Stanislavski and Contemporary Acting Techniques - UFDC ...

Stanislavski and Contemporary Acting Techniques

by Lauren Brown

College of the Arts

School of Theatre and Dance

University of Florida

First Reader: Dr. Charlie Mitchell

Second Reader: Dr. Colleen Rua

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the training techniques that originated

after the work of acting theorist Konstantin Stanislavski, developments which speak to the

heart and evolution of modern-day theatre. After defining Stanislavski’s approach, I will

explore and contrast his methods with the improvisational work of Viola Spolin and her theatre

games, Uta Hagen’s Six Steps to creating believable characters, and Sharell B. Luckett’s Black

Acting Methods and The Luckett Paradigm, a program composed of rituals, processes and

techniques which privileges Back American culture in performance. Whether significantly

branching off from Stanislavski’s techniques or coming from its own origin, I will show how

these alternative approaches redefine the theatrical experience by emphasizing individualism,

organic self-expression, and human play in the course of training contemporary performers.

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Stanislavski and Contemporary Acting Techniques

The purpose of this paper is to explore certain acting techniques used during the 20th and

21st centuries which came after the work of acting theorist Konstantin Stanislavski. The

exploration of these developments is intriguing in that it speaks to the heart and evolution of

modern-day theatre. Whether branching off from Stanislavski techniques or coming from its own

origin, these alternative approaches under discussion may even mean redefine the theatrical

experience.

Born in 1863, the Russian actor, director, and theatre theorist Constantin Stanislavksi

drafted a series of techniques to help actors create believable characters through studying the

world of the character and the play. For him, the three main principals that the actor must

understand are the character’s given circumstances, the tasks and objectives, and the magic “if.”

The given circumstances establish the who, what, when, where, and how of the character.

The actor must first discover details about his character’s personality, demographics, occupation,

family circumstances, relationships, etc. by studying the script. The actor must also understand

the nature and context of the conflict. Furthermore, he must discover the time/year/season, where

he event(s) take place, and how these factors work together to influence or affect the character.

Discovering these elements reveals the actor to the world of the character.

The magic “if” involves the actor imagining what the character might actually do in each

situation (Moore 1984). Based on the given circumstances, the actor must decide how his

character might respond when faced with opposition, new opportunity, fear, etc. The magic “if”

becomes the nature of the portrayal of the character on stage. It is the imagined and well-

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informed response to a happening. This discovery also allows the actor to remove his personal

instinctual behavior in favor of becoming a character.

Objectives are the goals of the character and tasks are the means of achieving those goals.

They are the efforts/actions the character makes to get what they want. Moreover, tasks are the

choices the character makes to achieve the goal. The magic “if” will inspire the actor to handle

the actions a particular way. For example, in the play Medea by Euripides, the character of

Medea seeks to avenge her husband for betraying their family for money. Her distress causes her

to pursue extreme means to torture her husband, Jason, even going as far as murdering their

children in front of him. In this example, we can see that Medea’s objective is to avenge her

husband. Relentless Medea’s tasks vary from convincing Creon to allow her to stay longer in the

city, to manipulating Jason to think she has suddenly changed her perspective, to murdering their

children. These tasks collectively build to the completion of Medea’s objective -- making her

husband pay for what he has done.

The magic “if” is the suggestion to the actor as to how the tasks should be portrayed

based on the circumstances. Objectives may change throughout the play. Nonetheless, the actor

must discover what the character wants (objective), why he/she wants it, and how he/she seeks to

achieve it (tasks). Stanislavski declared in An Actor Prepares (1989) that

[The magic] If is the starting point, the given circumstances, the development. The one

cannot exist without the other if it is to possess a necessary stimulating quality. However,

their functions differ: if gives the push to dormant imagination, whereas the given

circumstances build the basis for if itself. And they both, together and separately, help to

create an inner stimulus.

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In other words, these textual discoveries, though distinct, coexist and guide the actor to

develop a character based on facts and imagination.

Another concept Stanislavski emphasized was Affective Memory. He wrote that after

numerous distractions during his performance mixed with nervousness and the robotic delivery

of his lines, he tapped into his memory to recall a positive moment. Afterwards, the performance

became electrified: “Leo’s interpretation of Othello suddenly rose in my memory and aroused

my emotion... I cannot remember how I finished the scene... the black hole disappeared from my

consciousness, and I was free from all fear... there was the applause, and I was full of faith in

myself” (Stanislavski 1989). Stanislavksi goes on to say how he remembered nothing after it was

all over yet he earned great veneration from his viewers. Here, he points to a consciousness that

takes place in affective memory that then leads to a certain subconsciousness in performance.

