Life and Acting: Techniques for the Actor

Arriving in America as a teenage Holocaust refugee, Jack Garfein would soon rise to the top of his field. Life and Acting is the product of more than sixty years in the world of theater and film, offering the kind of insight only gained by experience as both a teacher and practitioner. In Garfein’s case, his experience is unparalleled—he has worked with a who’s who of twentieth-century acting, especially those associated with the Actors Studio, the West Coast arm of which Garfein cofounded.

In Life and Acting, Garfein distills his experience into a holistic technique for learning and teaching. “The Beginning” functions as a kind of memoir, focusing on Garfein’s own education in the theater. “The Art” describes how Garfein’s exposure to nontheater artists, particularly painters and writers, has contributed to his understanding of acting. “Basic Training” offers thirty-seven detailed lessons for teaching acting. In “Training for Film,” Garfein applies his principles to acting in front of a camera.

Like Uta Hagen’s Respect for Acting and other classics of this genre, Life and Acting will be an invaluable resource for teachers as well as students.

—Ben Gazzara

Jack Garfein is an internationally renowned director, writer, and producer who has worked in theater, film, and television. He has lectured at Harvard, UCLA, and New York University, and was an associate professor of cinema at the University of Southern California. He is a founder of the Actors and Directors Lab (New York and Los Angeles), the Actors Studio West (Los Angeles), and Jack Garfein Studio (Paris). He currently teaches acting and directing at his studio in Paris and at the University of the Arts London.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part One: Beginning

1. A Boy's Idea of Acting

2. Waiting for Discovery

3. Disaster Strikes

4. Flashes of brilliance with No Explanation

5. An Actor Becomes a Director

6. The Newly Founded Actors Studio

7. Strasberg's New Formulas

8. Puzzling Advice

Part Two: The Art

9. The First Clues

10. The Nature of Emotions in Acting

11. The Playwright and the Actor

12. Masterpieces Within Masterpieces

13. Actor Training in the Long Past

14. From Practice to Theory

Part Three: Basic Training

Lesson 1. Ease in Acting

Lesson 2. First Approach to the Text

Lesson 3. Action, Activity, and Inner Concerns

Lesson 4. Personalization, Needs, and Obstacles

Lesson 5. Drama, Comedy, and Farce

Lesson 6. Notations on the Texty

Lesson 7. Creating the Setting

Lesson 8. Preparation and Physical Sensations

Lesson 9. Subconscious Connections to the Text

Lesson 10. Playing Another Person's Scene

Lesson 11. Other Latent Links to the Play

Lesson 12. Reversing Roles

Lesson 13. Multiple Readings of the Play

Lesson 14. The Emergence of a Character

Lesson 15. Reversing Characters

Lesson 16. Grasping the Story of the Play

Lesson 17. Checking Veracity in Playing and Casting

Lesson 18. The Grip on the Story

Lesson 19. Biography of the Character

Lesson 20. Qualities and Characteristics in a Role

Lesson 21. The Values of Improvisation

Lesson 22. The First Rehearsal

Lesson 23. Giving In to Physical Impulses

Lesson 24. An Inner Line of Images

Lesson 25. Characters' Needs, Desires, and Obstacles

Lesson 26. Setting Physical Behavior

Lesson 27. The Rehearsal Process

Lesson 28. Run-Through Without Book

Lesson 29. The Presentation

Lesson 30. Fulfilling Someone Else's Concept

Lesson 31. The Use of a Profession

Lesson 32. Acting the Works of Beckett, Ionesco, and Brecht

Lesson 33. Soliloquies, Shakespeare, and Classic Plays

Lesson 34. Punctuation in the Classic Plays

Lesson 35. The Images in Classic Plays

Lesson 36. Delivery of Asides

Lesson 37. Talking to the Audience

Part Four: Training for Film

Disparity in Stage and Film Acting

A Few Words on the Effects of Harmful Substances, Physical Violence, and Aging

Lesson 38. The Actor and the Camera

Lesson 39. Acting in a Real Environment

Appendix: Additional Improvisations for Lesson 14