You have to learn the size of Ibsen. The size of the conflict. The size of the land and how it stuck out into the sea. The size of the darkness. The snowfalls and the sparkling glaciers. The mountains. Surrounded by water, oceans, the largest ice floes in the world. The sea is so deep you could take the tallest building and sink it without leaving a ripple on the surface. The rocks, the sea, the crags, the waterfalls. Do not play it small. You play too local, too little. Stretch it, because that is what is in the mind of the playwright… In most of Norway, there are only two real months of daylight. People live without the sun – seventeen hours of night. This affects their temperaments, how their houses are lit. How do you light your house when it’s dark outside all day? That is up to you to find out. Ibsen says the lines should sound different depending on whether they are said in the morning or evening. You must know whether your scene is taking place in day or night. Otherwise you will just walk in, out of – and into – nowhere. An actor who gets up to act without knowing when and where he is is insane. Everybody is somewhere. Except an actor, often. He’s the only one who can be somewhere and not know where.
Navigation in Norway is very dangerous. It is continuously stormy. The nervousness of the weather affects the personality of the people, dating back to the Vikings. They are dominated by darkness and blackness. There are very few musical comedies that come out of Norway. What does “twenty miles south of Oslo” mean? I could say, get fifteen books on Oslo, on the Vikings, on the history of the royalty there. I’ll give you this free of charge. But for Christ’s sake, learn where you are going to do your acting. Be interested in the fact that Norway has the largest ice fields in the world and that it’s very difficult to travel except by sleigh. I like that. I like knowing that Nora comes home by sleigh. People pass each other on the narrow road. I know that a sleigh has bells and that sleigh bells have a kind of gaiety in them. If it is dark eight months of the year, they must give themselves something to make them happy. They recognize each other’s sleigh bells. Twilight is at noon. That affects you, if night lasts seenteen hours. If you know this, it will affect your acting. It will make you understand certain things you need to understand. They have hailstones of a size we can’t imagine. These hailstones will be used in the last act of Enemy of the People. People throw them at Dr. Stockmann’s house. You have to know such things. You must not be so much with you. Whatever is left of my me, you can have. I do not give a goddamn about my me, only what I can give you. That is what is important. That is why my life has been important. I am interested in acting, not ‘being a professional’.
When you look out your stage window, you must see water – fjords and water running along the streets. It’s 1880, but it’s not an 1880 street. It’s a 1780 street with planks. The water runs along these planked streets. You can only cross them a certain way. It is not easy going. You can go by horse or maybe by stagecoach. You come home late because you had to catch the coach. If you’re late just because the words say so, you are in trouble. But not if you know that it’s because there was too much baggage to put on the coach. Don’t act from the words. Act from knowing whether you arrive by coach or whether you have money enough to hire a sleigh.
The fjords are very threatening. They are black and contain bodies that have been disintegrating slowly for years because the water is so cold. It is a country with a great many psychological problems. Everybody is in trouble. The churches date from the twelfth century. The twelfth century in this crazy Scandinavia produced a very special kind of architecture. It’s a big thing about the churches there. Look them up. They have great gargoyles. Do not think of your own pretty little church in East Hampton. You have to see that church people go to with the gargoyles and the frightening things inside it.
Their unique landscape is unduplicated anywhere on earth. What made Ibsen so great is that he used this unusual place to give him such great truths. So when you think of this space, think of it not as your space. Think of the mountains, the water. It must inspire awe in you, so when you get to a difficult scene you will have the help of the landscape. So that if you get to a scene where someone has to flee, you will see the waterfalls, the difficulties.
All of a sudden, now, I want to cry … Why should I tell you everything? When you are a teacher, you have to give everything away. When you are not a teacher, keep it all secret. Give nothing away. Keep it for yourself. It is not your job to share it; it is to keep it. I have a right to tell you because I am a teacher. You have a right to tell nobody because you are not a teacher: The landscape has to inspire you with awe!
The fingers of water reach seventy miles into the land from the sea. That makes quite an obstacle if you are thinking of leaving Norway. To cross the sea from the north and come south means that you have risked death to get there, and when you arrive you must arrive with death in you. In Mrs. Linde’s entrance, when she says, ‘I have just arrived from the North,’ and somebody says, ‘How did you do it?’ – it does not mean by what conveyance. It means, ‘How did you survive?’
