UAB’s ArtPlay, the Alys Stephens Center’s home for arts education, will present a dream opportunity for many actors — a free, one-day master class led by filmmaker Sasha Krane, nephew of the famed late acting teacher Lee Strasberg.
The master class will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012, on what would have been Strasberg’s 111th birthday. It will happen at ArtPlay, 1006 19th St. South. The class, which is limited to 25 participants, will demonstrate in a workshop the value of method in film acting. To register, call 205-975-4769.
Actors of all skill levels, and especially those who plan to take ArtPlay’s upcoming “The Acting Studio” classes for adults and children, are encouraged to attend. This master class is the first event leading up to ArtPlay’s new classes with Susan McCain, M.F.A., who was mentored by Strasberg and is certified by the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
When Lee Strasberg defined what is popularly known as “method acting” he used a simple declarative sentence: “Method acting is what all actors have always done whenever they acted well.” This idea was first called the “System” by Konstantin Stanislavsky, and later, as further developed by Strasberg at the Group Theatre, the Actors Studio and then at the Theatre and Film Institute, “The Method.” The Method trains actors to use their imagination, senses and emotions to conceive characters with unique and original behavior, creating performances grounded in the human truth of the moment. Strasberg trained theater and film greats James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Anne Bancroft, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman and many others.
Krane himself defines method acting as “any of a family of techniques used by actors to create, in themselves, the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances.” Krane is an instructor of acting for film and television at the Theatre and Film Institute in Los Angeles, where he also serves as the resident film director. Krane has written and directed eight film shorts and two stage plays, and written 13 film features. He has directed two feature films: “The Fury” and “Machete Joe.”