<p>I thought it was funny to find out that most of the legendary acting teachers whose techniques are taught at colleges by people with Masters degrees and PhDs never themselves went to college! </p>
<p>Constantin Stanislavski - Studied at the Moscow Theatre School but left after two weeks. Then studied at the Maly Theatre.</p>
<p>Michael Chekhov - Studied with Constantin Stanislavski.</p>
<p>Lee Strasberg - Studied acting with Richard Boleslavski and Maria Ouspenskaya at the American Laboratory Theatre.</p>
<p>Sanford Meisner - Studied acting at the Theatre Guild of Acting and with the Group Theatre with Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg.</p>
<p>Stella Adler - Born into a family of actors. Studied acting with Richard Boleslavski and Maria Ouspenskaya at the American Laboratory Theatre. She then studied with Lee Strasberg as part of the Group Theatre and later studied for five weeks with Constantin Stanislavski in Paris. This caused a parting of the ways with Strasberg and the Group Theatre. </p>
<p>Uta Hagen - Trained at RADA.</p>
<p>David Mamet - got a BA in Literature from Goddard College. He studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse.</p>
<p>Viola Spolin - trained initially (1924-1927) to be a settlement worker, studying at Neva Boyd's Group Work School in Chicago.</p>
<p>Lysistrata, it's interesting that the masters have such diverse backgrounds. It got me wondering what kind of backgrounds the professors have as well. So here's one of my D's acting teacher's info</p>
<p>Lysistrata -- That is an interesting list, but not too surprising. In the early days of the 20th century, acting was not at all a respected profession; certainly not something that you would consider studying in college. Comparatively few people went to college until after WW II. And the BFA Theater degree is a fairly recent development; there weren't many schools offering it when I went to college in the 70's -- and even fewer had a BFA MT degree at that time. It would be interesting to find out when the BFA programs really took off -- maybe some of our college faculty participants would have that info.</p>
<p>Melsmom -- after looking at Richard Gang's website (very impressive) I checked out the faculty at Syracuse. Timothy Davis-Reed's personal website is the only one listed: members.aol.com/TDavisReed. The faculty information is also interesting, though, and can be found at Syracuse</a> University Drama Department - Faculty.</p>
<p>Melsmom - when my D auditioned for Elon this fall, she absolutely loved Richard Gang's acting class. He is one of those really rare people that has a very unique way to get students to dig deep without them even realizing.</p>
<p>I hope I didn't hijack this thread, but I kind of summed up all the various masters and their varied training to mean that there are indeed many routes to a career in acting/theatre. Something that is said often on this board. Teaching is always an option, and our professors also have a very varied background I would assume.
My D loves her teachers too, they can be brutally honest when she stinks, so when they compliment her it means the world! Very constructive critisism. Thanks for sharing onstage!
Plus, I think the profs would get a kick to know we are posting their info under the heading "Where the great acting teachers studied!"</p>