Method Acting Reconsidered: Theory, Practice, Future. Edited by David Krasner. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000; pp. 312. $59.95 hardcover; $18.95 paperback; Approaches to Acting, Past and Present. By Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe. New York and London: Continuum, 2001; pp. 225. $29.95 paperback.

Extract

When eighteenth-century deists dubbed John Wesley's galvanizing of Christian fervor “methodism,” they generally meant it as an insult. Wesley was earnest and pugnacious, a tireless crusader with little sense of humor. Much the same could be (was, and is) said of Lee Strasberg. The volume of essays assembled by David Krasner in Method Acting Reconsidered is a conscientious attempt to rehabilitate a maligned acting model. Sanford Meisner emerges from this attempt more strongly than does Strasberg himself, while Stella Adler's contribution has still to be validated, despite (and sometimes because of) what is said about her here. The Method itself survives because, as Dennis Beck says in an essay that thoughtfully incorporates Stanislavsky, Strasberg, and Diderot, the actor's pursuit of truth (or authenticity) is “most fundamentally . . . the reactivation of acting's inherent paradox” (265).