A while ago when we first launched ActingIsReality I wrote a series of blogposts based on Brecht’s essay “What among other things can be learned from Stanislavsky,” which functions as a kind of outline for one of our courses. As we note throughout the site, the other principal influence on our work is our long association with John Strasberg. In the last chapter of Strasberg’s 1996 memoir, Accidentally on Purpose, he details “The Nine Natural Laws of Creativity,” that make up what he calls the “Organic Creative Process.” This is quite a feat, because one of Strasberg’s core principles is that a “list of rules and exercises … limit[s] rather than expand[s] an actor’s natural capacity for expression.” By going beyond specific techniques and exercises to define a set of “laws” that are present in creative processes, Strasberg creates a tangible list that promotes the development of a consistent way of working, but without rote techniques that, while sometimes effective, tend toward the artificial and mechanical. Strasberg’s approach, rather than limiting the actor based on how well he or she can use a technical exercise, puts the whole person of the actor at the service of his/her art. Today we begin a series of posts, each focusing on one of John Strasberg’s “nine natural laws.”
