LECTURE SERIES FOR SCHOOLS & UNIVERSITIES
A Lecture Series On: The History of Acting Training and the Organic Nature of Creativity
This is a summary of a series of lectures given following the publication of John Strasberg's book, Accidentally On Purpose: Reflections on Life, Acting, and the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity, published in New York by Applause Books in the fall of 1996, and in London by A&C Black in springtime 1997; that explore the discovery and evolution of the intimate and personal, Organic Creative Process, and the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity.
The lectures examine the perceptions and realities that make us understand why everyone can learn, and develop pleasure in using their own creative capacities, while also clarifying the centuries old debate as to whether art can be taught, and clearly defining why not everyone can be an artist, based on our knowledge of human behavior. They clarify the place of technique in training, and define technique; not as being based on the idea that human beings are computer-like, programmable machines living in a mechanized universe, but as being the means by which natural human capacities are perceived, defined, and developed for artists, in the way technique is developed and used by, and for, great athletes and scientists.
John Strasberg's Organic Creative Process and the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity fall into three organic sections, and the lectures are divided that way. Lectures Two, Three, and Four describe the levels of human reality that are being developed in the training of an individual's creative process. The lectures also discuss how Mr. Strasberg's perceptions redefine the training process, in harmony with the changes in consciousness that characterize the new manner in which we perceive the nature of human thought and life in the latter part of the 20th Century. The past seventy-five years has been dominated by the techniques of Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg (not the principles underlying them), which are effective; but deterministic, linear in concept, and therefore, limited by the very nature of the thought that conceived them; and the problem, creatively speaking, they cause by limiting the way in which an artist is taught to think about what he or she is doing. A good creative process expands the intelligence, humanity, and open-mindedness of the individual. It does not direct it to think about narrow, technical perceptions of reality, such as sense memory, or actions and objectives, etc. do; the language of creativity must be the language of human experience.
Lecture One
Stanislavski to the American School (Strasberg, Adler, Meisner) to John Strasberg and the 21st Century
A lecture (synthesized from an earlier series of three lectures) that examines the personal character traits and work experiences that evolved into Stanislavski's work, and that led Lee Strasberg to develop. The Method, and the way in which they are now synthesized and further evolved into John Strasberg's Organic Creative Process and the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity.
Both Stanislavski and the American school that followed, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Sandy Meisner), broke the creative process down into its separate parts. Each system focused on aspects in particular of that process. This was a natural consequence of linear thinking (Descartes and Newton) that has dominated human thought processes since the 18th Century.
While all of them recognized talent and inspiration, they considered those realities part of God's work, mystical, undefinable, invisible. John Strasberg begins where they left off.
The lecture explores the obsessions, personalities and problems of each artist, that influenced the way in which their work process evolved: such as Stanislavski's difficulty in being concentrated and truthful as an actor, Lee Strasberg's difficulty in expressing personal feeling, and John Strasberg's overwhelming insecurity and need to trust his own sense of truth and intuition in the face of The Method and his father's success. It also clarifies the reality of what the Actors Studio was, and the misconceptions that are held as to what The Method was and is.
Lecture Two
The Nine Natural Laws of Creativity The Laws of Talent, Imagination, and Spontaneous Inspiration
Without defining talent, it is impossible to define what one is teaching, or what each system and method of teaching is really doing, because we are not perceiving what basic human capacities and qualities the technique is developing, or if there is a better way to do it. How does each system define, recognize, and train talent I define it, and also discuss the difference between talent, sensitivity, and neurosis.
Imagination and the capacity to be both spontaneous and inspired, are, along with talent, the basic human qualities we are born with, which define and determine the capacity of each individual. How do we perceive and define these qualities, and how can they be developed? How do different systems develop it? (Improvisation, Acting choices, objectives, actions, etc.)
Lecture Three
The Laws of Organic Thinking and Logic, Intentional Dreaming, and Transformation
The most difficult thing to train in acting is the capacity to concentrate talent and imagination, along with our native intelligence and logic; to perceive and focus on, the essential imaginary realities in the play. What is Organic Thinking and Logic, and how does it enable us to perceive the essence of whatever reality we are investgating; getting to the bottom of things? What's important about it in the creative process? Are intelligence and consciousness assets to creativity (some schools of acting believe that it's bad for an actor to think, because they cannot perceive the difference between real thought, and intellectualized, ruminative thinking)? How do different systems train an actor's logic and thought process? (Some train actors to think about Objectives, Pre-conceived ideas, Personal emotional experiences, and other choices before becoming deeply involved in the imaginary world of the play; as opposed to involving talent and imagination to become involved with an imaginary world, and spontaneously create and discover life, intuitively and consciously). Actors do what they think they should do. If one discovers what they think they should be doing, one can fix most problems in their work process, and establish their ability to use their talent to the best of their capacity. Is art autobiographical, a transformative process, both, or something else? Why are some artists afraid of becoming conscious of what they do? Finally, it discusses and clarifies whether art be taught, and what are we teaching?
These laws are what guide the artist to transform reality, synthesizing their own experience and knowledge with the imaginary world of the play; to create a work of art.
Lecture Four
The Laws of Determined Movement, the Sense of Truth, and Love
The creative process is regulated by the artist's inborn sense of truth, our capacity to know what is real; or what we sense and believe, intuitively or consciously, to be real. Can an illusion be real, and can reality be an illusion? One of the difficulties of this sense, is that the more one knows, the more one knows that what is true depends on the perspective from which one is perceiving reality. Change the perspective, and the truth changes: Though we know that there are simple and profound truths that guide our lives, and are the basis for what we believe life is.
Determination and love are the most important laws of creativity. Without them, no amount of talent, imagination, intelligence, intuition or spontaneity, or ability to transform can develop to their fullest capacity. Why do most people believe that one must suffer for one's art? Why does our education make us think that will and discipline are only used for doing things we do not love, or want to do; and why are we rarely capable of focusing will and determination towards doing the things we love, and dream of doing? How does one learn to differentiate good pain and suffering, when you are learning to do what you want to, from bad pain and suffering, when one's character and habits are resisting change, and the artist remains close-minded? How does an artist develop the capacity to become involved, which is accompanied by fear, and the sensation of become obsessed, and sometimes, possessed, by what he or she is creating: and how do we become uninvolved when we are finished working?
NOTE:
Under certain circumstances, depending on time and other realities, it may be possible to synthesize these lectures. Each situation must be discussed and evaluated individually.
Contact John Strasberg for further information.