With the success of his work at the Actors Studio and the international acclaim of his Method training, Lee, together with his wife Anna, opened the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in 1969. The primary goal was to reach a larger audience of eager and emerging talent, as well as to dispel growing confusion and misrepresentation of the Method, preserving what had by now become fundamental discoverie
s in actor training. The Institute represents the culmination of these stages in Lee’s development as a director, teacher, and pioneer in actor training and teaches what he considered to be a comprehensive approach to solving the actor’s fundamental problems. Today the Institute celebrates over 40 years of actor training and is the only school that teaches Lee Strasberg’s work in its complete and purest form. Staff and teachers conducting classes have been selected for their comprehensive knowledge of Strasberg’s work and their ability to apply it to the problems of the actor. The Institute’s curriculum, designed by Lee, provides the actor with opportunities to pursue his or her work systematically and to gain firsthand knowledge of the fundamental concepts of the Strasberg work. Through class work, seminars, exercises, scene work, and discussions, professionals and non-professionals are encouraged towards development of their art and themselves. The Institute has built its outstanding reputation on the enduring value of Lee Strasberg’s teachings, the achievements of our students, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. We challenge our students to be bold in their choices, original in their ideas, and passionate in their pursuit of creative individuality. The goal of the Institute is to provide students with a craft that will help them create a reality and respond truthfully in imaginary circumstances, regardless of the style or form of material being used. Actors learn to express powerful emotions and are encouraged to leave behind conventional, superficial, and clichéd expressions in search of their own unique artistic voices. The Method trains actors to use their physical, mental, and emotional humanity in the creation of the play’s characters and stresses the way in which personal experience can fire the actor’s imagination. This is the spark that turns an accomplished technician into an inspired artist and what makes Strasberg’s Method a vital technique for actor training.
