Acting techniques from the Masters: Uta Hagen
The Importance of Being Honest: Acting Techniques from the Masters
The following are excerpts from Dr. Mary Schuttler's class on the masters of
acting technique.
Summary of Uta Hagen's contributions
Work and search for realities in yourself which serve the character and the
play. Put your instincts and sense of truth, your understanding of human
realities to use while probing and grappling with the content and the roots
of the material. be specific and real in your actions, and they will
communicate your artistic statement. Bring your universal understanding of
the present to the present...as a real artist.
Concept � talent, imagination, grip on reality, desire to communicate,
character and ethics, point of view, understanding human behavior, total
discipline. Train and perfect all. Identity � Know who you are. Connect
feeling to behavior. Be self aware, not self-conscious.
Substitution (particularization vs. generalization), Emotional Memory
(release/trigger object), Sense Memory (recall sensation/overcome it), Five
Senses (sharpen and heighten), Thinking (active), Walking and Talking
(reason; physical and verbal must balance), Improvisation (for better
understanding), Reality (truth in life is not truth on stage � adjust to tell
the story).
Object Exercises: Basic Object Exercise, 3 Entrances, Immediacy, 4th Wall,
Endowment, Talking to Self, Outdoors, Conditioning Forces, History, Character
Action.
Biography of Uta Hagen 1919-2004
Mary's Bio: Uta Thyra Hagen was born to an educator, Oskar F. L., and an
opera singer, Myra Leisner-Hagen, on June 12, 1919, in Gottingen, Germany. In
1936 she graduated from Wisconsin High School in Madison, Wisconsin. Ms.
Hagen then studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, in London, England,
from 1936-37. Uta also attended the University of Wisconsin in 1937. Her
first marriage was to actor-director Jose Ferrer (winner of the 1950 Best
Actor Academy Award for �Cyrano de Bergerac�) on December 8, 1938. Although
the Ferrers had one daughter together, their marriage ended in divorce in
June of 1948. Uta Hagen married again on January 25, 1951, this time to
actor-director-acting teacher Herbert Berghof. She taught the techniques of
acting to many aspiring actors at her future husband�s studio starting in
1947, before branching out on her own and offering seminars to students
across the nation. Ms. Hagen is also responsible for authoring the 1973 book,
Respect for Acting.
Uta Hagen made her debut as an actress in the July, 1935 University of
Wisconsin production of �Hay Fever.� She played Ophelia in a 1937 production
of Shakespeare�s �Hamlet,� and later, in 1942, won critical acclaim as
Desdemona in the Theatre Guild�s production of �Othello.� Hagen made her
Broadway debut, in 1938, as Nina in �The Seagull,� the play with which she
toured the nation for four months. She appeared as Louka in �Arms and the
Man� (1938), and as a Chinese girl in �Flight into China� (1939). Uta Hagen
starred as Alegre d�Alcala in the 1939 Ethel Barrymore Theatre production of
�Key Largo.� In Michigan�s own Ann Arbor Drama Festival she played Ella in
�Charley�s Aunt� (May 1941). She also played the character Ellen Turner in
�The Male Animal,� and the Woman in �The Guardsman� (both 1941). Some of
her other roles include Mrs. Manningham in �Angel Street�, Gretchen in
�Faust� (both 1947), and Hilda in �The Master Builder� (1948). In June of
1948 Uta Hagen replaced Jessica Tandy as Blanche du Bois in �A Streetcar
Named Desire,� (Vivien Leigh won her second Best Actress Academy Award in
1951 for this role.) Ms. Hagen also starred as Georgie in �The Country Girl�
(1950), a role for which Grace Kelly won the 1954 Best Actress Academy Award.
A few more of her stage roles are the title role in �Saint Joan�(1951),
Tatiana in �Tovarich� (1952, she served as Vivien (Gone With the Wind)
Leigh�s replacement), Jennet Jourdemayne in �The Lady�s Not for Burning�
(1955). Uta Hagen performed at the Ann Arbor Drama Festival again in 1955
playing all the female roles in �The Affairs of Anatol.�
She also acted as
Natalie Petrovna in �A Month in the Country.� Shen Te in �The Good Woman of
Setzuan� (both 1956), and as Leah in �Sodom and Gomorrah� (1961).
Uta Hagen�s most famous role was that of Martha in �Who�s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?� (NY 1962, London 1964), a role for which Elizabeth Taylor
won the 1966 Best Actress Academy Award. Ms. Hagen made her motion picture
debut in �The Other� (1972).
Uta Hagen has received two Antoinette Perry Awards and two NY Drama Critic�s
Circle Awards, for �The Country Girl� and �Who�s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?� (for which she also won the London critics award).
Uta Hagen, obviously an accomplished actor herself, is probably one of the
most widely respected teachers of acting in the world.
Web Bio: Uta Thyra Hagen (June 12, 1919 � January 14, 2004) was a German-born
American actress and acting teacher.
Born in G�ttingen, Germany, her family emigrated to the United States during
her early childhood. She was raised in Madison, Wisconsin. She studied acting
at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Primarily noted for stage roles, Hagen was a two-time winner of a Tony Award
for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, first in 1951 for her
performance in The Country Girl and again in 1963 for Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?. In 1981 she was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame
and in 1999 received a "Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award."
Although she appeared in some movies, because of the Hollywood blacklist, she
had more limited output in film and on television, not making her cinematic
debut until 1972. She would later comment that being kept out of film helped
her art stay pure and honest. She was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award as
"Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" for her performance on the
television soap opera, One Life to Live.
