Acting techniques from the Masters: Uta Hagen

The Importance of Being Honest: Acting Techniques from the Masters

The following are excerpts from Dr. Mary Schuttler's class on the masters of acting technique.

Summary of Uta Hagen's contributions

Work and search for realities in yourself which serve the character and the play. Put your instincts and sense of truth, your understanding of human realities to use while probing and grappling with the content and the roots of the material. be specific and real in your actions, and they will communicate your artistic statement. Bring your universal understanding of the present to the present...as a real artist.

• Concept – talent, imagination, grip on reality, desire to communicate, character and ethics, point of view, understanding human behavior, total discipline.  Train and perfect all.  Identity – Know who you are.  Connect feeling to behavior.  Be self aware, not self-conscious.
• Substitution (particularization vs. generalization), Emotional Memory (release/trigger object), Sense Memory (recall sensation/overcome it), Five Senses (sharpen and heighten), Thinking (active), Walking and Talking (reason; physical and verbal must balance), Improvisation (for better understanding), Reality (truth in life is not truth on stage – adjust to tell the story).
• Object Exercises: Basic Object Exercise, 3 Entrances, Immediacy, 4th Wall, Endowment, Talking to Self, Outdoors, Conditioning Forces, History, Character Action.

Biography of Uta Hagen 1919-2004

Mary's Bio: Uta Thyra Hagen was born to an educator, Oskar F. L., and an opera singer, Myra Leisner-Hagen, on June 12, 1919, in Gottingen, Germany. In 1936 she graduated from Wisconsin High School in Madison, Wisconsin. Ms. Hagen then studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, in London, England, from 1936-37. Uta also attended the University of Wisconsin in 1937. Her first marriage was to actor-director Jose Ferrer (winner of the 1950 Best Actor Academy Award for ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’) on December 8, 1938. Although the Ferrers had one daughter together, their marriage ended in divorce in June of 1948. Uta Hagen married again on January 25, 1951, this time to actor-director-acting teacher Herbert Berghof. She taught the techniques of acting to many aspiring actors at her future husband’s studio starting in 1947, before branching out on her own and offering seminars to students across the nation. Ms. Hagen is also responsible for authoring the 1973 book, Respect for Acting.

Uta Hagen made her debut as an actress in the July, 1935 University of Wisconsin production of “Hay Fever.” She played Ophelia in a 1937 production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” and later, in 1942, won critical acclaim as Desdemona in the Theatre Guild’s production of ‘Othello.’ Hagen made her Broadway debut, in 1938, as Nina in ‘The Seagull,’ the play with which she toured the nation for four months. She appeared as Louka in ‘Arms and the Man’ (1938), and as a Chinese girl in ‘Flight into China’ (1939). Uta Hagen starred as Alegre d’Alcala in the 1939 Ethel Barrymore Theatre production of ‘Key Largo.’ In Michigan’s own Ann Arbor Drama Festival she played Ella in ‘Charley’s Aunt’ (May 1941). She also played the character Ellen Turner in ‘The Male Animal,’ and the Woman in “The Guardsman” (both 1941). Some of her other roles include Mrs. Manningham in “Angel Street”, Gretchen in “Faust” (both 1947), and Hilda in “The Master Builder” (1948). In June of 1948 Uta Hagen replaced Jessica Tandy as Blanche du Bois in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” (Vivien Leigh won her second Best Actress Academy Award in 1951 for this role.) Ms. Hagen also starred as Georgie in “The Country Girl” (1950), a role for which Grace Kelly won the 1954 Best Actress Academy Award. A few more of her stage roles are the title role in “Saint Joan”(1951), Tatiana in “Tovarich” (1952, she served as Vivien (Gone With the Wind) Leigh’s replacement), Jennet Jourdemayne in “The Lady’s Not for Burning” (1955). Uta Hagen performed at the Ann Arbor Drama Festival again in 1955 playing all the female roles in “The Affairs of Anatol.”  She also acted as Natalie Petrovna in “A Month in the Country.” Shen Te in “The Good Woman of Setzuan” (both 1956), and as Leah in “Sodom and Gomorrah” (1961).

Uta Hagen’s most famous role was that of Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (NY 1962, London 1964), a role for which Elizabeth Taylor won the 1966 Best Actress Academy Award.  Ms. Hagen made her motion picture debut in “The Other” (1972).

Uta Hagen has received two Antoinette Perry Awards and two NY Drama Critic’s Circle Awards, for “The Country Girl” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (for which she also won the London critics award).

Uta Hagen, obviously an accomplished actor herself, is probably one of the most widely respected teachers of acting in the world.

Web Bio: Uta Thyra Hagen (June 12, 1919 – January 14, 2004) was a German-born American actress and acting teacher. Born in Göttingen, Germany, her family emigrated to the United States during her early childhood. She was raised in Madison, Wisconsin. She studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Primarily noted for stage roles, Hagen was a two-time winner of a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, first in 1951 for her performance in The Country Girl and again in 1963 for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. In 1981 she was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame and in 1999 received a "Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award."