This subconsciousness is often where the magic of the performance happens, because the actor is

free from mental constraints and fully immersed in the character.

Previously, actors would often "recite” roles, using diction and methods of speech

(Moore, S., et al (1984)), but Stanislavski suggested instead that actors could experience the

emotions by putting themselves into the character’s shoes and recalling relevant memories. He

declared that “delicate and deep human feelings are not subject to such technique. They call for

natural emotions at that very moment...” (Stanislavski 1989) These natural emotions come from

recalling as many similar details from a lived experience as possible.

While the Stanislavski technique dates back to the early 20th century, it prevailed to be

one of the most popular acting techniques still used today.

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Viola Spolin Theatre Games

Actress, director, author, coach, Viola Spolin created theatrical games which were

popularized in the early 1960s and taught the formal rules of theatre in an organic way through

improvisation. Born to Russian Jewish Immigrants, she would “sing, play parlor games, and

mount plays they’d written and improvised,” whenever the extended family got together (Viola

Spolin Biography). Later, she developed an interest in theatre, seeing opera performances even

before high school. After high school, she began to study with Neva Boyd, a “theorist of the

educational and social benefits of play who trained social workers in group work” (Viola Spolin

Biography). Boyd’s focus was to include immigrants into current culture by educating them

using games which taught them skills such as socialization, language, morality and cooperation.

Greatly inspired by the influence these games had on young immigrants, Spolin was then led to

create her own theatrical games, which would help actors develop and learn through experience.

Through these games, actors gain understanding through spontaneous experience, rather than

intellectuality, something heavily enforced by Stanislavski. Spolin took a nonverbal approach in

helping actors create their best work from an organic place, fully immersing themselves into the

environment, living moment to moment, and solving problems.

Spolin’s book, Improvisation for the Theatre (1963), contains over 200 improvisation

games and is said to have “revolutionized the way acting is taught” (Viola Spolin Biography).

Spolin not only wanted these games to be taught in the theatre but also in schools for anyone

who wished to “play in the theatre” (Spolin 2017). She believed that anyone could be an actor

because “if the environment permits it, anyone can learn whatever he chooses to learn; and if the

individual permits it, the environment will teach him everything it has to teach. “Talent” or “lack

of talent” have little to do with it” (Spolin 2017). Spolin goes on to say that “the “average”

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person has been known to transcend the limitation of the familiar, courageously enter the area of

the unknown, and release momentary genius within.” This was her definition of a good actor.

Spolin’s actor training method features games, all of which include a circumstance,

which the actor must creatively work through, therefore learning by experience, rather than

intellectual instruction. “In moments of pure spontaneity,” she says, “cultural and psychological

conditioning fall away, allowing for the player to explore the unknown” (Viola Spolin

Biography). She also states that, “Through spontaneity we are re-formed into ourselves” (Spolin

2017). Thus, she leads the actors into games that encourage such spontaneity.

“Follow the Follower,” one of Spolin’s improvisation games, calls the actors to mirror

one another with their bodies. They each take turns being the mirror until eventually there is no

leader. There is a moment of deep connection between the two. The actors become completely

coordinated and focused. Although this game uses no words, it follows the same concept of the

“Yes, and...” approach, which forces the actor to go along with whatever the other actor says, not

necessarily adding any dimension to the scene. Yet “Follow the Follower” extends the “Yes,

and...” approach to establishing a deeper connection between the actors. This game forces actors

to get out of their heads, to throw out all predetermined movements and/or thoughts and to allow

themselves to drift into the unknown (A discussion... 2019). In this state of being, discoveries are

made and beautiful moments are created.

Another game is the “Singing Dialogue.” Actors turn their words into a song which helps

with line memorization and the painting of words with melody. Spolin noted that singing

engages a different part of the brain that helps to “unlock” the meaning of the dialogue (Singing

Dialogue 2018). The actors must also sing with their whole bodies. They may even play with

word usage: elongating a word or repeating a phrase. (Spolin 2017). This may appear comical,

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but it does help with coloring the words, so that the actors do not become predictable or too

comfortable.

