Welcome.
August 14th, 2006Welcome to Stella Burden dot com. This site is hosted by Rude Mechs- a theatre company based in Austin, Texas.
We are currently conducting research for our next play, The Method Gun. Our aim is to produce a fictional biography and a theatrical production tracing the life and tragic death of Stella Burden (aka “the other Stella”). We haven’t been able to find as much information in the archives as we would have hoped, so we could use your help to fill in the blanks of her life, and for those of you who may have trained with Stella, to share those experiences. Here’s what we do know.
Stella Burden was a relatively obscure actress and an actor-training guru who created a suite of actor training exercises that she called “The Approach.” Stella was a world-traveler, and so “The Approach” fused Western naturalistic techniques with exercises that Stella gleaned from all over the globe. These exercises were physically-based and often very dangerous (for instance the land-diving ceremonies of Vanuatu). We are particularly interested in one specific exercise – The Method Gun – which was extremely dangerous and, in fact, rumor has it that it was eventually the cause of her death. As far as Stella’s actor training, we know that she asked just one question for her entrance exam: Truth or Beauty? From 1954-1974, Stella only accepted students into her class that answered Truth. Then in 1975 for some unknown reason, she switched and took her first class only of students that answered Beauty. In 1976 Stella was dead.
For the production, we’ll be using the biography, salvaged film clips, rediscovered interviews, live re- enactments of theatre and film’s greatest undiscovered scenes (many of Stella’s students went on to become film actors and we have a valuable resource in the HRC in Austin where we’ve found great old clips). The play will culminate in a re-enactment of the – pray for us – very dangerous method gun exercise.
So, again – if you know any stories of Stella or you know anyone who knows someone who trained with Stella – please let us know by posting your stories.