METHOD ACTING INTRO
This is the first big step into the legendary work of Lee Strasberg, which has empowered many creative actors in the industry over many decades spanning 75 years. Given the work’s empowering but demanding nature, the intro is essential for you and me to assess if this class represents the right path in your endeavours and growth as an actor. It also gives me the means to focus exclusively on you. I can cover and answer all your specific questions as you learn Basic Relaxation and Sense Memory techniques and look at the bigger picture of approaching text & characters. This gives you a greater sense of what is available in the METHOD INTENSIVE STUDIO UNIT that follows this class. The STUDIO units are taught exclusively by Sam Rumbelow and are now in their 23rd year. Sam and these classes represent a considerable body of teaching, which has led past and present members to unlock their greater potential as actors both creatively and professionally. These METHOD INTENSIVE STUDIO sessions will only be possible after the intro class and by invitation. The main class has a selection of professional and training actors, with a set amount of space for the new members. Invitation to join the classes will be based on how METHOD fits you and if you feel you fit METHOD.
Monday
7-10 pm
INTRO TALK
The talk covers how Lee Strasberg’s work, as a method, fits into the actor’s bigger picture. It particularly emphasises that you are an instrument to be trained, involving all sorts of creative muscles that require development and creative engagement. This leads to a demonstration of the first exercise you will do that evening, basic relaxation.
BASIC RELAXATION
There are many strands of methodology, such as Sandford Meisner, Uta Hagen, and Stella Adler, as well as the famous works of Constantine Stanislavski. Many of them touch on the same desire to relax and unlock a truthful creative flow of the actor. One of the very unique and specific contributions that Strasberg made was the exercise Basic Relaxation. This exercise is the heart and foundation of the technique. Until you, the actor, can at first sit with the flow of your thought impulses and emotions. Until you can recognise and surrender to the primary dramas that come alive when you are taking a creative risk in an audition, in front of the camera, or on stage, Until you can sit within your own body truthfully, you cannot take an imaginative and creative journey to the material. Relaxation and Sense Memory have a simple framework of movement and sound. So, no previous training is required to start working with these techniques. Once you have stopped running from your dramas as an actor, when you sit and accept the central components of your humanity, you can start exploring the dramas of the character. Hence, this is one of the few acting courses in London & online, where you can effectively train to relax.
Tuesday
7-10 pm
RECAP
In the class recap, we will cover what came up the day before and then provide a greater context for scene study in the broader application of Lee Strasberg’s philosophy and approach, known as the Method, into the broader work of an actor. Text, Character, Auditioning, working on Set.
SENSE MEMORY
If relaxation were all required to take the creative journey to the character and the material, sense memory would not be necessary. However, the primary craft of the unconscious is our ability to truly work from our thought impulses and emotions to the role. It requires us to find a truthful connection more specifically in tune with the narrative alive in the material. To work truthfully within the text and with the character, the actor must find approximate authentic truths of their own to start that journey. It is not about finding similar events in our lives. It is more specifically about unlocking the essential themes and needs alive in the material, from objects or events rooted in our personal history. Some of the Sense Memory is very literal in its translation to the characters. For instance, close relatives or friends may be an effective sensory tool to make the relationship within the scene more truthful. In these London acting courses, sense memory has a much more expansive power to bring alive complicated narratives by connecting with the fundamental truths that motivate any human being in their life. Another critical thing to consider is that sense memory is a simple and non-intellectual technique that, effectively practised, can bring about a much more organic and authentic connection in your work with the character. In simple terms, the more your imagination comes alive truthfully, the more you act truthfully, the more the character comes alive!
OUTCOME
The purpose of the two days is to give you a broader and detailed understanding of how the work of Lee Strasberg, a method, fits into the bigger picture of the actor’s craft. You will have both the technical exercises of sense memory and basic relaxation to take away and practice and the opportunity to consider if you wish to take the work further in the studio intensive. There are many misunderstandings about how to act and even more about The Method. Hopefully, the clarity will give you a sense of how you move forward in your acting. For those wishing to take further steps in the class, further conversation must be had before the possibility of an invitation to join the month-long intensive unit. Any actor who does so will have the introductory fee of £50 applied as a credit to the intensive fee.
Fee £50