The Actors Studio: A History (Performing Arts) [Hardcover]

Shelly Frome (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786410736 | ISBN-13: 978-0786410736 | Publication Date: July 2001

The Actors Studio, a secluded workshop in New York City that for decades has had a marked influence on the worlds of stage and screen, functions much like a secret society behind closed doors. Confusion about its essence and its activities abounds. It all began when Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theater brought its brand of "realism" to the United States in 1923. The legendary Group Theater followed. Then came the Studio, with the idiosyncratic Lee Strasberg as its head following a history of conflicts with the Group. Studio founder Elia Kazan and Robert Lewis and Stella Adler are fully discussed. Strasberg's background and the encounters between him and the actors he guided while applying his "Method" are presented in detail. The lives and careers of early icons like Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean, the Studio's 1960s efforts to form a production company, and the way the Studio has changed for the 21st century are all covered. Such luminaries as these (and many more) have been associated with the Actors Studio: Edward Albee, Lauren Bacall, Glenn Close, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall, Danny Glover, Julie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper, Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Mike Nichols, Al Pacino, Julia Roberts, Eva Marie Saint, Neil Simon, Steven Spielberg, Sylvester Stallone, Rod Steiger, Meryl Streep, Eli Wallach, and Tennessee Williams.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shelly Frome is an associate professor of dramatic arts at the University of Connecticut. He lives in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786410736
• ISBN-13: 978-0786410736
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,398,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Shelly Frome is a Professor Emeritus of dramatic arts at the University of Connecticut. A former professional actor and theater director, his writing credits include a number of national and international articles on acting and theater, profiles of artists and notable figures in the arts, books on theater and film and mystery novels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The GENESIS of today's MODERN THEATRE, March 28, 2005

By 

Herbert Siegel (Litchfield ,CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Actors Studio: A History (Performing Arts) (Hardcover)

the complete review is listed as written by Herb Siegel.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Genesis of Today's Modern Theatre, May 30, 2004

By 

Herb Siegel (Litchfield, CT. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Actors Studio: A History (Performing Arts) (Hardcover)

Never before has a book revealed such complete and intimate details about the birth pains of what today we know as the modern theater. Mr. Frome introduces us to the creative geniuses who experimented with writing, directing and acting. We learn of their conflicts, motivations and final breakthroughs to greatness.

We follow their lives as they hone in on their acting methods. Their egos are examined, revealing how weakness becomes strength, which in turn can sometimes topple greatness.

The Actors Studio presents an all-star cast of the best creative talent available and how they struggled to make it! From the early years of the Russian theater and into the forties and fifties when experimental theater groups competed to find the true "method acting" techniques.

As a onetime student of the highly exteemed Sandy Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC, I prize this book as a captain his log, noting an exciting journey around the world. One day it will be a major movie or play. But it will require only the best actors to portray the lives of greats like Adler, Brando, Cliff, Dean, Garfield, Kazan, Miller, Odets, Winters, Stanislavsky, etc. These names easily fill a book and it is called "the Actors Studio".

5.0 out of 5 stars IF YOU'RE A SERIOUS MOVIE BUFF OR THEATER-GOER . . ., May 28, 2004

By 

John Birch (New Milford, CT, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Actors Studio: A History (Performing Arts) (Hardcover)

This is a book for anyone with a serious interest or involvement in film and theater. It will make both intriguing reading and invaluable reference material for students, teachers, people in the business (or those hoping to be) and dedicated movie- and theater-goers.

Professor Frome, who teaches dramatic arts at the University of Connecticut, really knows his stuff. In his new book he shows how Stanislavsky's introduction of "Realism," followed by collectives such as the legendary Group Theater and especially the Actors Studio, exerted their massive influence on the style and quality of acting and production in America. It's a story in which two seemingly incompatible elements, conflict and synergy, transfigured the face of drama.

There are fascinating insights into the characters of such icons as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and many others. Frome, who can be quite acerbic when he wants to be, doesn't hesitate to debunk some of the PR-inspired legends of this hugely formative era, and is pretty snitty about Lipton's TV series of the same name. Take a close look at the many photos, not one of which is a posed studio still.

Frome's five-page bibliography in small type, and his painstakingly inclusive index, bear witness to the mountain of research on which this impressive book is based.