Twentieth Century Actor Training, and: Acting Emotions (review)

Alison Hodge's anthology Twentieth Century Actor Training and Elly A. Konijn's Acting Emotions: Shaping Emotions on Stage are recent books that describe in very different ways the processes and principles of Western acting training. Hodge's anthology analyzes the theories, exercises, and productions of an impressive line-up of American, British, and European theatre practitioners—Stella Adler, Eugenio Barba, Bertolt Brecht, Peter Brook, Joseph Chaikin, Michael Chekhov, Jacques Copeau, Jerzy Grotowski, Joan Littlewood, Sanford Meisner, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Wlodzimierz Staniewski, Konstantin Stanislavski, and Lee Strasberg. Konijn's study examines the experience of actors in the United States and the Netherlands before, during, and after playing an emotional scene onstage. Konijn's research goal is to test what she calls her "task-emotion theory" of acting.

Hodge's book offers a step-by-step analysis of the working practices of fourteen renowned directors and teachers of acting and suggests useful elements of "cross fertilization." Although she claims not to "deal directly with these issues" (5), her text sheds significant light on shared principles as well as on theories created in rejection of those that came before. Sharon Carnicke's incisive examination of Stanislavski and his work launches the anthology. Chapters are arranged in chronological order and many reference or engage Stanislavski's principles in useful ways. Paralleling Carnicke's essay, Richard Leach's chapter on Meyerhold begins with a straightforward, historical/biographical section, followed by first-person accounts of actors who worked with the director, including precise descriptions of biomechanical exercises. Leach adds line drawings that further detail the sequences of movements.

In contrast, Peter Thomson's chapter on Brecht has a sharp, refreshingly critical edge when describing Brecht the poet, political theorist, and playwright, but his accounts of Brecht's directorial practices and his descriptions of the exercises Brecht used with actors are not as clear and comprehensive. The chapter also includes very little from actors who worked with Brecht. Clive Barker's chapter on Joan Littlewood follows Thomson's on Brecht, but takes a very different tack, relying almost exclusively on actors' anecdotes and manifestos. This chapter goes a long way to settling what, according to Barker, is an old score: just because Littlewood "refrained from producing works of theory . . . does not mean that there is no theory behind her work" (113). This chapter, like Dorinda Hulton's chapter on Joseph Chaikin, is particularly good at capturing the unique character and personalities of these theatre workers, and frequently, the vitality and spirit of the actors that worked with them.

David Krasner's discussion of the similarities and differences in perspectives and principles among three famous members of the Group Theatre is particularly astute and impressive. Like Barker, Krasner states right away his intention to avoid common misconceptions. On the subject of the Method actor's purported tendency to "purvey a single character from role to role, one that is recognizably close to his own personality" (132), Krasner explains that the self is not static, but constantly evolving, and that character, text, and self-study are not regarded as separate tasks and are not mutually exclusive. Krasner also corrects a common error made regarding Sanford Meisner's famous repetition exercise. In his description of the exercise, which involves an actor's repetition of a phrase delivered by her/his partner, the object is to "work off the partner" using a "real life examination of human give-and-take" (146). There is a difference between Meisner's emphasis on responding "in the moment" to a partner (145), and Adler's emphasis on "given circumstances," which derives from a sociological perspective, based on the actor's imaginative focus on "the world of the play itself" (141). Krasner walks us through the exigencies of these different approaches, stating that the repetition exercise "promote[s] impulsive behavior as...