Stella Adler Studio of Acting

History

Background and approach

Concurrent with her work as an actor and director, Stella Adler began to teach in the early 1940s at the Erwin Piscator Workshop at the New School for Social Research in New York. She left the faculty in 1949 to establish her own studio in New York in the same year.

Combining what she had learned from the Yiddish theatre, the Group Theatre, Broadway, Hollywood, and Constantin Stanislavski, Stella created the Stella Adler Theatre Studio, later renamed the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting and more recently the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, where she taught acting for many decades, and in 1985, she opened the Stella Adler Academy and Theatre in Los Angeles.[[File:Stella Adler in Shadow of The Thin Man trailer.jpg|right|140px|thumb|[[Stella Adler]] (1901–1992), founder of the school]]The studio offered courses in principles of acting, voice and speech, Shakespeare, movement, and makeup, as well as workshops in play analysis, character, scene preparation, and acting styles. Onstage experience was acquired by performances of scenes and plays before an invited audience. Among her early students were Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty, Elaine Stritch, Mario Van Peebles, Harvey Keitel, and Candice Bergen.

Adler's grandson Tom Oppenheim, who runs the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York and the Art of Acting Studio in Los Angeles, summarizes her approach to acting as such: "Growth as an actor and growth as a human being are synonymous."

Establishment in New York

The New York Studio continues to be operated by the Adler family, with Stella Adler's grandson Tom Oppenheim leading the organization as Artistic Director since 1995.

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting official West Coast branch is the Art of Acting Studio Los Angeles, named after Stella Adler's most famous book. The Stella Adler Studio of Acting is not affiliated with the Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles studio

Adler's long history with Hollywood meant she had close ties and strong connections in the Los Angeles area. She taught for many years at various locations in Los Angeles, and eventually, with her longtime friend and protégé Joanne Linville, opened the doors to the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle. Some of the notable people who have passed through the Hollywood conservatory include Nick Nolte, Salma Hayek, Eric Stoltz, Deidre Hall, Sean Astin, John Charles Jopson, John Ritter, Herschel Savage, Cybill Shepherd, Michael Richards, Benicio del Toro, and Mark Ruffalo.

Protégés Joanne Linville and Irene Gilbert persuaded Stella Adler to open the academy in 1985 in Los Angeles. Together, Gilbert and Linville are considered the school's cofounders, with Adler granting them permission to use her name. Gilbert remained the director of the school for 20 years.

The original school was located in a small theater at Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Avenue. A fire forced the temporary closure of the school in 1991. The building was threatened with demolition to make way for a proposed subway line at the time of Adler's death in 1992. In 1994, Irene Gilbert reopened the school's present location at 6773 Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. It was renamed the Stella Adler Academy of Acting, and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2010. The historic location housed the famous Embassy Club in the 1930s.

The school is an acting studio offering extensive training for actors in theatre, film, and television. The facility houses the not-for-profit Stella Adler Theatre, the Irene Gilbert Theatre, The Studio C Theatre, classrooms, dance studio, music studio, library, dressing rooms, video and equipment room, scene shop, and administrative offices, all dedicated to teaching Stella's technique.

Linville continues to teach at the academy as the lead instructor for the last 25 years. Irene Gilbert died in 2011.

In 2010, alumni of the school formed the Stella Adler Los Angeles Theatre Collective.

Notable alumni

• Sean Astin
• Warren Beatty
• Byrdie Bell
• Candice Bergen
• Peter Bogdanovich
• Marlon Brando
• James Coburn
• Clifton Collins, Jr.
• Calico Cooper
• Bud Cort
• Robert De Niro
• Benicio del Toro
• Leah Dizon
• Alden Ehrenreich
• Lilly Englert
• Maya Eshet
• Wayne Federman
• Chloe Fineman
• Nina Foch
• Teri Garr
• Valeria Gastaldi
• Pamela Gidley
• Alexander Godunov
• Melanie Griffith
• Christopher Guest
• Jean Hale
• Salma Hayek
• Jessica Hecht
• Bryce Dallas Howard
• John Charles Jopson
• Harvey Keitel
• Sally Kellerman
• Perry King
• Bianca Lawson
• Cloris Leachman
• Natasha Leggero
• Jane Levy
• Karl Malden
• Thuso Mbedu
• Rafael Morais
• Sergej Moya
• Donna Murphy
• Kate Mulgrew
• Adam Nagaitis
• Judd Nelson
• Nick Nolte
• Bill Paxton
• Sydney Tamiia Poitier
• Coral Peña
• Sydney Pollack
• Anthony Quinn
• John Ritter
• Mark Ruffalo
• Eva Marie Saint
• John Saxon
• Herschel Savage
• Martin Sheen
• Cybill Shepherd
• Maya Shoef
• Darrell M. Smith
• Elaine Stritch
• Holland Taylor
• Christopher Thornton
• Nitya Vidyasagar
• Henry Winkler

References

References

1. (August 17, 2015). "Contact Us | Stella Adler Studio of Acting".
2. [http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Aug04/0,4670,PeopleStellaAdler,00.html Adler Gets Posthumous Hollywood Walk Star] ''[[Fox News]]'', Friday, August 4, 2006.
3. [http://drama.tisch.nyu.edu/object/DR_StellaAdler.html Stella Adler Conservatory – History and Philosophy] [[Tisch School of the Arts]], [[NYU]].
4. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/theater/09adler.html?_r=1 A New Act Unfolds in Drama Dynasty] ''[[New York Times]]'', April 9, 2008.
5. (March 7, 2011). "Visit our Los Angeles campus, the Art of Acting Studio! | Stella Adler Studio of Acting".
6. Ng, David. (June 29, 2009). "A Stella Adler turf war in L.A.". Los Angeles Times.
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8. [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565104/Stella-Adler-Conservatory-of-Acting Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting] ''[[Britannica.com]]''.
9. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE0DD1E31F931A15751C1A964958260 Stella Adler, 91, an Actress And Teacher of the Method] ''[[New York Times]]'', December 22, 1992.
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11. (May 31, 2011). "Actress Irene Gilbert ran LA acting academy". [[San Francisco Chronicle]].
12. Nelson, Valerie J.. (May 28, 2011). "Irene Gilbert dies at 76; cofounder of Stella Adler's Los Angeles acting academy". [[Los Angeles Times]].
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20. Nelson, Valerie J.. (May 28, 2011). "Irene Gilbert dies at 76; cofounder of Stella Adler's Los Angeles acting academy". Los Angeles Times.
21. (September 4, 2015). "4 Things You Never Knew About Natasha Leggero". Cosmopolitan.
22. (24 September 2006). "Sergej Moya im Interview: "Ich lebe in meinem Kopf in einer Welt von Märchen und Geschichten."". Planet Interview.
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25. "Mark Ruffalo".
26. (September 15, 2015). "Holland Taylor". Stella Adler Los Angeles.
27. "Christopher Thornton at IMDB".
28. (16 July 2016). "A Passage to Hollywood: How Indian Actors are Storming the US Entertainment Industry".
29. (September 15, 2015). "Henry Winkler". Stella Adler Los Angeles.