The document outlines the principles and steps of method acting, a realistic approach to performance developed at the Moscow Art Theatre, emphasizing the internal psychological techniques utilized by actors. It details the two main steps: scoring the script and conducting a comprehensive written character analysis, focusing on the character's background, motivations, and environment. Additionally, it introduces the seven pillars of method acting, which include action, imagination, attention, relaxation, units & objectives, emotional memory, and truthfulness.

1. NUML Lahore Campus
Method Acting
B S V I I
S P R I N G 2 0 2 1

2. Method Acting
• Western Hemispheres Pursuit of Realism “Taking a character from
“The Page to The Stage”
• Moscow Art Theatre :The Theater and school in Russia where
Method Acting was first developed.
• The first acting theory that taught a realistic approach to a play
using dissection, sociology, and psychology to define characters.
• Stanislovski : The Father of Modern Acting. He studied at the
Moscow Art Theater, kept diaries, and then later had them
published and sent to the western hemisphere. At the turn of the
20th century

3. Method Acting
Lee Strasberg said,
“Method Acting is what all actors have always done whenever
they acted well. But The Method–it’s how you get there.”
The Method trains actors to use their physical, mental and
emotional self in the creation of a character and stresses the
way in which personal experience can fire the actors
imagination.

4. Method Acting
Legendary American actor, Laurette Taylor, writing in 1914,
described the work of the talented actor both brilliantly and simply:
“You see a queer little child sitting in the middle of a mud puddle.
She attracts you and holds your interest. You even smile in
sympathy. Why? Simply because that child is experiencing her
creative imagination. She is attributing to mud pies the delicious
qualities of the pies which mother makes in the kitchen.”

5. Method Acting
• At its most simple, the Method is an internal, psychological
technique that asserts an actor can train themselves, under
regimented practice, to behave realistically under imaginary
circumstances. It was created by the Polish-born actor and
director Lee Strasberg, who co-founded the iconic Group
Theatre and was the first artistic director of the Actors Studio
in New York City

6. Steps of Method Acting
• STEP 1: Scoring • To cut a script into chunks from the character’s
point of view.
• Turkey • We do not eat the whole turkey like a boa constrictor, we
cut it into chunks and then bites.
• Unit • A division of the script. A scoring “chunk” Hint : Where does
a character Celebrate or Mourn?
• Goal or Objective • What the character wants in a scene, written
in an actively verbal way. Ex: I want to hug. The more vivid the
metaphorical picture, which is created by the verb, in the mind of
the actor, the better the acting will be.

7. Steps of Method Acting
• STEP 2: Written Character Analysis
• This is the second part of Method Acting. Developing a written, fictional
biography of the person you are playing. Detail is key. It is on-going as
production continues.
• • Include: History, psychology, socio-economic status and trends of the
period and character, physical appearance, movement, religion,
relationships to others and significant object within the play, etc….the
more detailed the analysis, the better the character will turn out. But to
create a character analysis, you must always ask….
• • WHY, WHY,WHY? Keep asking it! You will find the answers for the
analysis.

8. Steps of Method Acting
• Character Analysis
• 1. WHO AM I? (All the details about your character including name, age,
address, relatives, likes, dislikes, hobbies, career, description of physical traits,
opinions, beliefs, religion, education, origins, enemies, loved ones, sociological
influences, etc.)
• 2. WHAT TIME IS IT? (Century, season, year, day, minute, significance of time)
• 3. WHERE AM I? (Country, city, neighborhood, home, room, area of room)
• 4. WHAT SURROUNDS ME?
(Animate and inanimate objects-complete details of environment)
5. WHAT ARE THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES? (Past, present, future and all of
the events)

9. Steps of Method Acting
• 6. WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP? (Relation to total events,
other characters, and to things)
• 7. WHAT DO I WANT? (Character's need. The immediate
and main objective)
• 8. WHAT IS IN MY WAY? (The obstacles which prevent
character from getting his/her need)
• 9. WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT? (The action:
physical and verbal, also-action verbs)

10. Method Acting : Nutshell
The Method in a Nutshell
• Score the script for units, and assign goals to each.
• Write character analysis using script, history, psychology,
imagination, sociology, common sense.

11. 7 Pillars of Method Acting
i. Action
ii. Imagination
iii. Attention
iv. Relaxation
v. Units & Objectives
vi. Emotion Memory
vii. Truthfulness

12. Thanks for
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