Gabriella’s Approach To The Method

The origins of The Method are to be found in the artistic collaboration between Konstantin Stanislavski and Anton Chekhov in the Moscow Art Theatre.

Stanislavski sought a technique which would bring authenticity to performance. He explored this through both the external and the internal. He encouraged the actors to perform their actions on stage as they would in real life and not through a series of overly theatrical gestures. He also encouraged the actor to ask him/herself “What if I were in that situation?” He believed that this gave the actor a personal perspective from which to respond to the work created by the dramatist. He believed that in rehearsal, slowly, you transform that response into the characters response and the character and actor merge to form what he called the third being. Creatively you produce a new being. Not wholly the actor, nor wholly the character.

When the Stanislavski System landed in America it was described as having “revolutionised American theatre”. Method acting training was “the first systematised training that also developed internal abilities (sensory, psychological, emotional)”.

The names which are synonymous with The Method: Robert Lewis, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Stanford Meisner all developed from the Stanislavski system. Each of these practitioners developed their work with a specific focus based on their own interpretation of Stanislavski’s work.

“I believe in an approach which draws on the work of all these master teachers and honours their source. “ - GRC