The photo above is a sixteen year old Ellen Terry, probably one of the greatest and most widely acclaimed actors of the English speaking Stage during the 19th and early 20th centuries – she was born in 1847 and died in 1928.
What this has to do with a lecture on the various schools of acting by Edward Craig is simple; Edward Craig was the son of Ellen Terry, whom she had when she was around 18.
Edward Craig went on to become an actor in his own rite, as well as director and producer during the early years of the 20th century. He was something of a spearhead in pursuing modern methods of Acting. By the time of this recording (1951), Craig was well past his prime, but was still lecturing on the work of his Mother, but also on the craft of Acting and Theatre in general.
This lecture, titled The Old School Of Acting takes a long look back to practices and techniques employed before the turn of the 19th Century into the era of early motion pictures of the 20th. The Methods and Techniques Edward Craig was promoting was vehemently opposed by the Old School (a school of acting we now look at and cringe with its overuse of stage direction and character motivation), but what was regarded at the time as examples of La Scuola della Vita (School of Life).
Edward Craig is a bit slow and plodding with his reminiscences and examples, but it’s goldmine of glimpses into a period of performance and Theatre long since forgotten is crucial in the history of the Stage and how things were and what they became.
Even the era which Edward Craig was promoting as the dawn of Modern Acting is now regarded as quaint and painfully formal, gives some indication how things evolve and that art and it’s many forms of expression are constantly being questioned, changed and improved upon.
This lecture was recorded and broadcast on October 21, 1951 by The BBC and it was part of a series of lectures delivered by Edward Craig during that year.
Stay tuned.
For an example of Ellen Terry – here is her Potion Scene from Act 4 of Romeo and Juliet – recorded February 28, 1911:
