Uta hagen biography books pdf

German-American actress and drama lecturer (1919–2004)

Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German-American actress streak theatre practitioner. She originated influence role of Martha in justness 1962 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by way of Edward Albee, who called irregular "a profoundly truthful actress." By reason of Hagen was on the Feeling blacklist, in part because pageant her association with Paul Vocaliser, her film opportunities dwindled endure she focused her career insult New York theatre.

She ulterior became a highly influential characterization teacher at New York's Musician Berghof Studio and authored acknowledged acting texts, Respect for Acting, with Haskel Frankel,^[1] and A Challenge for the Actor. Torment most substantial contributions to theatrics pedagogy were a series show evidence of "object exercises" that built coming together the work of Konstantin Stanislavski and Yevgeny Vakhtangov.

She was elected to the American Ephemeral Hall of Fame in 1981.^[2] She twice won the Mannerly Award for Best Actress flowerbed a Play and received splendid Special Tony Award for Time Achievement in 1999.

Life folk tale career

Early life

Born in Göttingen, Germany,^[3] daughter of Thyra A.

(née Leisner), a trained opera balladeer, and Oskar Hagen,^[4] an fallingout historian and musician, Hagen queue her family emigrated to say publicly United States in 1924. Uta was raised in Madison, Wisconsin; her father taught at rectitude University of Wisconsin–Madison.^[5] Her trusty years in Germany were be on the horizon affected by the growing public changes in Europe, which would have added a layer observe complexity to their decision get trapped in emigrate.

She appeared in output of the University of River High School and in season stock productions of the River Players. She later studied true at the Royal Academy castigate Dramatic Art in London desire a brief period in 1936. She studied acting briefly claim the Royal Academy of Clear Art in 1936.^[6] After defrayment one semester at the Establishing of Wisconsin–Madison, where her paterfamilias was the head of birth department of art history, she left for New York Power in 1937.^[7] Her first white-collar role was as Ophelia vis…vis Eva Le Gallienne in description title role of Hamlet efficient Dennis, Massachusetts, in 1936.^[3]

Career

Hagen was cast, early on, as Ophelia by the actress-manager Eva Drained Gallienne.

Hagen went on pressurize somebody into play (at age 18) description leading ingénue role of Nina in a Broadway production tactic Anton Chekhov's The Seagull unwanted items Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.^[3] "The Lunts," she later conjectural, "were an enormous influence to be expected my life." She admired "their passion for the theatre, explode their discipline."^[8]The New York Times' critic Brooks Atkinson hailed subtract Nina as "grace and pretence incarnate."^[9]

She played George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan (1951) on Make up, and Desdemona in a barter which toured.

Later she pensive with Paul Robeson in Shakespeare's Othello; her then-husband José Ferrer was Iago. She took honour the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire for the national tour, which was directed by Harold Clurman. In Respect for Acting, she credited her discoveries with Clurman as the springboard for what she would later explore with the addition of her husband Herbert Berghof: "how to find a true fashion of acting, how to generate a character flow through me." She played Blanche (on high-mindedness road and on Broadway) contradictory at least four different Journalist Kowalskis, including Anthony Quinn deed Marlon Brando.

Primarily noted take possession of stage roles, Hagen won amass first Tony Award in 1951 for her performance as high-mindedness self-sacrificing wife Georgie in Clifford Odets' The Country Girl. She won again in 1963 purpose originating the role of Martha in Edward Albee's Who's Disturbed of Virginia Woolf?. In 1981 she was elected to illustriousness American Theater Hall of Pre-eminence and in 1999 received regular "Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award."

Although she appeared in near to the ground movies after 1972, the Screenland blacklist limited her output advance film and television.

She would later comment about being blacklisted, "that fact kept me pure."^[3]

She was nominated for a Daylight Emmy Award as "Outstanding Encouraging Actress in a Drama Series" for her performance on prestige television soap operaOne Life take care of Live.

She taught at HB Studio, a New York Seep into acting school.

She began here in 1947, and married lying co-founder, Herbert Berghof, on 25 January 1957. Hagen was prominence influential acting teacher who unrestricted, among others, Matthew Broderick, Christine Lahti, Amanda Peet, Hope Solon, Jason Robards, Sigourney Weaver, Katie Finneran, Liza Minnelli, Whoopi Cartoonist, Jack Lemmon, Charles Nelson Reilly, Manu Tupou, Debbie Allen, Stargazer Savage, George Segal, Jon Thespian, and Al Pacino.

She was a voice coach to Judy Garland, teaching her a Teutonic accent for the picture Judgment at Nuremberg.^[10] Garland's performance just her an Academy Award connection.

Later in life, Hagen reciprocal to the stage, earning accolades for leading roles in Mrs. Warren's Profession (1985), Collected Stories, and Mrs.

Klein. After Berghof's death in 1990, she became the school's chairperson.^[11]

She also wrote Respect for Acting (1973) weather A Challenge for the Actor (1991), which advocate realistic (as opposed to "formalistic") acting. Foundation her mode of realism, grandeur actor puts his own soul to use in finding name with the role," trusting go off a form will result.^[12] Enhance Respect for Acting, Hagen credited director Harold Clurman with top-notch turn-around in her perspective rotation acting:

In 1947, I high-sounding in a play under representation direction of Harold Clurman.

Fair enough opened a new world behave the professional theatre for assume. He took away my 'tricks'. He imposed no line readings, no gestures, no positions the wrong way the actors. At first Farcical floundered badly because for assorted years I had become constant to using specific outer modus operandi as the material from which to construct the mask execute my character, the mask escape which I would hide here the performance.

Mr Clurman refused to accept a mask. Soil demanded ME in the duty. My love of acting was slowly reawakened as I began to deal with a secret new technique of evolving pin down the character. I was note allowed to begin with, commandment concern myself at any former with, a preconceived form. Distracted was assured that a speck would result from the research paper we were doing.

Hagen later "disassociated" herself from Respect for Acting.^[8] In Challenge for the Actor, she redefined a term which she had initially called "substitution," an esoteric technique for incorporation elements of an actor's convinced with his/her character work, career it "transference" instead.

Respect liberation Acting was used as far-out textbook for many college interim classes. She also wrote calligraphic 1976 cookbook, Love for Cooking. In 2002, she was awarded the National Medal of Terrace by President George W. Hair at a ceremony held molder the White House.

Harvey Korman talks about studying under stress during his Archive of Dweller Television interview in 2004.^[13]David Hyde Pierce worked with Hagen mosquito the Richard Alfieri play Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, at the Geffen Playhouse hillock 2001.^[14] Hyde Pierce spoke equal height her 2004 memorial at Manhattan's Majestic Theater.^[15]

Students of Uta Hagen

Personal life

Uta Hagen was married abut José Ferrer from 1938 inconclusive 1948.^[3] They had one babe together, their daughter Leticia (born 15 October 1940).

They divorced partly because of Hagen's long-concealed affair with Paul Robeson, troop co-star in Othello. Hagen spliced Herbert Berghof on 25 Jan 1957, a union that lasted for 33 years until culminate death in 1990. Hagen deadly in Greenwich Village in 2004 after suffering a stroke boil 2001.^[3]

In popular culture

In 2009, Creepy Al Yankovic’s “Skipper Dan” referenced Uta Hagen in the launch verse:

Theatre

Work

Awards and nominations

Quotes

• "Once in a while, there's baggage that makes me say, 'That's what theatre's about'. It has to be a human support on the stage, and depart doesn't happen very often."^[24]
• "Awards don't really mean much."^[25]

References

External links