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Acting (Re)Considered (Re)Considered: A Theoretical and Practical Guide
by Phillip B. ZarrilliActing (Re)Considered is an exceptionally wide-ranging collection of theories on acting, ideas about body and training, and statements about the actor in performance. This second edition includes five new essays and has been fully revised and updated, with discussions by or about major figures who have shaped theories and practices of acting and performance from the late nineteenth century to the present.The essays - by directors, historians, actor trainers and actors - bridge the gap between theories and practices of acting, and between East and West. No other book provides such a wealth of primary and secondary sources, bibliographic material, and diversity of approaches. It includes discussions of such key topics as:* how we think and talk about acting* acting and emotion* the actor's psychophysical process* the body and training* the actor in performance* non-Western and cross-cultural paradigms of the body, training and acting.Acting (Re)Considered is vital reading for all those interested in performance.
Acting A to Z: The Young Person's Guide to a Stage or Screen Career - Revised 2nd Edition
by Katherine MayfieldLots of kids want to be actors. Thousands of them. Millions of them. The ones who are serious need a copy of Acting A to Z. Industry insider Katherine Mayfield explains exactly what it’s like to be an actor, including what kind of training the young person will need, comparisons of the different types of acting, how to find work, how to prepare for an audition, and what to expect during rehearsal. There’s also tons of helpful information on unions, casting directors, headshots, resumes, and much more. Reassuring without being patronizing, Acting A to Z is the one book that every aspiring child actor needs.
Acting Class: Take a Seat
by Milton KatselasJim Carrey, Kyle Chandler, George Clooney, Ted Danson, Kate Hudson, Justina Machado, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Tom Selleck are just some of the many celebrated actors who have benefited from the legendary acting teacher Milton Katselas. As the founder of the prestigious Beverly Hills Playhouse, Katselas was regarded by many as one of America's foremost acting teachers as well as an acclaimed director. Originally available only to students at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, Acting Class: Take a Seat presents the concepts and methods that helped lead a generation of actors to success on stage, in cinema, and on television. In this all-encompassing book, Katselas invites readers to “sit in” on the classes he taught for more than forty years. Acting Class covers in detail three concepts central to the Katselas approach: Acting, Attitude, and Administration. Katselas not only covers techniques and methods, but also includes valuable discussions on the attitudes any artist needs to fulfill their dreams.
Acting Comedy
by Christopher OlsenDespite being roundly cited as much harder to perform than its dramatic counterpart, comic acting is traditionally seen as a performance genre that can’t be taught. At best it is often described as a skill that can only be learned "on the job" through years of practice, or given to a performer through natural talent. Acting Comedy is an effort to examine this idea more rigorously by looking at different aspects of the comic actor’s craft. Each chapter is written by an expert in a particular form—from actors and directors to teachers and standup comedians. Topics covered include: how performers work with audiences how comic texts can be enhanced through word and musical rhythm analysis how physical movements can generate comic moments and build character. This book is an invaluable resource for any performer focusing on the minute details of comic acting, even down to exactly how one delivers a joke on stage. Christopher Olsen’s unique collection of comic voices will prove essential reading for students and professionals alike.
Acting Exercises for Non-Traditional Staging: Michael Chekhov Reimagined
by Anjalee Deshpande HutchinsonActing Exercises for Non-Traditional Staging: Michael Chekhov Reimagined offers a new set of exercises for coaching actors when working on productions that are non-traditionally staged in arenas, thrusts, or alleys. All of the exercises are adapted from Michael Chekhov's acting technique, but are reimagined in new and creative ways that offer innovative twists for the practitioner familiar with Chekhov, and easy accessibility for the practitioner new to Chekhov. Exploring the methodology through a modern day lens, these exercises are energizing additions to the classroom and essential tools for more a vibrant rehearsal and performance.
Acting For Film
by Mel ChurcherThe author uses her wide experience as an acting and voice coach an major movies to offer insights into the film acting process. She provides tasks, techniques and tips that are designed specifically for film: there's advice to make the first-time film actor feel at home on set, tips on the casting process, how to cope with auditions, on-camera techniques, schedules and shooting order, as well as specific advice from film crews to help an actor's performance. This practical workbook combines exercises and anecdotes in an informal and accessible style, making it the indispensable guide for anyone wishing to light up the silver screen.