Lastly, I will discuss the game called “The Where.” Actors (a class or group)

collaboratively establish an invisible where with features that make up the place. Through

improvisation, actors make contact with each feature of the place. The area from which an actor

enters the stage will suggest the who and influence how the characters interact with one another

(Spolin 2017). Spolin mentions how the “where” in the who, what, when, where and how is often

overlooked in acting (Using the Where 2018). This exercise allows the actors to utilize the where

in support of the scene. This ties in with Stanislavski’s idea that location is crucial in

understanding the given circumstances. The location may impact the characters on

psychological, relational and/or physical levels.

Developed over thiry years after the Stanislavski technique, the improv games that Spolin

created took an innovative approach in actors training. Instead of drawing from research on the

character’s identity, her approach was to allow the actors to grow, using their own imaginations

to craft believable characters and circumstances. Spolin passed away in 1994 but her method is

still being taught to this day, primarily by one of her pupils, Gary Schwartz, who worked with

her for twenty years. Schwarts is the only master teacher to receive endorsement from Spolin and

her son, Paul Sills, co-founder, and director of The Second City (About 2018).

What this revolutionary approach speaks to is the human ability to become a character

based on imagination and experience. The actor pulls from within to imagine, establish and build

a character. The difference between Spolin’s improvisation technique and Stanislavski’s

technique, other than the above information, is that there is no individual character study. If an

actor is presented with a script, using Spolin’s method will not always help the actor discover

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character qualities that are presented within the script. The improvisation method may be useful

for training actors to think on their feet; however, the limitation is that it does not engage the

actor much in the material presented in the script. This must be observed in another context.

Spolin’s focus in her theatrical games were imagination, being present, and building genuine

connections.

Uta Hagen and the Six Steps

Uta Hagen, a well-known actress, director and acting coach from the 1960s to the early

2000s, was the founder of the Six Steps Acting Method. These steps, like most other acting

techniques, help actors to create believable characters. Like the Stanislavski approach, Hagen’s

method requires the actor to do a bit of character discovery. It starts with researching the

character’s identity before doing any stage work. Her six questions are as follows: Who am I?

What are the circumstances? What are my relationships? What do I want? What is my obstacle?

What do I do to get what I want (Uta Hagen's 6 Steps for Building a Character)? In the next few

paragraphs, I will break down each of the questions and address their main concerns.

Who am I? This question corresponds to the overall condition of the character. This

includes the character’s current state of being, self-perception and what adorns (or does not

adorn) them. This question is comparable to Stanislavski’s “who” concept in the process of

discovering the Given Circumstances.

What are the circumstances? Notably, Stanislavski incorporates the “Who” within the

Given Circumstances; meanwhile, Hagen separates them. According to Hagen, the given

circumstances are the time, location, atmosphere and the happening (what has just

happened/what is about to happen) (Uta Hagen's 6 Steps for Building a Character). What just

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happened and what is about to happen will influence and inform a variety of actor choices. For

instance, how does the character enter a room? If a character has just had a bad argument

offstage, they will enter a certain way. Moreover, if a character just got a job promotion, the

entrance would be different. Thus, the circumstances inform the nature of the actions.

What are my relationships? What is the character’s relationship to the circumstances --

how do they feel about it/how do the circumstances affect or influence them? What is the

significance of the place to the character? Does the place hold any significance at all? What are

the character’s relationships to the people around them? In understanding the character’s

relationships, the approach to handling an obstacle is then influenced.

What do I want? This can also be described as the character’s goals or objectives. As I

mentioned earlier, these objectives can break down into smaller ones and even change

throughout the scenes. Objectives can also be the character’s needs. Needs will increase the

stakes a bit and are often unchanging; meanwhile, wants may be more flexible and can often

change. Stanislavski couples tasks and objectives, signifying that one influences the other;

meanwhile, Hagen separates them, signifying that they are independent, yet interdependent.

What is my obstacle? This question addresses what is stopping or blocking the character

from getting what they want. Typically, the bigger the obstacle, the bigger the efforts will be to

overcome, go around, or go through it. The actor must understand what the obstacle is so that

there is intentionality behind every tactic and action. In other words, understanding the obstacle

gives every action a sense of direction and purpose.

