Developments in Modern Theatre and Modern Acting, 1875–1930

Baron, Cynthia

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-40655-2_5

Cynthia Baron³

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Screen Industries and Performance ((PSSIP))

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Abstract

Chapter 5 examines the Modern acting principles that first emerged when American theatre practitioners developed acting programs in the 1880s. This development was a response to changing visions of modern theatre and the new centralized touring companies that diminished opportunities for young actors to learn their craft in local repertory. The chapter draws on James McTeague’s research on the numerous actor training programs established in the USA between 1875 and 1925. It reflects on the major contributions of the repertory companies led by Minnie Maddern Fiske and Eva Le Gallienne. It also illustrates the vision of acting introduced by Moscow Art Theatre members Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya, whose work at the American Laboratory contributed to the articulation of Modern acting principles.

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Notes

1.
Daniel J. Watermeier, “Actors and Acting,” in The Cambridge History of American Theatre, Volume Two: 1870–1945, eds. Don B. Wilmeth and Christopher Bigsby (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 446.
2.
Ibid., 451.
3.
Ibid., 447.
4.
Vera Mowry Roberts, “‘Lady-Managers’ in Nineteenth-Century American Theatre,” in The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the Present, eds. Ron Engle and Tice L. Miller (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 31.
5.
Jack Poggi, Theater in America: The Impact of Economic Forces, 1870–1967 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1968), 26.
6.
Ibid., 88.
7.
Helen Krich Chinoy, “Introduction: Art versus Business: The Role of Women in American Theatre,” in Women in American Theatre, 2nd ed., eds. Helen Krich Chinoy and Linda Walsh Jenkins (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1987), 4.
8.
Watermeier, “Actors and Acting,” 468.
9.
Ibid., 469, 468.
10.
Toby Cole and Helen Krich Chinoy, “Minnie Maddern Fiske,” in Actors on Acting, eds. Toby Cole and Helen Krich Chinoy (New York: Crown, 1970), 584.
11.
Minnie Maddern Fiske, Her Views on Actors, Acting and the Problems of Production; as Told to Alexander Wollcott (New York: Century Company, 1917), 76–89, reprinted in Actors on Acting, eds. Toby Cole and Helen Krich Chinoy, 584–587 (New York: Crown Publishers, 1970), 585.
12.
Ibid., 585, 586.
13.
Ibid., 586.
14.
Ibid.
15.
Ibid.
16.
Ibid.
17.
Ibid., 587.
18.
Ibid.
19.
Chinoy, “Introduction: Art versus Business,” 5.
20.
Ibid.
21.
Qtd. in Helen Sheehy, Eva Le Gallienne: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), 140.
22.
“Eva Le Gallienne, Actress, Is Dead at 92,” New York Times, June 5, 1991.
23.
Rose Hobart, A Steady Digression to a Fixed Point (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1994), 45.
24.
Qtd. in Susan Spector and Steven Urkowitz, “Uta Hagen and Eva Le Gallienne,” in Women in American Theatre, 2nd ed., eds. Helen Krich Chinoy and Linda Walsh Jenkins (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1987), 123.
25.
Chinoy, “Introduction: Art versus Business,” 4; see Modern Acting Chap. 2, note 8 for observations on Craig’s position concerning women and modern theatre.
26.
Ibid.
27.
Ibid., 5.
28.
James H. McTeague, Before Stanislavsky: American Professional Acting Schools and Acting Theory, 1875–1925 (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1993), ix.
29.
Ibid., 243.
30.
Ibid., 245.
31.
Qtd. in ibid., 21.
32.
Ibid., 182.
33.
Ibid., 189, 188, 191.
34.
Ibid., 195.
35.
Ibid., 213.
36.
Ibid., 248.
37.
Ibid., 163, 159.
38.
Ibid., 105, 103.
39.
Ibid., 97.
40.
Ibid., 99.
41.
Ibid., 124.
42.
Qtd in ibid., 125.
43.
Qtd in ibid., 132, 133.
44.