Acting For Real: Drama Therapy Process, Technique, And Performance
by Renée EmunahThis second edition takes the reader further into the heart of using drama for healing. Dr. Emunah offers an expanded understanding of her Integrative Five Phase model, a foundational approach that embraces the wide spectrum of possibilities within the playing field of drama therapy. Grounded by compassionate clinical examples, including ones that reach over time into deep-seated issues, the book offers tools for action-oriented treatment, embodied therapeutic interventions, and creatively engaging a wide variety of clients. This comprehensive text also contains over 120 techniques, categorized by phases in the session and treatment series, and subcategorized by therapeutic objective. Process-oriented drama therapy with group and individuals, as well as performance-oriented forms, are described in vivid detail. New to the second edition is an exploration of drama therapy outside of the clinical arena, including dramatic methods in family life and parenting, and drama therapy geared toward social change.
Acting Indie: Industry, Aesthetics, and Performance (Palgrave Studies in Screen Industries and Performance)
by Cynthia Baron Yannis TzioumakisThis book illustrates the many ways that actors contribute to American independent cinema. Analyzing industrial developments, it examines the impact of actors as writers, directors, and producers, and as stars able to attract investment and bring visibility to small-scale productions. Exploring cultural-aesthetic factors, the book identifies the various traditions that shape narrative designs, casting choices, and performance styles. The book offers a genealogy of industrial and aesthetic practices that connects independent filmmaking in the studio era and the 1960s and 1970s to American independent cinema in its independent, indie, indiewood, and late-indiewood forms. Chapters on actors’ involvement in the evolution of American independent cinema as a sector alternate with chapters that show how traditions such as naturalism, modernism, postmodernism, and Third Cinema influence films and performances.
Acting Is Believing
by Charles Mcgaw Larry D. Clark Kenneth L. StilsonIn this text, McGaw (Art Institute of Chicago School of Drama, deceased), Stilson (theater and dance, Southeast Missouri State U.) and Clark (dean emeritus, College of Arts and Sciences, U. of Missouri, Columbia) bring the traditional methods of Stanislavski in line with more contemporary schools, such as the Sanford Meisner approach.
Acting Is a Job: Real Life Lessons about the Acting Business
by Jason PugatchHow to cope with the realities of life as an actor-if you don't laugh, you'll cry In-depth interviews with actors, agents, casting directors. In this hip, warts-and-all look at acting, author Jason Pugatch shares his insights as a working "day player" to give an unvarnished look at theater, film, and television: how to be "discovered," what to expect from training programs, the grunt work of starting a career, how to keep going despite constant rejection, and much more. Packed with myth-shattering anecdotes and told in an intriguing personal tone, Acting Is a Job is the backstage guide that every aspiring actor must read.
Acting Like a Women in Modern Japan: Theater, Gender, and Nationalism
by Ayako KanoWeaving together careful readings of plays and reviews, memoirs and interviews, biographies and critical essays, Acting Like a Woman in Modern Japan traces the emergence of the first generation of modern actresses in Japan, a nation in which male actors had long dominated the public stage. What emerges is a colorful and complex picture of modern Japanese gender, theater, and nationhood. Using the lives and careers of two dominant actresses from the Meiji era, Kano reveals the fantasies, fears, and impact that women on stage created in Japan as it entered the twentieth century.
Acting Naturally: The Magic in Great Performances
by David ThomsonFrom the celebrated film critic and author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, a fascinating look at some of the cinema&’s finest actors and how they approach their craft"Open to any page and you&’ll become enthralled by the...tales of forgotten film lore, childhood memories, sexy gossip.&”—Philip Kaufman, directorMeryl Streep, Marlon Brando, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan. When we watch these remarkable actors in a performance, we see only Sophie, Stanley Kowalski, Hannibal Lecter, or Cassie from Promising Young Woman. How are they able to transform our world in this way? How and why do they do what they do?In Acting Naturally, David Thomson sheds light on the actors who have shaped the film industry. He shrewdly analyzes these stars—among them, James Dean, Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington, Louise Brooks, Riz Ahmed, Sir Laurence Olivier, Viola Davis, and Jean Seberg—revealing how a sly smile, an extra-long pause, even a small gesture of the hand can draw in an audience. And he takes us behind the scenes to examine casting and all the other moments leading up to &“Action!&”Through intimate anecdote, humor, and the insight born of a lifetime watching and analyzing film, Thomson explores the real reasons why we go to the movies and looks at how they influence our lives. This book is not only necessary reading for an insider&’s view of the industry but also a surprising investigation of the relationship between acting and living.
