A Class Act : Adler School Opens Doors on Hollywood Boulevard

The Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting West--the school opened by the legendary acting teacher who has coached some of Hollywood’s biggest names--has found a new home in Tinseltown.

After suffering major blows--a 1991 fire shut down the tiny conservatory at Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Avenue; city officials had planned to demolish the building and use the site as a Metro Rail station before another location was chosen, and Adler died in 1992--the internationally known school and theater has settled into new quarters on Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue.

“The last thing (Adler) said to me was ‘Are you going to rebuild the theater?’ ” said Irene Gilbert, executive director of the conservatory and a close friend of Adler for more than 30 years. “I swore to her I would. I want her teachings to go on.”

Adler’s legacy will continue on the second floor of 6773 Hollywood Blvd., where after nearly 18 months of construction, the conservatory reopened its doors last month in time for fall classes just weeks away.

It cost half a million dollars to refurbish the 18,000-square-foot building, once the home of a posh nightclub. The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency contributed $250,000 and the conservatory raised the other half.

After the 1991 fire, the conservatory had no permanent home. A dozen teachers and about 100 students had to travel to theaters throughout Hollywood to attend classes, and some productions had to be postponed.

It was quite a setback for Adler, who had become an institution in the entertainment industry since opening her first school in New York City 35 years ago.

Her alumni list reads like a Who’s Who of the film and television industries: Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Bette Midler, Candice Bergen, Richard Dreyfus, Melanie Griffith and countless others.

Adler began instructing students in the early 1940s. Already a successful actress with film, theater and directing credits, she landed a teaching position at the Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research in New York.

In 1949, she established her own school, the Stella Adler Theatre Studio, in New York City. Adler developed a two-year program offering classes in acting, speech and voice production, Shakespeare, makeup, movement, acting styles, characterization and scene preparation.

As the school’s reputation for excellence grew, so did its enrollment. Adler added advanced courses to meet the needs of performers who already had professional experience.

In 1960, she renamed the school the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting, and three years later brought her teaching styles to the West Coast. Adler periodically offered classes in California and spent more than 20 years traveling between Los Angeles and New York before opening the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting West in 1986.

Originally built in the 1920s, the new location houses classrooms, a dance studio, dressing rooms, screening facilities, administrative offices and two theaters. The 99-seat Stella Adler Theatre will showcase small-scale performances while the Academy Theatre will be used for student productions.

Although bigger than the old site, the new location still has maintained its charm. Scores of decorative certificates and elegant black and white photographs line the school’s light gray walls. Most of the pictures were taken from the 1930s to the ‘50s and are glamorous movie stills of Adler and her family, a distinguished line of performers.

Her Russian immigrant parents, Jacob and Sara Adler, were considered the premier tragedians of the Yiddish American theater. All of the Adler children became actors, with Stella making her stage debut at the age of 4 in her father’s production of “Broken Hearts” in 1906.

Adler’s mentors--her parents and Konstantin Stanislavsky, father of the dramatic concept called the Method--emphasized strict discipline and learning to draw on inspiration from within. She passed those same principles on to her students. She once said the ultimate aim of the rigorous training was “to create an actor who can be responsible for his artistic development and achievement.”

The grande dame demanded that her students perform to their maximum capabilities. If a student’s performance warranted praise, Adler did just that. But if the pupil did not measure up to his or her potential, she would scold or castigate them.

Adler once explained why she sometimes used harsh criticism: “My ability to bring out the students’ talent is somewhere deep inside me, and I must do whatever I need to pull it out.”

Adler’s teachings continue to inspire a whole new generation of performers. According to staff members, the conservatory continues to draw enthusiastic students from all over the country.

“Most come because they have a passion to act,” said Mercedes Shirley, who has taught at the academy for five years.

Adler’s worldwide influence on the theater and cinema will not be forgotten, Gilbert said. “She had something to give to the world.”