder of the famous Moscow Art Theatre.
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| Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863 - 1938) |
Stanislavsky discovered that acting could be learnt and created a system, which enabled a person to train as an actor step by step. Stanislavsky System is well known all over the world as Method Acting. For thirty years the object of Stanislavsky’s study was the creation of an artistically conceived image of life and of a living, truthful human being on the stage. Stanislavsky System is a great contribution, a luminous legacy to the art of theatre. It was recognised as a revolutionary theatrical development of great importance.
Stanislavsky proves that an actor with great talent and subtle means and nuances needs more technique than others, and thus emphasises his rejection of the widespread layman’s opinion that a gifted actor does not need any technique at all. Through tangible, conscious means, the Method teaches actors how to bring themselves into a natural, alive state on the stage. It teaches actors the shortest way to accomplish what the director demands of them.
Through the Method actors acquire a technique, which consciously will lead them to inspiration. It has been proved vital not only for beginners but also for experienced actors.
Watch "How Stanislavski Reinvented the Craft of Acting"
In the 1950s, a wave of Stanislavsky Method Actors took Hollywood by storm. Actors like James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Montgomery Clift, brought a whole new toolset and perspective on the actor’s craft to the films they performed in. The foundation of their work, however, was laid in Russia more than fifty years prior to their stardom. Stanislavsky’s conception of “psychological realism” in performance challenged ideas about the essential features of the actor’s craft that had been held for centuries.
Michael Chekhov Acting Technique
Michael Chekhov was the nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov and was widely recognized as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century. He was considered by Stanislavsky to be his most brilliant student.
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| Michael Chekhov (1891 - 1955) |
With Michael Chekhov Acting Technique the actor learns how to consider his body as an instrument for expressing his creative imagination. Many Russian, European and American actors, in order to further develop their craft and grow as artists, embraced this technique.
Chekhov left Russia in 1928 and spent eight years in Europe acting, directing and teaching. In 1936 Beatrice Straight invited him to establish the Chekhov Theatre Studio, a training program for a company of actors at Darlington Hall in England.
World War II forced Chekhov to immigrate to America where he taught Hollywood’s most famous actors in the 1940s and 50s. He received an Oscar Award Nomination for the role of Dr. Alex Brulov in Hitchcock’s ‘Spellbound’. He was also highly respected and admired by teachers and directors such as Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg.
“As Michael’s pupil, I learned more than acting… Every time he spoke, the world seemed to become bigger and more exciting. . . Acting became important . . . an art that increased your life and mind. Acting became more than a profession to me. It became sort of a religion.”
- Marilyn Monroe
“There’s always this need to continue growth, to expand. For me, Chekhov’s system is the most complete.”
- Jack Nicholson