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2 books on acknowledged acting systems vie to awaken the actor within
THE MICHAEL CHEKHOV HANDBOOK: FOR THE ACTOR By Lenard Petit. Routledqe, New York and London. 182 pp., $24.95 paper.
THE LEE STRASBERG NOTES Edited by Lor Cohen Routledge, New York and London. 201 pp., $24.95 paper.
WHAT IS THIS FASCINATION TO ACT, TO BRING to life a story in the form of a script or a narrative that asks to be illustrated? Is it the appeal of assuming the psyche of another, of exploring an alternative world and inhabiting another set of responses other than our own? Or is it simply a layer of pretend, of living in the imagination as an extension ol childhood memories and fantasies? Whatever explanation we favor, "acting out" or "being possessed"' seems to exist in every culture, and "acting" in front of an audience in our Western society is thousands of years old. The "sharing" of storytelling seems to be essential in our consciousness. An endless stream of books, techniques, instructions and instructors has been developed to help us accomplish this with greater skill, ease and truthfulness.
Two books on acting as taught by acknowledged masters have recently become available. The Lee Strasberg Notes is a collection ot previously unpublished transcripts of Strasberg 's classes on acting, directing and Shakespeare, compiled and edited by Lola Cohen. In The Michael Chekhov Handbook: For the Actor, Lenard Petit, artistic director of the Michael Chekhov Acting Studio in New York City, details the technique of the eponymous Russian actor and theoretician whose system evolved into an alternative of Stanislavsky's. The books read as if they came from opposite ends of a spectrum, yet they reach conclusions that lie somewhere in the center.
Both books profess a search for "truth" in behavior. I do not know how to define truth in acting except to observe that you recognize it when it is present or recognize the absence of it. Truth is, in fact, subjective, an agreed-upon assumption. Both techniques profess to be solidly based on the Stanislavsky system, but each master has extended and emphasized different elements of the training. Strasberg dismisses Michael Chekhov with a...