Acting One (4th edition)
by Robert CohenUsed to teach beginning acting on more campuses than any other text, Acting One contains twenty-eight lessons based on experiential exercises. The text covers basic skills such as talking, listening, tactical interplay, physicalizing, building scenes, and making good choices.
Acting Power: The 21st Century Edition
by Robert Cohen‘Robert Cohen’s book, Acting Power, follows the tradition of his other book, Acting One, and has been the veritable bible for acting teachers for the last quarter century.’ – David Krasner, Emerson College ‘This book, above all else, is an attempt to explore the qualities of acting power.... to suggest to you, the actor, an approach toward not merely good acting but powerful acting. Great actors display the power to frighten – and the power to seduce – and can shift between the one and the other like a violinist can her notes.’ – From the Preface The first edition of Acting Power was a groundbreaking work of acting theory which applied sociological and psychological principles to actor training. The book went on to influence a generation of theatre and performance studies students and academics, and was translated into five languages. This carefully revised 21st Century Edition (re)considers, in the context of today’s field: questions such as ‘should actors act from the inside or the outside?’ and ‘should the actor live the role or present the role?’; contemporary research into communication theory, cybernetics, and cognitive science; brilliantly illuminating and witty exercises for solo study and classroom use, and a through-line of useful references to classic plays; penetrating observations about the actor’s art by more than 75 distinguished professional actors and directors. Cohen’s elegant and rigorous updates emphasise the continuing relevance of his uniquely integrated and life-affirming approach to this field. The new edition draws on his extraordinarily rich career as teacher, scholar, director, translator and dramaturg. It is a recipe for thrilling theatre in any genre.
Acting Presidents
by Bruce E. AltschulerThis book seeks to fill a major gap in the literature about fictional representations of presidents by studying more than 40 plays, written since 1900, which have had prominent productions on or off-Broadway or in another major city.
Acting Queer: Gender Dissidence and the Subversion of Realism
by Conrad AlexandrowiczThis book is situated at the intersection of queer/gender studies and theories of acting pedagogy and performance. It explores the social and cultural matrix in which matters of gender are negotiated, including that of post-secondary theatre and drama education. It identifies the predicament of gender dissident actors who must contend with the widespread enforcement of realist paradigms within the academy, and proposes a re-imagining of the way drama/theatre/performance are practised in order to serve more fairly and effectively the needs of queer actors in training. This is located within a larger project of critique in reference to the art form as a whole. The book stimulates discussion among practitioners and scholars on matters concerning various kinds of diversity: of gender expression, of approaches to the teaching of acting, and to the way the art form may be imagined and executed in the early years of the 21st Century, in particular in the face of the climate crisis. But it is also an aid to practitioners who are seeking new theoretical and practical approaches to dealing with gender diversity in acting pedagogy.
Acting Reframes: Using NLP to Make Better Decisions In and Out of the Theatre
by Robert BartonActing Reframes presents theatre and film practitioners with a methodology for using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) as a tool to aid their practice. Author Robert Barton uses the NLP approach to illustrate a range of innovative methods to help actors and directors, including: • reducing performance anxiety • enabling clearer communication • intensifying character analysis • stimulating imaginative rehearsal choices. The author also shows how NLP can used alongside other basic training systems to improve approaches to rehearsal and performance. The book shows the use of NLP to the reader in a playful, creative and easily accessible style that is structured to enable solo study as well as group work. The text offers a range of engaging exercises and extensive analysis of language patterns used in performance. It is a source for enhancing communication between all theatre practitioners in training, productions, and daily life outside the theatre. Acting Reframes gives actors a richly rewarding approach to help them develop all aspects of their craft.
