Actors Studio, The, organization founded 1947 in New York City by the directors Cheryl Crawford, Elia Kazan, and Robert Lewis to train professional actors. Long directed (1948–82) by Lee Strasberg and famous for its advocacy of the Stanislavsky “method” technique, the workshop has trained many leading, e.g., Anne Bancroft, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Robert De Niro, Julie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman, and Sidney Poitier, and was extremely influential in the 1950s. It continues to be active, teaching actors, directors, and playwrights in New York City and, since 1966, Los Angeles. The Actors Studio was later (1994–2005) associated with New York City's New School Univ. and has been a part of Pace Univ. since 2006.
See studies by R. H. Hethmon, ed. (1965, repr. 1991), D. Garfield (1980), F. Hirsch (1984, repr. 2001), and S. Frome (2001).
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