Garfield, David

David Garfield is a New York City-based actor, author, and professor who has been a member of the Actors Studio since 1970. Garfield studied acting with master teachers Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, and Uta Hagen. He appeared on Broadway as Motel the Tailor in Fiddler on the Roof and as Solomon Rothchild in The Rothchilds . He began his research on the Actors Studio for his dissertation, The History of The Actor's Studio, for the Department of Drama at New York University. In 1980, he expanded his dissertation into a full-length book The Actors Studio: A Player's Place . For his research, Garfield was allowed access to the archives of the Actors Studio and interviewed many prominent staff and members. Garfield went on to teach theater and has taught at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Temple University, State University of New York at Purchase, the New School University, and at Brooklyn College.

The Actors Studio is a theater workshop for professional actors founded in New York City in 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis. The founders felt that serious actors needed a place where they could work together, between jobs or during long runs, to continue their development and to have a safe space to experiment with new forms of theater. Lee Strasberg, one of the founders of the Group Theatre, was brought on as artistic director in 1951, a role he held until his death in 1982. Under his direction, the Actors Studio became known as one of the centers of method acting, a style of teaching first pioneered by Constantin Stanislavski. Members were, and still are, invited to the Actors Studio after a series of auditions. Often potential members have to audition multiple times before being accepted. Membership is free and for life, and it allows members the opportunity to attend lectures and workshops with master teachers and to develop, produce, and perform in readings and productions. While playwrights and directors had been granted observer privileges since the Studio's inception, an official Playwrights Unit was created in 1956, and a Directors Unit was established four years later in 1960

In 1955, the Actors Studio moved into its permanent home, a former Presbyterian Church located on West 44th Street. Prior to that, the Studio had held its workshops and performances at various theaters or studios in Manhattan. The Actors Studio opened its only branch in West Hollywood, California in 1967. Prominent members of the Actors Studio have included Joseph Anthony, Anne Bancroft, Marlon Brando, Ellen Burstyn, Frank Corsaro, James Dean, Jane Fonda, Carlin Glynn, Lee Grant, William Greaves, Salome Jens, Elia Kazan, Harvey Keitel, Elizabeth Kemp, Jacqueline Knapp, Martin Landau, Stephen Lang, Andreas Manolikakis, Vivian Nathan, Patricia Neal, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Geraldine Page, Estelle Parsons, Arthur Penn, George Peppard, Anthony Perkins, Sidney Poitier, Sydney Pollack, Mark Rydell, Eva Marie Saint, Gene Saks, Maureen Stapleton, Rip Torn, Jo Van Fleet, Christopher Walken, Eli Wallach, Shelley Winters, and Joanne Woodward, among many others.