Rhonda Blair, “Editor’s Introduction,” in Acting: The First Six Lessons: Documents from the American Laboratory Theatre, ed. Rhonda Blair (New York: Routledge, 2010), xi. The “tightness of the ensemble” in the Moscow Art Theatre touring productions seemed to exemplify modern theatre (Laurence Senelick, “Introduction,” in Theatre Arts on Acting, ed. Laurence Senelick [New York: Routledge, 2008], xvii); American Laboratory patron Miriam Stockton saw European and especially Russian performing art “as the panacea for addressing the ‘ills’ of the [American] commercial theatre system” (McTeague, Before Stanislavsky, 251).
45.
By comparison, Boleslavsky’s Acting: The First Six Lessons is a difficult read for many reasons, among them its suggestion that directors should provoke actors’ emotion. Boleslavsky used that approach when directing Theodore Goes Wild (1936); actor Melvyn Douglas reports that when Boleslavsky decided Irene Dunne “could not muster the proper amount of excitement for an important entrance [he] warned the cast and crew, then crept up behind her and fired a blank cartridge from a hand gun just below her buttocks” (qtd. in Doug Tomlinson, ed., Actors on Acting for the Screen: Roles and Collaborations [New York: Garland Publishing, 1994], 52).
46.
Richard Boleslavsky, “The ‘Creative Theatre’ Lectures,” in Acting: The First Six Lessons: Documents from the American Laboratory Theatre, ed. Rhonda Blair (New York: Routledge, 2010), 82.
47.
Boleslavsky, “Boleslavsky Lectures from the American Laboratory Theatre,” in Acting: The First Six Lessons: Documents from the American Laboratory Theatre, ed. Rhonda Blair (New York: Routledge, 2010), 161.
48.
Boleslavsky, “The ‘Creative Theatre’ Lectures,” 109.
49.
Ibid., 103.
50.
Ibid., 104.
51.
Ibid.
52.
Ibid., 110.
53.
Ibid., 112, 110.
54.
Ibid., 104, 112.
55.
Boleslavsky, “Boleslavsky Lectures,” 160, 127.
56.
Boleslavsky, “The ‘Creative Theatre’ Lectures,” 117.
57.
Ibid., 118.
58.
Ibid., 164.
59.
Boleslavksy, “Boleslavsky Lectures,” 164, 165.
60.
Ibid., 174.
61.
Richard Boleslavsky, “Fundamentals of Acting,” in Theatre Arts on Acting, ed. Laurence Senelick (New York: Routledge, 2008), 242.
62.
“Love Affair,” Review, March 9, 1939, Box 9, Maria Ouspenskaya Collection, Special Collections Department, University of California, Los Angeles.
63.
“Love Affair,” Hollywood Reporter, March 10, 1939, Box 9, Maria Ouspenskaya Collection.
64.
“Love Affair,” Journal American, March 19, 1939, Box 9, Maria Ouspenskaya Collection.
65.
Article in Family Circle, Box 8, Maria Ouspenskaya Collection.
66.
Sophie Rosenstein, Larrae A. Haydon, and Wilbur Sparrow, Modern Acting: A Manual (New York: Samuel French, 1936), 11.
67.
The magazine was published by the American Repertory Theatre in Hollywood.
68.
Maria Ouspenskaya, “Notes on Acting with Maria Ouspenskaya,” in Acting: The First Six Lessons: Documents from the American Laboratory Theatre, ed. Rhonda Blair (New York: Routledge, 2010), 186.
69.
Ibid., 190.
70.
Ibid.
71.
Ibid., 192.
72.
Ibid.
73.
Ibid.
74.
Ibid., 203, 184.
75.
Ibid., 201.
76.
Ibid., 202.
77.
Ibid., 202, 205.
78.
Ibid., 204.
79.
Ibid., 196.
80.
Ibid., 193.
81.
Ibid., 197.
82.
Ibid., 199.
83.
Ibid., 202.
84.
Starting in the 1930s, The American Magazine (1906–1956) became known for publishing short stories and topical articles by high-profile authors.
85.
Hedda Hopper column, 1940, Box 6, Maria Ouspenskaya Collection.
86.
Louella Parsons column, August 2, 1941, Box 7, Maria Ouspenskaya Collection.

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Department of Theatre and Film, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA
Cynthia Baron

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Baron, C. (2016). Developments in Modern Theatre and Modern Acting, 1875–1930. In: Modern Acting. Palgrave Studies in Screen Industries and Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40655-2_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40655-2_5
Published: 19 August 2016
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-40654-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40655-2
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