Learn from Books; Meisner vs. Strasberg

I should have mention it before.. an earlier step. But here it is now. When i first started reading about acting, it was on Wikipedia for general information. There i learned that there are really two different main approaches to acting: one lead by Lee Strasberg, and the other by Sanford Meisner.

I first decided to study Meisner's method because i had read comments that his way is more direct and simple, and i didn't want to waste any time. So I read "Meisner On Acting" by Sanford Meisner about a month ago. I had read about 50 pages when i met Susan and she told me STOP READING. and i did stop... But i thought about it for a few days and decided to keep reading... So i finished it, and had a better acquaintance with the acting studies.

I wanted to keep reading because i literally had no knowledge of acting--meaning i had no idea what is expected, what's not, what's acceptable in a classroom environment, what general language and terms are used in the craft. I wanted to get aquainted with the perception of others. Susan told me that you can't learn method from books and that i shouldn't read them because they'd confuse me. And i can totally see why she said that.  But, I look at things objectively and i am not going to internalize the thing which i read, or act too-good just because i've read a book or two, which i think that's what she wanted to avoid.

However, as i studied with Susan and started to read Lee Strasberg's book "A Dream of Passion, The Development of the Method," i realized that this is the Method that i worked for me. I feel it to be more classy, professional, and structured, more closely related to that of the grandfather of acting--Constantin Stanislavsky. Whereas, Meisner seemed a bit more gritty, harsh, and unsupported by method research.

With this healthy attitude about learning from reading books, I was more prepared and ready to work with Susan. She even commented how i "know all the right terms" after i had been intellectually prepared with terms like "craft, diction, cold reading, etc." So if you've got a healthy and humble approach, then you can learn from books--just make sure you are objective and not to assimilate to everything you read. you must discover what works for you on your own, or better yet with an amazing coach.