Acting Shakespeare (Routledge Library Editions: Shakespeare in Performance)
by Bertram Leon JosephHow did the actors for whom Shakespeare wrote his plays make his characters come to life, how did they convey his words? Can modern directors, actors, and even library readers of Shakespeare learn from them? Creating character and making the Elizabethan playwright’s poetry compelling for the audience is a problem which has seldom been resolved in modern times. This book demonstrates the hard course a modern actor must follow to make real and truthful the words he speaks, and the action and emotion underlying them. With examples and simple exercises, this book helps with the preparation for the great task – providing the actor with a combination that unlocks the Bard's English. Starting with how theatrical speech was understood in Renaissance England, it looks at figures of speech, the powers of persuasion, and the passion and rhythm inherent in the language.
Acting Shakespeare is Outrageous!: Playing the Bard for Beginners
by Herb ParkerPerforming the work of William Shakespeare can be daunting to new actors. Author Herb Parker posits that his work is played easier if actors think of the plays as happening out of outrageous situations, and remember just how non-realistic and presentational Shakespeare's plays were meant to be performed. The plays are driven by language and the spoken word, and the themes and plots are absolutely out of the ordinary and fantastic - the very definition of outrageous. With exercises, improvisations, and coaching points, Acting Shakespeare is Outrageous! helps actors use the words Shakespeare wrote as a tool to perform him, and to create exciting and moving performances.
Acting Techniques for Everyday Life: Look and Feel Self-Confident in Difficult, Real-Life Situations
by Jane Marla RobbinsMost people can name at least one situation?a business presentation, a job interview, a cocktail party, or a blind date?in which they felt uncomfortable, nervous, or simply self-conscious. Jane Marla Robbins, a successful stage and film actress and teacher for almost forty years, found that she could use the same acting techniques she employed to look and feel confident on stage and screen to make herself feel more comfortable in ?real-lifeOCO situations. In clear and accessible language, Robbins describes acting techniques that actors having been using for centuries and explains?using real-life examples and easy-to-follow exercises?how each can be used by ordinary people to make difficult everyday situations easier to handle. Acting Techniques for Everyday Life will teach readers how to create a sense of well-being and self-confidence at will, giving them the tools they need to be as confident, strong, witty, authentic, relaxed, and happy as they want to be in any given situation. "
Acting That Matters
by Barry PineoAn invaluable resource for anyone wanting his or her acting to matter, this groundbreaking guide defies most modern acting methods by rejecting emotion as an acting tool. With the advice in this book, actors will see beyond the prevailing "objective-obstacle" approach and look primarily to the text the playwright provides. Actors learn how to dissect a text for key words and phrases, as well as how to score a script, find proper tempo and rhythm, modulate volume and intensity, use theatrical stillness effectively, find beat actions, listen to their acting partners, and much more. Expert tips are also provided for auditioning, cold reading, and taking direction.
Acting Together I: Resistance and Reconciliation in Regions of Violence
by Edited by Cynthia E. Cohen, Roberto Gutiérrez Varea, and Polly O. WalkerCourageous artists working in conflict regions describe exemplary peacebuilding performances and groundbreaking theory on performance for transformation of violence.Acting Together: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict is a two-volume work describing peacebuilding performances in regions beset by violence and internal conflicts. Volume I: Resistance and Reconciliation in Regions of Violence, emphasizes the role theatre and ritual play both in the midst and in the aftermath of direct violence, while Volume II: Building Just and Inclusive Communities, focuses on the transformative power of performance in regions fractured by "subtler" forms of structural violence and social exclusion.Volume I: Resistance and Reconciliation in Regions of Violence focuses on the role theatre and ritual play both in the midst and in the aftermath of violence. The performances highlighted in this volume nourish and restore capacities for expression, communication, and transformative action, and creatively support communities in grappling with conflicting moral imperatives surrounding questions of justice, memory, resistance, and identity. The individual chapters, written by scholars, conflict resolution practitioners, and artists who work directly with the communities involved, offer vivid firsthand accounts and analyses of traditional and nontraditional performances in Serbia, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Israel, Argentina, Peru, India, Cambodia, Australia, and the United States.Complemented by a website of related materials, a documentary film, Acting Together on the World Stage, that features clips and interviews with the curators and artists, and a toolkit, or "Tools for Continuing the Conversation," that is included with the documentary as a second disc, this book will inform and inspire socially engaged artists, cultural workers, peacebuilding scholars and practitioners, human rights activists, students of peace and justice studies, and whoever wishes to better understand conflict and the power of art to bring about social change.The Acting Together project is born of a collaboration between Theatre Without Borders and the Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts at the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life at Brandeis University. The two volumes are edited by Cynthia E. Cohen, director of the aforementioned program and a leading figure in creative approaches to coexistence and reconciliation; Roberto Gutierrez Varea, an award-winning director and associate professor at the University of San Francisco; and Polly O. Walker, director of Partners in Peace, an NGO based in Brisbane, Australia..
