The Method

How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act

By: Isaac Butler

Narrated by: Isaac Butler

Bloomsbury presents The Method written and read by Isaac Butler.

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Nonfiction

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 BY THE NEW YORKER, TIME MAGAZINE, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, VOX, SALON, LIT HUB, AND VANITY FAIR

“Entertaining and illuminating.”—The New Yorker * “Compulsively readable.”—New York Times * “Delicious, humane, probing.”—Vulture * “The best and most important book about acting I’ve ever read.”—Nathan Lane

The critically acclaimed cultural history of Method acting—an ebullient account of creative discovery and the birth of classic Hollywood.

On stage and screen, we know a great performance when we see it. But how do actors draw from their bodies and minds to turn their selves into art? What is the craft of being an authentic fake? More than a century ago, amid tsarist Russia’s crushing repression, one of the most talented actors ever, Konstantin Stanislavski, asked these very questions, reached deep into himself, and emerged with an answer. How his “system” remade itself into the Method and forever transformed American theater and film is an unlikely saga that has never before been fully told.

Now, critic and theater director Isaac Butler chronicles the history of the Method in a narrative that transports readers from Moscow to New York to Los Angeles, from The Seagull to A Streetcar Named Desire to Raging Bull. He traces how a cohort of American mavericks—including Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and the storied Group Theatre—refashioned Stanislavski’s ideas for a Depression-plagued nation that had yet to find its place as an artistic powerhouse. The Group’s feuds and rivalries would, in turn, shape generations of actors who enabled Hollywood to become the global dream-factory it is today. Some of these performers the Method would uplift; others, it would destroy. Long after its midcentury heyday, the Method lives on as one of the most influential—and misunderstood—ideas in American culture.
©2022 Isaac Butler (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Tremendous

This book is an entertaining and comprehensive history of “The System” and subsequent “Method.” I am a professional stage director and student of the theatre. This is the most enjoyable theater book I’ve listened to on audible—a true delight!

METHOD TO MY MADNESS

I'm usually not a fan of authors reading their own material but this one did well. The narrator stuck to the text and did not riff or improvise as so many author narrators often do.

The narrator was also evenly paced. So many of the author narrators I have heard in the past rush the passages of important text to read one of their more august sentences in their most sonorous pretentious voice. This isn't fair to the listener. I paid good money to listen to complete texts not to indulge the author narrator's fanciful whims of what a real narrator should sound like.

I am also pleased the author narrator did not introduce material from past works as so many author narrators will do if you are not listening carefully. After listening to so many audiobooks I am adept at picking out intentionally misplaced text, i.e. advertising unpublished works.

My biggest pet peeve with the narrator was with the pronunciation of certain key names in the book like Lee Strasbergs last name. It's Strasbourg--BOURG...like THE UMBRELLAS OF CHER--BOURG. Wasn't there an editor or director in the recording studio with him? Shouldn't they have told him the correct pronunciation?

Another small problem I had with the author narrator were some of the long pauses he took to drink water. These long pauses occurred toward the end of the book as his voice became more and more strained and occasionally cracked. Isn't there a way to stop the recording process long enough to allow the narrator to have some water without me having to hear him reach for it, pour it, and swallow it during certain crucial parts of the book? I'm just glad these long breaks did not happen at the beginning of the book or I would have stopped listening. I'm also glad the narrator sounded did like a nonsmoker.

Fascinating and Immensely Entertaining

For years I have wondered what was different about the great actors of the 30’s and 40’s such as Hepburn, Tracy or Davis and the great actors we began to see in the 50’s and 60’s such Brando, Kim Stanley and Newman. This book explains, what to me was this mystery. Going back to the Moscow Art Theatre and Stanislavsky and the creation of “the system” and its migration to America, the author traces this rich history, the revolution in acting and the creation of the Method in America. Beautifully read by the author, if you live theatre and movies you MUST read this book!

Highly illuminating

Terrific to have an inside view of the mechanics of acting from when it became a bona fide thing. Isaac Butler post back the curtain on what motivates actors over the ages, not in a gossipy way, but in more of a factual and academic style. It really puts a lot into perspective.
Worth the read if you’re interested in the mechanics of this craft.

Highly recommended.

A riveting biography of the Method, this is also a deeply observed, comprehensive study of American realism, starting from its roots in Stanislavsky, through its divergent proponents in Strasberg, Adler, and Meisner (among others), to its aftermath and legacy in the present moment. I first picked up the ebook then transitioned to the audiobook, which I highly recommended for the author’s clear and impassioned narration. I will be returning to this book again and again.