The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute (originally the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute) is an acting school founded in 1969 by the actor, director, and acting teacher Lee Strasberg. The Institute is located in Union Square on East 15th Street, also known as Lee Strasberg Way, in New York City. The school has a secondary campus in Los Angeles.
For more than 40 years, the Institute has partnered with New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where students can earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.[1] The Los Angeles campus also offers an Associate of Occupational Studies degree.[2] Until her January 2024 death, the Institute was under the artistic direction of Anna Strasberg, Lee Strasberg's widow.[3] Students at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute learn method acting, an acting technique created and developed by Strasberg.[4]
History
In 1931, Lee Strasberg co-founded the Group Theatre, hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective,"[5] alongside fellow directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford. In 1951, he became director of the Actors Studio in New York City, considered "the nation's most prestigious acting school,"[6] and, in 1966, he was involved in the foundation of the Actors Studio West in Los Angeles.
After almost five decades of teaching private classes and shepherding generations of actors toward success at the Actors Studio, Strasberg established his own school in 1969, open to all those interested in learning The Method. Years later, a gift from his wife Anna Strasberg established the permanent homes of the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institutes in both New York and Los Angeles.[7]
Anna Strasberg (April 16, 1939 – January 6, 2024), also known as Anna Mazraki, was a Venezuelan-born American actress and artistic director of the institute. In 1968, she married Lee Strasberg. Thanks to the will of Marilyn Monroe, of whom her predecessor Paula Strasberg was an acting coach together with her husband Lee, she inherited after Lee's death and took take care of the Marilyn Monroe Theater and the Marilyn Monroe Museum[8] (at first it was a room of the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, which he personally curated). She had among her students Michel Altieri. Strasberg acted in some cinema and television films in the 1960s, and again in the 1980s. She died in New York on January 6, 2024, at the age of 84.[9]
↑ Goldfarb, Michael. "Man in the Moon: Dancing Bears". The Guardian. October 30, 1990. "The actors – Christopher Chappell as Bear and Greg Anderson as 'F' – trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute and they suffer, bellow and sweat vigorously."
↑ Drake, Sylvie. "Stage Notes: New Simon Play on CTG Slate". The Los Angeles Times. August 14, 1975. "Ten scholarships for a full year's training at the Lee Strasberg Institute, plus working observerships at the Actors Studio Inc. have been awarded as a result of joint Strasberg-Plaza de la Raza auditions. Winners of the scholarships are Alma Beltran, Margarita Galvan, Olga Gonzalez, Rafael Lopez, Yolanda Marquez, Pedro Martinez, Sal Martinez, Julio Medina, Antonio Rolon and Candi Sosa."
↑ Fonseca, Nicholas. "Ben Curtis". Entertainment Weekly. August 24, 2001. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
↑ Mahoney, John C. "'Say Goodnight, Gracie' Off Target". The Los Angeles Times. July 28, 1982. "Kelly Curtis is Ginny, sadly resigned to not being smart but smartly settled for honest responses. [...] All participants have been associated with the Lee Strasberg Theater [sic] Institute."
↑ Hill, Michael E. "Kong, Terminator, and the Beast". The Washington Post. November 6, 1988. "After two years at Washington College, she moved to New York. 'Actually, I followed a boyfriend there.' She took classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and studied with Nicholas Ray."
↑ Sullivan, Dan. "Stage Review: The Day Daddy Stayed Home". The Los Angeles Times. "Two short plays by Oliver Hailey and Steve Tesich presented at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, 6757 Hollywood Blvd. Director Albert Morgenstern. Setting Joe Deneen. Lighting Steve Burton. With Deneen, Leo Knudson, Richard Williams, Gary Gallati, Lou Piceti, Mary O'Connell, Janice Karman and Saundra Dowden."
↑ Daly, Maggie. "Maggie Daly". The Chicago Tribune. July 22, 1973. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
↑ Rogers, Charles E. "Different Stages: Johnny Kemp: Not Just Another Star". The New York Amsterdam News. April 19, 1986. "Before his big CBS break, Johnny spent his last few years writing new material, polishing his acting skills at the Lee Strasberg Institute and fronting various groups."
↑ Horwitz, Simi. "Miller's Tale". The Stamford Hour. December 292001. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
↑ Klein, Alvin. "'Drood' Twist: Understudy Now the Star". The New York Times. December 28, 1986. Retrieved April 30, 2015. "Now Ms. Murphy, who has studied with Stella Adler and at the Lee Strasberg Institute, applies that 'creative dramatic technique' to the 'trouser role' of the Dickensian character Edwin Drood, who, Ms. Murphy explained, 'is an orphan – in Dickens somebody has to be an orphan – but he's cocky and he's out to conquer the world.'"
↑ Horwitz, Simi. "Jerry Orbach: His 'Law & Order' Role Fits Like a Glove". The Washington Post. February 28, 1993. "At Northwestern University, Orbach majored in acting, and by the time he got to the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York, he "wanted to be the next Marlon Brando or Montgomery Clift."
↑ Willis, John; Hodges, Ben, editors (2009)."Obituaries". Theatre World 2006–2007 – The Most Complete Record of the American Theatre. Milwaukee, WI: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. p. 415. ISBN978-1-55783-728-8. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
↑ BOck, Hans-Michael; Bergfelder, Tim, ed. (2009) "Franka Potente". The Concise Cinegraph: An Encyclopedia of German Cinema. New York: Berghahn Books. p. 373. ISBN978-1-57181-655-9. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
↑ Taylor, Clarke. "Tyrone Power, Jr., The Son May Also Rise". The Los Angeles Times. June 29, 1985. "Five Years ago, having graduated from Pomomna College and studied for a time at the Lee Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles, he decided to set out on an acting career in New York, rather than remain in Southern California, where he was sure to be surrounded by 'expectations.'"
↑ Terry, Carol Burton. "TV Line". New York Newsday. December 8, 1985. "At age 18, he moved to New York, where he still lives, then attended Temple University as a liberal arts major, focusing on wrestling. But he was still undecided about his career. He moved to Europe and traveled throughout the continent for a year and a half, returning to New York with a desire to act. He attended the Lee Strasberg Institute, financing his theatrical education by modeling for GQ and other publications."
↑ Arkatov, Janice. "Windsor's 'Star' Label Still Intact". The Los Angeles Times. April 23, 1986. Retrieved April 30, 2015. "Currently, the objects of that vitality include a son (Ricky, 23), tennis ('though lately I haven't been playing so well') and art (she's sold more than 100 of her paintings)--along with civic duties (the Thalians, John Tracy Clinic, Screen Actors Guild) and ongoing studies (Stella Adler, the Lee Strasberg Institute, Harvey Lembeck Workshop and a recent screen writing class at UCLA)."
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