What do I do to get what I want? Stanislavski would have called this a tactic. These are

a means of achieving the objective (Uta Hagen's 6 Steps for Building a Character). This question

encompasses the character’s attitude/position towards the goal, their behavior, and their actions.

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Stanislavski and Hagen share remarkably similar approaches but their training techniques

are different. I do not believe that Hagen accidentally left the word “given” off of the word

“circumstances.” Anyone who knew Hagen knew that she was not a person who did many things

by accident in the world of theatre. Stanislavski may have attributed the Given Circumstances to

what is provided textually but Hagen suggests by her removal of the word “given” that the

circumstances are sometimes created by the actor. This method therefore extends beyond script

acting and delves into improvisational acting as well. With the Six Questions Method, actors get

the best of both worlds because these questions guide any type of actor with mostly any type of

role.

On another note, Hagen also used a technique when coaching that involved tapping into

the actor’s memory -- like Stanislavski suggested with Affective Memory -- recalling a time

when he was in a similar situation to the character and allowing the memory of how it made him

feel to fuel the emotion behind the dialogue and action. Therefore, there is a true-to-life aspect

when it comes to acting using Hagen’s acting method. She stated:

If I am to play a silly, fluffy creature and I think I am not such a person, I cannot use

myself. I mistakenly believe I can only indicate what she would do. Yet if I watch myself

greeting my dogs with gushes of baby talk and giggles, I am silly.” (Hagen 2009)

In this way, Hagen indicates that it is better to reenact a true experience that is similar to

the character, than to pretend to be something you are not. Hagen uses a strategy that extends

beyond the character and draws from the psyche and the actor’s own experiences. Stanislavski’s

main goal in character study was to reveal the character’s identity. What one gains from this

approach is the understanding that characters are have human experiences. Stanislavski sought to

make the character’s experiences come to life through analysis and recall. Similarly, Hagen’s

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drive was to portray the character’s experiences with the actor’s nonfictional, remembered

reactions.

Black Acting Methods and The Luckett Paradigm

The Black Acting Methods Paradigm, established in 2017, was birthed from the

exclusion of the African and African American theatrical contributions in Western acting theory

(The Affirmation [Introduction] 2017). Research that supports the theory that theatre originated

in Africa is often overlooked in American classrooms in favor of sharing contributions from

those with fair skin. Black Acting Methods is powered by “Black theory and Black modes of

expression” (2017). This Paradigm seeks to:

(1) honor and rightfully identify Blacks as central co-creators of acting and directing

theory by filling the perceived void of black acting theorists, (2) uplift, honor, and

provide culturally developed frameworks for Black people who are pursuing careers in

acting, (3) provide diverse methodologies for actors and teachers of all races and cultures

to utilize, and (4) highlight performance practitioners’ labor in social justice issues and

activism.” (2017)

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Black Acting Methods is more than just a training technique for actors. It is a theatrical

movement, a semi-revolutionary approach for the 21st century. Founder Sharell B. Luckett draws

her inspiration from Freddie Hendricks (late 20th - early 21st century), an African American

theatre director, teacher, and “playwright” who would often present stage plays and musicals

using no script. Instead, actors used history’s examples of the earliest forms of theatre (rituals,

storytelling, dancing, singing, improv, etc.) in actor training. The Luckett Paradigm empowers

African Americans to write their own works (writing oneself into history), connect with musical

aspects, discover spirituality, and revere Black culture. This technique coincides with a well-

known quote from W.E.B. Dubois which states that theatre should be created “About us. By us.

[and] For us.”

This is a very close-knit actor’s training program that challenges actors to focus on the

“breath, the body, confidence, mental health, and imagination” (Training). Luckett’s strategy

inspires actors to be versatile so they can work and/or create with or without a script. The

message here is that actors should not be so reliant on another person’s interpretation or work.

Instead, Luckett challenges the actors to become creators themselves. She speaks of the struggles

that are prevalent in the Black community, that only Blacks themselves can voice. In that comes

the potential to contribute one’s own unique voice, especially the Black voices that have stories

yet to be told. Whether a film, stage or television actor, this technique applies to all types of

Black American actors. But, more importantly, this actor training program seeks to make a

historical footprint in social justice and performance work.