Although she appeared in some movies, because of the Hollywood blacklist, she had more limited output in film and on television, not making her cinematic debut until 1972. She would later comment that being kept out of film helped her art stay pure and honest. She was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award as "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" for her performance on the television soap opera, One Life to Live. She married José Ferrer in 1938, with whom she had a daughter, Leticia (Lettie) Ferrer, an actor in New York City. They divorced in 1948 partially because of her affair with her Othello costar Paul Robeson. She taught at HB Studio, a well-known New York City acting school, starting in 1957, and married its co-founder, Herbert Berghof, on January 25, 1957. After his death in 1990 she became the school's chairperson. Ms. Hagen was an influential acting teacher who taught, among others, Matthew Broderick, Christine Lahti, Jason Robards, Sigourney Weaver, Liza Minnelli, Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Lemmon, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. While being profiled in Premiere Magazine, actress Amanda Peet said of her mentor Hagen, that she was a woman whose class you didn't want to miss. She also wrote Respect for Acting (1973) and A Challenge for the Actor (1991), which advocates presentational acting, for example through the use of substitution. Hagen later stated that she "disassociated" herself from her first book, "Respect for Acting". In "Challenge for the Actor" she renamed the term "substitution," calling it "transference" instead. Though Hagen wrote that the actor should "identify" the character they play with feelings and circumstances from their (the actor's) own life, she also makes clear that "Thoughts and feelings are suspended in a vacuum unless they instigate and feed the selected Actions, and IT IS THE CHARACTER'S ACTIONS WHICH REVEAL the true 'you,'" as the character in the play. Respect for Acting is used as a textbook for many college acting classes. As well, she published a 1976 cookbook entitled "Love for Cooking". In 2002, she was awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President George W. Bush at a ceremony held at the White House.

Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen

chapter one - concept

• An actor needs: talent, imagination, a grip on reality, desire to communicate, character and ethics, point of view, understanding of human behavior, total discipline.
• An actor must: train and perfect the outer instrument; body, voice, speech, AND must have a thorough education in other studies.
• Stan says: love the art in yourself not yourself in the art.

chapter two - identity

• Know WHO you are and find your own sense of identity SO you can bring about a genuine life for a character.
• Your inner image of yourself may not match your outer; find awareness of TOTAL self in ALL situations.
• Get to know and accept yourself.
• Be able to connect feeling to behavior; learn to pinpoint your responses and resulting behaviors.
• Fill a warehouse with sources upon which to draw for construction of character. Object exercises (C11 – 20) help build self-awareness.
• Aim for a cat’s spontaneity; unanticipated involvement in the moment.
• Your own identity and self knowledge are the main sources for the characters you play.
• You experience most human emotions by age 18.
• Read, visit, look at paintings, etc, to put self into situation.
• Be self aware not self conscious; don’t be regular.

chapter three - substitution

• Find yourself in a part vs. losing yourself in a part.
• Substitution: transference from your own experiences and remembrances; put them in place of the fiction of the play.
• Mostly done intuitively.
• Sub is not an end in itself; it’s a way of bringing about justified, personal, character actions.
• Particularization vs. generalization.

chapter four - emotional memory

• Sub in order to release that big burst of tears, shriek of terror, etc.
• EMOTION OCCURS WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS TO US WHICH MOMENTARILY SUSPENDS OUR REASONING CONTROL AND WE ARE UNABLE TO COPE WITH THE EVENT LOGICALLY.
• Uta uses a RELEASE OBJECT to bring about emotion; trigger objects; a verbal or physical action (fist) can also be used.
• There’s no time to wander through past adventures; one should not be forced to deal with something buried.

chapter five - sense memory

• A recalling of physical sensations; easier to recall than emotions.
• Concentrate on a body part. EX. don’t think “hot”, focus on underarms: perspiration, sweaty, stickiness; attempt to overcome heat; adjust blouse; whole body will feel hot. For “cold”, focus on chill on back of neck; adjust to get warm; overcome sensation.
• Stimulate the Remembrance; fight against the sensation in one focused area (drunk - fight to be sober)

• Strengthen with the magic “if”.

chapter six - five senses

• Don’t take senses for granted.
• Cologne could make you remember old boyfriend; use it.
• Alert taste buds for taste of liquor.
• Heighten and sharpen the five senses.

chapter seven - thinking

• Real thinking precedes, is accompanied by, and follows action.
• Real thinking is active.
• Get out of the habit of verbally analyzing your thought process.
• Ask not what you’re thinking but what are your inner objects.
• To act is to do; not think.
• Actor’s thinking depends on the subjective process of weighing the course of action by a contact with inner and outer objects; give and take with the other.

chapter eight - walking and talking

• The reason for walking is destination.
• Total animation of the body is about correctly incorporating the surrounding circumstances.
• Action of words: how you send them, for what purpose and to whom, under what circumstances- what do you want or need at the moment.
• Physical and verbal must balance.

chapter nine - improvisation

• Used for a better understanding of the reality of the character, circumstances, time and place, emotions, and varied action.

chapter 10 - reality

• Truth in life is not truth on stage; Ex. you can’t really hurt someone.
• You must adjust to tell the story.

Sample Acting Exercises by Uta Hagen

• Three Entrances: the preparation for, and the making of, an entrance utilizing: What did I just do?  What am I doing right now?  What’s the first thing I want?
• Three Objects: Place 3 objects in a room.  Decide on time, place, surroundings, given circumstances (past, present, future), relationship, main objective, immediate objectives, obstacles, actions.  Enter the room, using Three Entrances.  Make the 3 objects a part of the “story” and deal with them individually as the story unfolds.

Handout - Uta Hagen Object Exercises

Additional Weblinks for Uta Hagen

Women's international Center, Education through Communication, Biography of Uta Hagen