Series Site
In conjunction with the publication of Isaac Butler’s critically acclaimed The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act, Butler and film curator Livia Bloom Ingram curate a century-spanning program tracing the development of Method acting in cinema. From Konstantin Stanislavski and the ambitious Moscow Art Theater troupe to Stella Adler and the community-born traditions of Yiddish theater—and from John Garfield’s sheepish grin to Jack Nicholson’s menacing snarl—the films in this program show the evolution of the naturalistic and internalized approach to performance that actors define themselves in relation to today.
Developed by the Group Theatre in the 1930s and brought to generations of actors by the Actors Studio beginning in the late 1940s, the Method has radically transformed Hollywood since the mid-twentieth century. This series offers an invaluable primer on this much misunderstood and quintessentially American form of acting.
Programmed by Isaac Butler and Livia Bloom Ingram
July 22—28, 2022