Word: johnstons
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...Johnston disagrees with Tyrone Guthrie's ideas about playwriting, which he feels are too romantic and impractical. But he concurs with Guthrie's statement that "the ideal stage production ought to be a cooperative undertaking of four elements--the author, director, actors, and audience...
...Ideally, however, this happy combination never takes place," Johnston said. "What inevitably happens is a compromise. The director never gets the ideal cast, so the play has to be tailored to fit the existing one. The great actor seldom gets the role he has talent to interpret, or even a chance to visualize the role except in terms of his own part...
...Johnston repudiates Guthrie's theory that the author, once finished with his script, should stay away from rehearsal in order to let the director add something better to the script and have his own way about making changes. Johnston advises authors to attend rehearsals because as all theatre productions are a compromise, the author should contribute his part...
Discussing thet role of the director, Johnston said, "Fifty years ago there were only actor-managers and stage-managers, but nowadays the director's business is to comment on the play. Actually most people are very quick to assimilate new ideas, except actors--who have a certain thickness of perception which prevents them from being able to comment as well as they should...
After praising Guthrie's idea of the theatre, Johnston went on to criticize Lee Strasberg. "Strasberg sees the theatre from the point of view of the idealist, and has quite an unrealistic picture of what the medium of the theatre actually is. He seems to be under the impression that the theatre has something to do with life--by citing for us the French company of Cannes and the classic theatre of Japan, two schools that have nothing to do with 'method' acting. To say that the goal of acting is a perfect photograph of human behavior...