She married Jos� Ferrer in 1938, with whom she had a daughter, Leticia
(Lettie) Ferrer, an actor in New York City. They divorced in 1948 partially
because of her affair with her Othello costar Paul Robeson.
She taught at HB Studio, a well-known New York City acting school, starting
in 1957, and married its co-founder, Herbert Berghof, on January 25, 1957.
After his death in 1990 she became the school's chairperson.
Ms. Hagen was an influential acting teacher who taught, among others, Matthew
Broderick, Christine Lahti, Jason Robards, Sigourney Weaver, Liza Minnelli,
Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Lemmon, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. While being
profiled in Premiere Magazine, actress Amanda Peet said of her mentor Hagen,
that she was a woman whose class you didn't want to miss.
She also wrote Respect for Acting (1973) and A Challenge for the Actor
(1991), which advocates presentational acting, for example through the use of
substitution. Hagen later stated that she "disassociated" herself from her
first book, "Respect for Acting". In "Challenge for the Actor" she renamed
the term "substitution," calling it "transference" instead. Though Hagen
wrote that the actor should "identify" the character they play with feelings
and circumstances from their (the actor's) own life, she also makes clear
that "Thoughts and feelings are suspended in a vacuum unless they instigate
and feed the selected Actions, and IT IS THE CHARACTER'S ACTIONS WHICH REVEAL
the true 'you,'" as the character in the play. Respect for Acting is used as
a textbook for many college acting classes.
As well, she published a 1976 cookbook entitled "Love for Cooking".
In 2002, she was awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President George
W. Bush at a ceremony held at the White House.
Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen
chapter one - concept
An actor needs: talent, imagination, a grip on reality, desire to
communicate, character and ethics, point of view, understanding of human
behavior, total discipline.
An actor must: train and perfect the outer instrument; body, voice, speech,
AND must have a thorough education in other studies.
Stan says: love the art in yourself not yourself in the art.
chapter two - identity
Know WHO you are and find your own sense of identity SO you can bring about a
genuine life for a character.
Your inner image of yourself may not match your outer; find awareness of
TOTAL self in ALL situations.
Get to know and accept yourself.
Be able to connect feeling to behavior; learn to pinpoint your responses and
resulting behaviors.
Fill a warehouse with sources upon which to draw for construction of
character. Object exercises (C11 � 20) help build self-awareness.
Aim for a cat�s spontaneity; unanticipated involvement in the moment.
Your own identity and self knowledge are the main sources for the characters
you play.
You experience most human emotions by age 18.
Read, visit, look at paintings, etc, to put self into situation.
Be self aware not self conscious; don�t be regular.
chapter three - substitution
Find yourself in a part vs. losing yourself in a part.
Substitution: transference from your own experiences and remembrances; put
them in place of the fiction of the play.
Mostly done intuitively.
Sub is not an end in itself; it�s a way of bringing about justified,
personal, character actions.
Particularization vs. generalization.
chapter four - emotional memory
Sub in order to release that big burst of tears, shriek of terror, etc.
EMOTION OCCURS WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS TO US WHICH MOMENTARILY SUSPENDS OUR
REASONING CONTROL AND WE ARE UNABLE TO COPE WITH THE EVENT LOGICALLY.
Uta uses a RELEASE OBJECT to bring about emotion; trigger objects; a verbal
or physical action (fist) can also be used.
There�s no time to wander through past adventures; one should not be forced
to deal with something buried.
chapter five - sense memory
A recalling of physical sensations; easier to recall than emotions.
Concentrate on a body part. EX. don�t think �hot�, focus on underarms:
perspiration, sweaty, stickiness; attempt to overcome heat; adjust blouse;
whole body will feel hot. For �cold�, focus on chill on back of neck; adjust
to get warm; overcome sensation.
Stimulate the Remembrance; fight against the sensation in one focused area
(drunk - fight to be sober)
Strengthen with the magic �if�.
chapter six - five senses
Don�t take senses for granted.
Cologne could make you remember old boyfriend; use it.
Alert taste buds for taste of liquor.
Heighten and sharpen the five senses.
chapter seven - thinking
Real thinking precedes, is accompanied by, and follows action.
Real thinking is active.
Get out of the habit of verbally analyzing your thought process.
Ask not what you�re thinking but what are your inner objects.
To act is to do; not think.
Actor�s thinking depends on the subjective process of weighing the course of
action by a contact with inner and outer objects; give and take with the
other.
chapter eight - walking and talking
The reason for walking is destination.
Total animation of the body is about correctly incorporating the surrounding
circumstances.
Action of words: how you send them, for what purpose and to whom, under what
circumstances- what do you want or need at the moment.
Physical and verbal must balance.
chapter nine - improvisation
Used for a better understanding of the reality of the character,
circumstances, time and place, emotions, and varied action.
chapter 10 - reality
Truth in life is not truth on stage; Ex. you can�t really hurt someone.
You must adjust to tell the story.
Sample Acting Exercises by Uta Hagen
Three Entrances: the preparation for, and the making of, an entrance
utilizing: What did I just do? What am I doing right now? What�s the first
thing I want?
Three Objects: Place 3 objects in a room. Decide on time, place,
surroundings, given circumstances (past, present, future), relationship, main
objective, immediate objectives, obstacles, actions. Enter the room, using
Three Entrances. Make the 3 objects a part of the �story� and deal with
them individually as the story unfolds.