" People thought I should be proud to be a Strasberg; they were shocked to discover I was not. No one understood the frustration I felt in needing to be my own person," writes John Strasberg in his book "Accidentally on Purpose: Reflections on Life, Acting and the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity." Part autobiography and part acting text, the book lives up to its subtitle, making it clear that for him, life and art are inextricably linked and have been throughout his life.
Strasberg has spent the last 11 years directing all over Europe, especially France, Spain, and Italy, while living in Paris at least six months a year with his third wife, Anne, a French painter. Recently, over coffee at a diner located (ironically enough) around the corner from The Actors Studio, he talked easily about his book and his lifelong search for his own identity in both the theatre and the real world.
"I was asked to write a book at least 15 years ago, but I didn't think I had anything in particular to say then." This from the son of famed acting guru Lee Strasberg and godson of actor Franchot Tone, who as a child shared Sunday brunch in the late 1950s with the likes of Rip Torn and Geraldine Page, Albert Finney, Shelley Winters (whom Strasberg calls his "second mother"), Elia Kazan, Jerry Orbach, Jane Fonda, Frank Corsaro (artistic director of The Actors Studio, 1988-1996), and Arthur Penn (who currently heads the Studio).
In his book Strasberg tells how, at age six, he arrived home just in time to witness the arrest of two actors who had barged in with a loaded gun, threatening to kill his father. They weren't Lee's students, but because of his growing influence, they blamed him for their own lack of success. John Strasberg assumed it was just another rehearsal.
The Angry Young Man
Not a "Daddy Dearest," the memoir portions of "Accidentally on Purpose" are a brutally honest, yet forgiving, account of the years John Strasberg spent outside the sphere of his father's affection and in the shadow of his fame. He writes, "When I was young, I was angry and jealous of the theatre; I blamed it for my parent's emotional neglect My sister [Susan] and I had hundreds of rivals: George Peppard, Anthony Franciosa, Shelley Winters, Ben Gazzara, Steve McQueen, Anne Bancroft, Jane Fonda, Marilyn Monroe and Al Pacino [" the son my father needed"], to name just a few."
He also writes, "I often imagined myself an orphan being adopted by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans; they seemed more like real, loving parents to me," and, "I should have been Fred Astaire's kid, I think I would have been happier." He's equally candid about his nervous breakdown at 17 and his further estrangement from his father after the death of his mother, Paula, and Lee's marriage to Anna Mizrahi.
The rest of the younger Strasberg's book focuses on his own development after he left the Studio, his years with the Mirror Repertory Company, co-founded with second wife Sabra Jones in the '80s, and his belief in a creative process he calls "The Nine Natural Laws of Creativity." "The majority of my training was done with my father, so I didn't have to pay, except emotionally," he laughs.
In town for a recent series of lectures ("Stanislavsky to Strasberg to Strasberg") to promote his book, he also praised aspects of his father's teaching: "The strength in the Method is that it's very organized, simple, and clear Sense memory recreates an emotion by using a personal experience, but as actors, we also have to deal with situations that aren't analogous to our own lives." His lectures also addressed the strengths and weaknesses of other well-known systems (or methods) and their teachers.
Among his comments from those lectures and the book:
"Stanislavsky and my father both shared a distrust of spontaneity."
"Stella Adler hated sense memory exercises and felt my father took the pleasure out of acting, but she gave some of her best performances under his direction."
"My father, Stella, Sandy [Sanford Meisner] and Bobby [Lewis] all developed working systems. My analysis and critiques don't take anything away from them, I just feel they didn't go far enough."
"In the end, any actor who's any good is doing more than he or she was taught; otherwise, we'd all paint just like the teacher."
Sadly, in New York today, too many actors define themselves by what method they use."
And finally, "Run from any teacher who says, 'I have the truth!' "
The Mentor
John Strasberg began teaching in "1963 when my father got sick and I began teaching the exercise classes at the Studio. In the '50s," he recalls, "The Studio focused the American theatre experience." Then, in the early '60s, the Actors Studio Theater produced two seasons on Broadway, including the celebrated "The Three Sisters," directed by Lee and starring Geraldine Page, Kim Stanley, and Shirley Knight; the very successful "Baby Wants a Kiss," with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward; and James Baldwin's controversial "Blues for Mr. Charlie." "The Actors Studio could have been, should have been, the American National Theatre!" Strasberg states unequivocally. "But my father," he continues," was a teacher, not an artistic director."
John Strasberg himself has also taught and directed for more than three decades. On March 3, he was guest speaker at London's National Theatre Platform Series, in conjunction with the British publication of his book. And now he's back in town for the spring semester at the John Strasberg Studios, an international center with a branch in Paris, where he teaches in French, Spanish, and Italian, as well as English. The major difference between Strasberg pre et fils is, "My teaching is definitely not systemic." At 56, his identity is secure and he's won recognition and awards for his productions both here and abroad. "Actually," he muses, "my real evolution didn't even start until I was 45. That's when I finally began to be myself." q
ENDIT
"When I was young, I was angry and jealous of the theatre."
OR:
"Stanislavsky and my father both shared a distrust of spon