— Transcription of one of the many lectures actress and acting teacher Stella Adler gave to her class on the plays of Ibsen
Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov
This might be my favorite of these–though the Streisand story is a delight–just for the sense of how much effort Adler put in to understanding her entrance lines. (It’s more than that, I know, but the first step determines all that follows.) It inspires its own sense of awe, at least to this non-actor.
Bruce – Yes. I love this. The whole book is like this. I would tell any young actor interested in playing Chekhov, Strindberg or Ibsen that this is a must-read. You cannot learn to act by reading books, but one of Stella Adler’s geniuses (evidenced here) is in script analysis. Robert DeNiro studied with her, and he credits her script analysis class with putting him on the right track as an actor. (Too bad she’s not still around. Methinks he needs a brush-up course. Ahem.) But still: her MIND, her ability to delve into the script, her curiosity – and her impatience with actors who tried to pull the material down to THEIR level, as opposed to trying to rise up to the genius of the playwrights.
That last bit: “How did you survive…” That is the kind of thing that is so easily missed by actors.
One other thing to say here, and I’ll try not to go on and on (Stella Adler is a passion of mine, and I can get rather tiresome about her): she famously said, “Talent is in the choice.” It is a controversial statement, among actor-types – isn’t there more to talent than the choices you make? People have made good arguments on the opposite side of the fence, but in this case I am on Adler’s side. Talent is a mysterious thing. There is no rule book. How was it, that in the middle of a scene in Streetcar Named Desire, a big fight scene with his wife Stella – Marlon Brando made the choice to pick a tiny piece of fluff off of her sweater? It’s such an incongrous moment in the film – so gentle and considerate – all at the same time that he is digging through Blanche’s suitcase, and pummeling his wife about what a whore her sister is. Yet Brando included everything, excluded NOTHING – and allowed himself the freedom with his character to pick that piece of fluff off. It was an unconscious gesture. Perhaps some people wouldn’t even call it a “choice”. But I would. Even an unconscious gesture is a choice made by an actor – who has decided, on some level, that Stanley Kowalski is not just one thing. Stanley is not an idea, or an intellectual conceit – he is a man. He is mad at his wife, but he still sees the piece of fluff and considerately plucks it off.
To me, that moment, above all other Brando moments, is evidence of his “talent”. Talent is in the choice.
Brando studied with Adler. She said about him: “I taught Marlon Brando nothing. Brando in an acting class was like sending a tiger to jungle school.”
My point here is: Adler was a gifted actress. She worked hard, she was meticulous in her process, and people talked about her performances years after they saw them – her facility with business, language, gesture, dialogue, objective – all that stuff. And here, in this lecture, just TALKING about the landscape in Norway makes her suddenly tear up. Her instrument (meaning: her talent) is so flexible, so susceptible, that she would be ready to play Nora at a moment’s notice. Just by talking about the fjords.
Not every actor has that facility – she was lucky. I think she knew it, to some degree, and that is where her frustration comes in – obvious in the transcription – with the lack of curiosity and the literalness with which so many of her students approached their roles.
Every teacher teaches the Method that most works for them. Her imagination was incredible. She was like Brando in that way: she excluded NOTHING. She doesn’t find ANYTHING useless.
Quite amazing. I wish I could have seen her onstage.
No need to apologize for going on. I couldn’t have given you more than a one-sentence description of Adler before this, and you’ve conveyed your passion well enough to make me want to investigate further. Thanks.
I love when comments hit on one of Sheila’s passions. I end up learning something I never even realized I didn’t know!
I love both of her playwright series. I had no idea what to expect and cried when she discussed the scene between two brothers in the Eugene O Neil play. One sees the horizon and knows that he was an artist but never leaves. Her descriptions are like nothing I have ever heard before. She knows the material and playwrights so well it makes it come alive. I wish I had studied with her. I was in L.A at that time and thought she was just some over dramatic actress but her playwright books are hands down the best.
// Her descriptions are like nothing I have ever heard before. She knows the material and playwrights so well it makes it come alive. //
I so agree! Her script analysis is world-class – because it’s not just script analysis – the way she describes these things makes you want to get up and attempt to play the scenes immediately.
Thanks for your comment!