An Actress Prepares: Women and “the Method.” by Rosemary Malague (review)

Marilyn Monroe graces the cover of Rosemary Malague’s important new book An Actress Prepares: Women and “the Method.” A universal symbol of sexual objectification, and arguably the most famous student of Method acting, Monroe is seen ascending the stairs to the Actor’s Studio in great anticipation. It is an arresting image and one that gathers resonance as you journey through Malague’s investigation of the ways in which Stanislavsky-based training in the United States, as conducted by its preeminent instructors, has limited the ways in which women can fully develop in range and authority as actors.

Malague, in a work that synthesizes thorough research in critical theory with her own experiences as an actor and teacher, has reconsidered Method training through a feminist lens. In presenting case studies of Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, and Uta Hagen, she reconstructs the history, pedagogy, and unique training methodology of these influential teachers, identifying the gender bias embedded in their work. Her contention is that unless teachers reinvestigate these approaches—through exercises, evaluative methods, and the texts they assign—they may be limiting students’ ability to embody all but the most narrowly constructed gender roles. The author’s objective is not only to “disentangle Stanislavsky-based training from its patriarchal past” (189), but “to recover elements of these American Stanislavsky-derived approaches, in all of their manifestations, that might serve to empower women to act” (4).

Strasberg, characterized as “indisputably the most important acting teacher of the twentieth century” (30), developed the Method to free an actor to express their inner emotional truth through an understanding and control of their instrument—their self. Malague observes that in actuality Strasberg created a culture of dependency in his classroom, one in which he used manipulation and control to provoke an emotional response from students. In this hierarchy, the teacher was the sole arbiter of truthful expression in an actor’s work, and for women that inevitably meant personifying vulnerability, traditional femininity, and sexuality. The author presents Strasberg’s relationship with Monroe as an example in extremis—one in which he perpetuated her dependence on his guidance to promote his own career. While this cautionary tale is instructive, I did find that I was curious about the experiences of the many nonfamous students of each of the teachers Malague profiles. She concedes that “the foundational principles of Strasberg’s method—‘relaxation; concentration; sensory, physical, and emotional awareness’—surely hold potential for any actor, but . . . the actor’s freedom of expression is too often inhibited by the teacher’s control” (71).

Adler, the second of Malague’s case studies, rejected many of the practices of the Method that she encountered through Strasberg in the Group Theatre—which she considered a “man’s theatre” (73). Compelled by what Malague calls a “proto-feminist impulse” (75), Adler established training methods based on private study with Stanislavsky and her experience as a professional actor. She advocated thorough text analysis and research, the use of imagination to inhabit a multiplicity of roles, and a focus on active choices. Adler believed that developing concrete skills frees the actor “to be both an independent artist, and a full collaborator in the theatre-making process” (110).

While Adler’s approach to acting calls for a close study of the play and its historical, social, cultural, political, and therefore feminist implications, Meisner’s methods deemphasize the text. Malague observes that in Meisner’s process, “there is no discussion of authorial intent, character analysis, or even comprehension of basic relationships, circumstances, or plot lines” (147). The emotional needs of the character are supposed to be intuited by the actors. In the author’s view, this creates another scenario in which the teacher determines the emotional validity of the scene. Analyzing the repetition exercises—a cornerstone of the Method—Malague opines that “forbidden to analyze or interpret the text, reliant on their teacher to provoke their emotion, and waiting for ‘what the other fellow does,’ actors in training are not really empowered to...