Uta Hagen held a lot of influence in 20th century American Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in 1938 in Anton Chekov’s The Seagull. She also acted against Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. She also originated the role of Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Uta taught for years at the Herbert Berghof studio in New York. She instructed many well-known actors including Jack Lemmon, Matthew Broderick, and Al Pacino. She wrote two books on acting: Respect for Acting (1973) and A Challenge for the Actor (1991). When it came to the craft and technique of theatre, her career encompassed the four roles of actor, director, teacher, and writer.
In Respect for Acting, Uta identified 9 questions an actor should ask themselves as they prepare. It’s all about being as specific as possible.
1: Who Am I? All the details about your character including name, age, address, relatives, likes, dislikes, hobbies, career, description of physical traits, opinions, beliefs, religion, education, origins, enemies, loved ones, sociological influences, etc
2. What Time Is It? Century, season, year, day, minute, significance of time
3. Where Am I? Country, City, neighborhood, home, room, area of room
4. What Surrounds Me? Animate and inanimate objects - complete details of environment
5. What are the Given Circumstances? Past, present, and future of all relevant events
6. What is my Relationship? Relation to total events, other characters, and to things
7. What do I Want? Character's need. The immediate and main objective
8. What is in My Way? The obstacles which prevent character from fulfilling need.
9. What do I do to Get What I Want? The action: physical and verbal. Action verbs
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