Acting Together II: Building Just and Inclusive Communities
by Edited by Cynthia E. Cohen, Roberto Gutiérrez Varea and Polly O. WalkerActing Together, Volume ll, continues from where the first volume ends documenting exemplary peacebuilding performances in regions marked by social exclusion structural violence and dislocation. Acting Together: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict is a two-volume work describing peacebuilding performances in regions beset by violence and internal conflicts. Volume I, Resistance and Reconciliation in Regions of Violence, emphasizes the role theatre and ritual play both in the midst and in the aftermath of direct violence, while Volume II: Building Just and Inclusive Communities, focuses on the transformative power of performance in regions fractured by "subtler" forms of structural violence and social exclusion.Volume I: Resistance and Reconciliation in Regions of Violence focuses on the role theatre and ritual play both in the midst and in the aftermath of violence. The performances highlighted in this volume nourish and restore capacities for expression, communication, and transformative action, and creatively support communities in grappling with conflicting moral imperatives surrounding questions of justice, memory, resistance, and identity. The individual chapters, written by scholars, conflict resolution practitioners, and artists who work directly with the communities involved, offer vivid firsthand accounts and analyses of traditional and nontraditional performances in Serbia, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Israel, Argentina, Peru, India, Cambodia, Australia, and the United States.Complemented by a website of related materials, a documentary film, Acting Together on the World Stage, that features clips and interviews with the curators and artists, and a toolkit, or "Tools for Continuing the Conversation," that is included with the documentary as a second disc, this book will inform and inspire socially engaged artists, cultural workers, peacebuilding scholars and practitioners, human rights activists, students of peace and justice studies, and whoever wishes to better understand conflict and the power of art to bring about social change.The Acting Together project is born of a collaboration between Theatre Without Borders and the Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts at the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life at Brandeis University. The two volumes are edited by Cynthia E. Cohen, director of the aforementioned program and a leading figure in creative approaches to coexistence and reconciliation; Roberto Gutierrez Varea, an award-winning director and associate professor at the University of San Francisco; and Polly O. Walker, director of Partners in Peace, an NGO based in Brisbane, Australia.
Acting after Grotowski: Theatre’s Carnal Prayer
by Kris SalataFor whom does the actor perform? To answer this foundational question of the actor’s art, Grotowski scholar Kris Salata explores acting as a self-revelatory action, introduces Grotowski’s concept of "carnal prayer," and develops an interdisciplinary theory of acting and spectating. Acting after Grotowski: Theatre’s Carnal Prayer attempts to overcome the religious/secular binary by treating "prayer" as a pre-religious, originary deed, and ultimately situates theatre along with ritual in their shared territory of play. Grounded in theatre practice, Salata’s narrative moves through postmodern philosophy, critical theory, theatre, performance, ritual, and religious studies, concluding that the fundamental structure of prayer, which underpins the actor’s deed, can be found in any self-revelatory creative act.
Acting and Being: Explorations in Embodied Performance
by Elizabeth HessIn this book, educator-actor-playwright-director Elizabeth Hess offers systematic and original explorations in performance technique. This hybrid approach is a fusion of physical theater modalities culled from Western practices (Psycho-physical actions, Viewpoints) Eastern practices (Butoh, Kundalini yoga) and related performance disciplines (Mask, Puppetry). Behavioral, physiological and psychological 'states of being' are engaged to unlock impulses, access experience and enlarge the imagination. Through individual, partnered and collective explorations, actors uncover a character's essence and level of consciousness, their energy center and body language, and their archetype and relationship to universal themes. Magic (to pretend, as if), Metaphor (to compare, as like) and Myth (to pattern after, as in) provide the foundation for generating transformative, empathetic and expansive artistic expression. Explorations can be adapted to character work, scene study and production, including original/devised work and established text, to illuminate singular and surprising work through collaborative creativity that is inventive, inclusive and alive.