Before authoring her book, Black Acting Methods in 2017, Luckett originally utilized

Stanislavski, Freddie Hendricks and Miesner techniques when teaching her high school classes.

But after being questioned about her lack of consistency due to switching from technique to

technique, she was led to explore the origin of drama itself (Black Acting Methods with Sharell

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D Luckett...). After discovering that drama originated in Africa, Luckett was hungry to learn

more about theatre origins in Africa that began with rituals in performance. Disappointment in

not finding much information or prior writings, she was led her to author her own book and

begin teaching her own Black Acting methodologies. She drew from Ntozake Shange’s

questioning about black writing -- Shange said that because she did not see herself represented

much in the theatrical world, she would represent herself by writing herself into time. Shange

once said, “I write for young girls of color, for girls who don’t even exist yet, so that there is

something there for them when they arrive” (Carrol 1995). She goes on to justify her choice of

language when writing: “We must not only repossess the language, we must deslaveryize it”

(Carrol). Historically, black dialect was often used in a dehumanizing, satirical manner, yet

Shange sought to take it back. Luckett seeks to do the same, using the culture that once made

Blacks inferior in the eyes of others and proudly showcasing its raw beauty.

Black Acting Methods are “rituals, processes and techniques, where Black theories and

Black modes of expression inform how actors engage with and interpret text -- literary and

embodied text” (Black Acting Methods with Sharell D Luckett...). When the actors completely

immerse themselves in the embodiment of the characters, it is important to Luckett that they also

take care of their mental health. This type of mental healthcare is combined with black

psychology -- how African values and experiences come into play when we think about mental

health. With the understanding of mental health and African values, this paradigm offers classes

and healing strategies that help people heal from trauma and develop resiliency. The rituals,

processes, and techniques that the Black Acting Methods utilize allow all that is within to come

to surface, all while protecting the actor’s well-being.

One of the strategies Luckett uses in her technique draws from the teachings of Freddie

Hedricks, an African American theatre director. This strategy is called “the default.” Having a

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wide variety of students of all nationalities and ethnicities, they start with an open text, which is

a few lines of plain dialogue with no context. The lines are open to one’s own interpretation,

leading the students to create their own meanings. Though cultural evidence is always displayed

through the dialects of these lines, the action itself is interpretable. Luckett mentioned that there

is no thing that does not have cultural meaning -- everything has an origin, or a causer, or an

influencer of some sort. In other words, nothing comes from nothing but everything originates

from something. The idea of this activity is that each person will naturally put his or her own

“flavor” on the lines and reveal a little bit about his or her own culture. (Black Acting Methods

with Sharell D Luckett...). Even with the writing exercises Luckett uses in her predominantly

white college classes, it demonstrates that the words students put on paper come from lived

experiences -- they come from within.

Luckett declares that it is helpful to start with a music circle in her classes. She notes in

her book, Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches, that the formation of a circle is an African

ideology that establishes the acting space and helps create an understanding of the environment.

Everyone contributes in some way -- tapping the foot, playing the piano, singing, etc. This

concept comes from the African ethos of synchronicity, meaning that if one person starts a

rhythm, everyone else after will follow and harmonize with that rhythm (Black Acting Methods

with Sharell D Luckett...).

Luckett seeks to train actors to not limit themselves only to acting but to also play a part

in the many other compartments of theatre. She asks that they step out of their comfort zones to

offer up of themselves in a contributory way. By contributing, actors will become versatile

creators rather than mere actors. For instance, she suggests that the actor should also know how

to choreograph his own works, which is what they learn how to do in Black Acting Methods

training classes. When actors learn how to do things themselves, it will limit the need to find

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someone else to do it for them. As she states, it should not be a burden to know how to do

everything because artists should not be restricted to perform one role (Black Acting Methods

with Sharell D Luckett...).

As demonstrated, the Black Acting Methods Technique is different from Stanislavski’s

Technique in that it is derived from a cultural perspective, rather than a literary perspective. This

technique studies texts at times but mainly draws deeply from the lived experiences of African

American culture more than it does from the imagination of a character’s experiences and

perspectives.

Conclusion

Stanislavski’s Techniques have been proven reliable in both the 20th and 21st centuries. I

do not believe that it will ever be abandoned as it is still the most popular actor training

technique. But when we look at what else is being used today to train actors, there is a bit of a

drift from the sole focus on textual discoveries and imagination. Meanwhile, there is a noticeable

inclination towards self-discovery in acting that springs up during the late 20th to the early 21st

century.

