Practicing the Paradox

Abstract

In light of all the observations that the Method limits actors to their small personal selves, and all the knee-jerk associations of the Method with crude psychoanalysis, I submit that the Method encourages actors to understand their experiences, both in life and in the studio, as particular theatrical metaphors that create their characters’ behavior onstage. Creativity is metaphoric. Finding connections is the essence of creativity. The Method’s exercises foster those connections by tuning actors’ psychological instruments.

Contrary to the conventional understanding that the actor only performs one thing at a time, he must actually be concerned with a number of problems. He must also have a clear comprehension of where his major concern is at each moment, plus the order of significance of all the other objects that must be attended to at the same time. All this depends upon the actors ability to control, divide, and adjust his concentration. The talent of the actor functions only to the extent that the concentration is trained. Concentration allows the actor to focus on the imaginary reality demanded by the play; therefore, concentration is the key to what has been loosely thought of as imagination.

—Lee Strasberg, A Dream of Passion