An Actor Remembers: Memory's Role in the Training of the United

228 Pages·2013·0.95 MB·English

An Actor Remembers: Memory’s Role in the Training of the United States Actor

by
Devin E. Malcolm
B.A. in The Human Drama, Juniata College, 1997
M.A. in Theatre, Villanova University, 2002

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of
The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of
Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre History and Performance Studies

University of Pittsburgh
2012
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences

This dissertation was presented

by

Devin E. Malcolm

It was defended on
November, 5th 2012
and approved by
Kathleen George, PhD, Theatre Arts
Bruce McConachie, PhD, Theatre Arts
Edouard Machery, PhD, History and Philosophy of Science
Dissertation Advisor: Attilio Favorini, PhD, Theatre Arts

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Copyright © by Devin E. Malcolm
2012
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AN ACTOR REMEMBERS: MEMORY’S ROLE IN THE TRAINING OF THE
UNITED STATES ACTOR

Devin E. Malcolm, PhD
University of Pittsburgh, 2012

This dissertation examines the different ways actor training techniques in the
United States have conceived of and utilized the actor’s memory as a means of inspiring
the actor’s performance. The training techniques examined are those devised and
taught by Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Joseph Chaikin, Stephen Wangh and Anne Bogart
and Tina Landau. As I shall illustrate, memory is not the unified phenomenon that we
often think and experience it to be. The most current research supports the hypothesis
that the human memory is composed of five distinctly different, yet interrelated
systems. Of these five my research focuses on three: episodic, semantic, and procedural.
As I believe no one theoretical approach could do justice to the variety of ways the
actor’s memory has been conceived of and used in U.S. training techniques I have
chosen to explore the issue from three different theoretical perspectives. Beginning
with a conception of memory that will, in all likelihood be the most familiar to my
readers, I explore the ways in which contemporary neuroscience can help us to
understand how Strasberg’s Method uses the actor’s episodic memory to achieve a state
of affective remembering. I then use sociologist Maurice Halbwachs’s theory of
collective memory to reveal how the techniques of Adler and Chaikin utilize the actor’s
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semantic memory system but to very different ends. Philosopher Edward Casey’s
phenomenological study of procedural, or as it is more commonly known, body
memory serves as the foundation for my examination of how Wangh’s acrobatic
technique uses the actor’s procedural memory to stimulate a state of affective
remembering in a manner which is remarkable similar to Strasberg’s use of the actor’s
episodic memory. My study concludes with an examination of another highly physical
technique known as Viewpoints, developed by Bogart and Landau. In Viewpoints we
see a technique that utilizes not just procedural memory, but also the actor’s episodic
and semantic memory systems in a manner that is unique in United States actor training

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................... X
1.0 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1
1.1 MULTIPLE MEMORIES UNDER CONSTRUCTION ............................... 5
2.0 A GARDENER OF THE HEART .......................................................................... 22
3.0 MEMORY IN MIND: EPISODIC MEMORY AND LEE STRASBERG’S
METHOD ................................................................................................................................... 48
3.1 EPISODIC AND AUTOBIOGRAPHIC MEMORY .................................. 50
3.2 MEMORY COMES TO MANHATTAN ..................................................... 60
3.2.1 The Method ................................................................................................... 65
3.2.2 The Mnemonics Behind the Method ....................................................... 70
3.2.3 Some Conclusions ....................................................................................... 77
4.0 MEMORY IN SOCIETY: COLLECTIVE MEMORY, STELLA ADLER AND
JOSEPH CHAIKIN ................................................................................................................... 81
4.1 STELLA ADLER AND CHARACTER BY TYPE ....................................... 92
4.2 JOSEPH CHAIKIN: SUBVERTING THE SETUP ................................... 118
5.0 MEMORY IN THE BODY: PROCEDURAL MEMORY, STEPHAN WANGH
AND VIEWPOINTS ............................................................................................................... 144
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5.1.1 Marginality ................................................................................................. 156
5.1.2 Density and Depth .................................................................................... 159
5.1.3 Co-immanence of the past and present ................................................. 162
5.2 STEPHEN WANGH ...................................................................................... 164
5.3 VIEWPOINTS ................................................................................................ 187
6.0 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 205
BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................... 214
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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Viewpoints of Time and Space ................................................................................ 190
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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Examples of Wangh’s Exercises Corporels (Acrobat, 64-69) ................................. 175

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PREFACE

This work is dedicated to all those who helped to make it possible. To all my teachers,
notably Michael “B” Bodolosky, Dr. Robert Wagoner, Dr. Joanna Rotté and Dr. Attilio
“Buck” Favorini. To the social frameworks of my families – the one I was born into and
those I have acquired along the way; my wife Julie, my boys Quinn and Liam as well as
those “friends turned family” who are spread out across the Philly, Baltimore and D.C.
areas. Above all, however, this work is for my late grandmother Phyllis Eldora Edenbo
whose unconditional love and support made me believe this was possible. I will always
remember you.
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