Where Stanislavski Meets Fanon.
Kangalee Arts Ensemble, Inc.
The Actor As Liberator
“…If there is still one hellish, truly accursed thing in our lifetime, it is our artistic dallying with forms, instead of being like victims burnt at the stake signaling through the flames.”
— Antonin Artaud, The Theatre and its Double (translated by MC Richards)
The Actor is the primary concern and element of the Kangalee Arts Ensemble. Before the director or writer, the Actor must be an integral participant and creator of the work being honed and expressed on the stage.
Melissa Roth as NYA, the grief-stricken radical in My Dying City, Vol. II (The Social Justice Suicide Hour) [Photo by Tessa Blythe Young, January 2026]
Actresses Tessa Martin (L) and Justine Stock’s (R) work in “The Life & Death of Art” is an example of the process of which the company posits: finding yourself in the character and then “freefalling” into the character’s point-of-view and finding a freedom within it, going to extremes before finding a middle ground in which to express the character’s motivations, desires, politics and feelings. Both artists took their own route, but welcomed the idea of attaining freedom in their roles, where they both were not subordinate to the director or author but, in fact, an artistic equal – ( if not above!)
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We are at a point in history where we can no longer separate aesthetic from meaning, process from politics and craft or art — from the moral crisis we experience daily.
The actor should be more than an entertainer, aspire to deeper depths than the artist, and achieve something greater than a job, paycheck or applause.
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Act as if we are saving a life. Start with your own. But by God, have fun at it—and no matter what always act the way you do when you are alone in your bedroom, and no one is watching. That freedom is what you must put on stage.
ACTING AS POLITICAL EXPRESSION
Inspired by director/filmmaker Jack Garfein’s notion of acting as a method of survival, the Living Theater and the Black Arts Movement’s emphasis on the conscientiousness of an actor — the Kangalee Method is a way of reclaiming individual power from system’s that seek to oppress. This vision of acting combines the psychological realism and emotional truth of Stanislavski with the radical decolonialist politics of Frantz Fanon: liberation at all costs. The actor should be as aggressive in their pursuit of catharsis as an oppressed people are in their rebellion against enslavement. This passion is not hysterical, it is a focused obsession, a force of nature transmitted. It is like the intensity between two dueling musicians, singers harmonizing or dancers helping each other twirl in the air. It is the honesty, sanctity and gravity of the downbeat of a drum.
This marriage of ideas and methods is to make the actor aware of themselves as social beings, politically viable as avatars of revolutionary change and liberation; appreciate their involvement in public works (the minute you perform for a spectator you are providing community service), aware of their responsibility to society and their pact that they have made to illuminate the human condition in all its forms.
In an age when colonization, imperialism and genocide are alive and well, it behooves the actor to engage with the world around them, wrestling the inner and outer demons of our political systems, the internal and external conflicts of a given character. (This was demonstrated in our past two original productions, The Life & Death of Art and My Dying City Vol. II)
“…Acting has become too manicured…how can it return to a contagious joyful feeling like that of punk, rap or bebop? Music that’s free!”
— Dennis Leroy Kangalee, The Kangalee Method
NOTES ON ACTING.
How to bring one’s artistic values into actual life? And vice-versa? And not suffer as much as they might be fated to?
Self-creation, more expression, more questions- and less destruction, less torture and less explanations.
Proof of the power is in the work itself; artists should stand by their work but not have to petition members and gatekeepers of pop culture to be supported. They should support themselves, communally.
Principally, the actor must see himself as liberator.
Acting as Radical Self Possession in the 21st Century - an art whose form is against oppression and totalitarianism.
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There is something clinical and now sterile that has taken over a lot of mainstream and underground rendering of “acting.”
There’s no sweat. What’s wrong with actually seeing someone work onstage?
When Acting Schools and conservatory programs replaced the cultural contribution of Acting as an art — with MFAs and capitalist considerations of celebrity it degraded and warped acting into a vulgar, narcissistic and meaningless activity.
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IF YOU’VE READ THIS FAR NOT ONLY ARE YOU CRAZY, BUT YOU ALSO MUST QUITE ROMANTIC. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON OUR WRITER’S WORKSHOP!
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All members of the ensemble are committed participants, no one receives a salary yet and we depend on the zealousness of each participant, our audience...and the kindness of strangers. We do not exist without you and appreciate both your support and your financial contributions. Consider making a tax-deductible donation today!