Viola Spolin, for one, believed that anyone could be an actor because talent is grown

from within and cannot be taught. Consequentially, she created improvisation games that sought

to teach the principals of theatre, while allowing the actor to grow organically as a performer.

Spolin believed that each person has something unique on the inside that must be uncovered,

which is why many of her improv games were designed to take the actor off guard. At that

moment, she said "it creates an explosion that for the moment, frees us from handed-down

frames of reference, memory choked with old facts and information and undigested theories and

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techniques of other peoples’ feelings. Spontaneity is the moment of personal freedom...” (Spolin

2017) In that place, we find true beauty in performance.

Uta Hagen was known for her wise advice. Even before she became a director, she began

giving advice to co-actors behind the scenes on how to become more believable in acting. What

ignited her flame to become a theatre theorist was the fact that actors not only took her advice, a

fellow actor, but it actually worked. She combines humanity with character discovery, slightly

branching off the Stanislavski approach but remaining true to the script. Hagen knew that

characters were people too (in most cases), so their experiences are often represented in real life

and can thus, be reenacted by memory.

Sharell D. Luckett, pioneer of Black Acting Methods, began teaching the Stanislavski

Method herself. However, after realizing that she (a black woman) was underrepresented, she

began to write herself into the history that no one else dared to write about. Black Acting

Methods is an approach that stems from cultural notions and Black experiences. It delves into

spiritualism, musicality and the individual creativity that is birthed from each actor during a

variety of exercises and games. This technique explores human rawness, something that has not

been shown possible to exemplify through script analysis alone. However, when using a script,

the script becomes words on a paper, open for the actor to interpret for himself.

What I have observed from analysis is that the closer we get to the future, the more we

see individualism, organic self-expression, and human discovery play a role in actor training.

Acting is no longer about presenting, it is about living. As Stanislavski suggested through his

experiences on stage, theatre is a lived experience, whether timely or timeless, and it is becoming

more important to capture that essence in today’s actor training methods. We see evidence of this

trend in Uta Hagen’s theory of remembering: bringing one’s own lived experiences into the

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performance with reenactment; Sharell D. Luckett’s methodology describes a type of purging

that allows the textures of culture and personality to create beautiful and organic pieces of work;

similarly, Viola Spolin teaches spontaneity, which allows the actors to present their rawest selves

on stage. Stanislavski is accredited for much of the analysis procedures in actor training but we

can see an extension of this training technique in the works of Hagen, Luckett and Spolin, works

that delves from within. In the culture we live in today, individualism is highly esteemed and

even encouraged. Theatre, as we know it, is often a commentary on or a representation of the

present day and age. Because modern-day society has shifted to another place, we see theatre

practices following closely behind it.

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Works Cited

About. Spolin Games Online - Improvisational Library and Training. 2018.

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Carrol, Rebecca. "Rebecca Carroll, Back at You: Interview with Ntozake Shange." (Jan/Feb

1995).

Commons, HowlRound Theatre. “Black Acting Methods with Sharrell D Luckett ... -

Youtube.com.” YouTube. 2018.

Hagen, U., Frankel, H., & Pierce, D. H. Respect for Acting. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

Luckett, Sharell. "Black Acting Methods Studio." N.d.

Moore, S., Gielgud, J., & Logan, J. The Stanislavski System: The Professional Training of an

Actor: Digested from the Teachings of Konstantin S. Stanislavski. New York, NY: Penguin

Books, 1984.

Singing Dialogue. Spolin Games Online - Improvisational Library and Training. 2018.

Spolin, V. Improvisation for the Theater: A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques.

Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books, 2017.

Stanislavski, K. An Actor Prepares. Routledge, 1989.

The Affirmation [Introduction]. Luckett, Sharrell & Shaffer, Tia, eds. Black Acting Methods:

Critical Approaches. New York: Routledge, 2017.

Theaterific. “Uta Hagen's 6 Steps for Building a Character.” Uta Hagen's 6 Steps for Building a

Character -, 6 Apr. 2014.

Training. Black Acting Methods Studio. N.d.

Using the Where. Spolin Games Online - Improvisational Library and Training. 2018.

Viola Spolin Biography. N.d.