The Lee Strasberg Notes

THE STRASBERG METHOD IN HIS OWN WORDS

NEW YORK – Available March 15, The Lee Strasberg Notes is the first publication which presents Lee Strasberg’s Method as he himself taught it. The renowned acting teacher and director re-invented the style of acting for the modern era. In the sixty years since its development, the Strasberg Method has been embraced by actors and theater and film directors around the world.

This comprehensive book illuminates clearly and organically the significance of Strasberg’s revolutionary approach to the art of acting and its present-day practice. Edited by Lola Cohen, a teacher at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, the book compiles unpublished transcripts of classes that he taught there in the last seven years of his life. It reveals his teachings on Training and Exercises, Characters and Scenes, Directing and the Method, Shakespeare and Stanislavski, and the Theater, Acting, and Actors.

Cohen studied with the legendary Strasberg for five years during this period in which he refined and clarified the Method that was the culmination of his life’s work. She has spent the better part of ten years transcribing and studying hundreds of hours of video recordings of his classes and seminars as an homage to her teacher and mentor and to make his work accessible to a wider audience. Says Cohen, “Lee’s clear, inspiring ideas will now continue to benefit a new generation of actors, directors, and theater academicians.”

The Lee Strasberg Notes depicts Strasberg’s Method as a thorough, organized technique which provides actors with a clear, logical process for their work. It trains them to draw on their own reality, their five senses, and imagination in order to respond truthfully and to live through the imaginary circumstances created by the playwright or screenwriter. Thus, it prepares actors to handle the demands of any role, empowering them to create compelling, nuanced, living characters. This book offers evidence that Strasberg’s work remains vibrant today, and his legacy is carried on in the same studios where he once taught at the New York and Los Angeles Institutes.

The Lee Strasberg Notes includes a preface by Anna Strasberg, notes from Adam Strasberg and David Lee Strasberg, and a foreword by Martin Sheen. In his foreword, Sheen says, “Far more than a manual for acting teachers, actors, and directors, this work is a personal memoir as well, which reveals Lee Strasberg the man and his work in his own words. Every serious actor, director, and teacher will be enthralled and inspired by the book’s content, and I predict it will become required reading for future generations and this above all: no one would be more pleased than Lee himself.”

For More Information Visit: The Lee Strasberg Notes Website

Honing and Honoring

It's 6:45 on a Monday evening in Los Angeles, and while many Angelenos are arriving home and unwinding after a day of work, at the intersection of Santa Monica and Hayworth, the work is just beginning. There is nothing particularly notable about this West Hollywood corner, but as the clock inches toward 7, a small, lively group is gathering here. Some polish off cigarettes; others grab snacks at the 7-Eleven across the street. Some are busily discussing the work at hand. These engaged, motivated individuals—mostly young, many from other countries—are students at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute...

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Strasberg Visits Nasdaq

On January 8th, 2010 President Victoria Krane and our current students at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in NYC visited the NASDAQ MarketSite in the heart of Times Square and presided over the NASDAQ Closing Bell to celebrate our 40th Anniversary.  CNBC, CNBC India, CNBC.com, Business News Network (Canada), Bloomberg & Bloomberg Brazil, and FOX Business all picked up the coverage. Congratulations to everyone who has been a part of our 40 year history.

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