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an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Summary of Constantin Stanislavsky's An Actor Prepares Everest Media,, 2022-06-21T22:59:00Z Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was excited to learn about the Director, Tortsov, and his plans for my acting career. I was to perform bits from plays chosen by me, and then he would be able to judge my dramatic quality. #2 I was so embarrassed that instead of apology, I made the careless remark I seem to be a little late. Rakhmanov, the Assistant Director, looked at me reproachfully. He said that the first rehearsal is an event in an artist’s life, and he should retain the best possible impression of it. #3 I had to adjust my acting to the setting. I had to read my lines out of the book, or else approximably memorize them. The words did not help me, and the action tended to take away from me that freedom which I had felt in my own room. #4 I was supposed to play the role of Othello, and I was placed in one of the wrong chairs. I struggled to fit in with my surroundings, and I was unable to concentrate on what was happening around me. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: An Actor Prepares Konstantin Sergeevič Stanislavskij, 1967 |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: An Actor's Work Konstantin Stanislavski, 2016-10-04 Stanislavski’s ‘system’ has dominated actor-training in the West since his writings were first translated into English in the 1920s and 30s. His systematic attempt to outline a psycho-physical technique for acting single-handedly revolutionized standards of acting in the theatre. Until now, readers and students have had to contend with inaccurate, misleading and difficult-to-read English-language versions. Some of the mistranslations have resulted in profound distortions in the way his system has been interpreted and taught. At last, Jean Benedetti has succeeded in translating Stanislavski’s huge manual into a lively, fascinating and accurate text in English. He has remained faithful to the author's original intentions, putting the two books previously known as An Actor Prepares and Building A Character back together into one volume, and in a colloquial and readable style for today's actors. The result is a major contribution to the theatre, and a service to one of the great innovators of the twentieth century. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by the director Richard Eyre. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Sanford Meisner on Acting Sanford Meisner, Dennis Longwell, 2012-11-07 Sanford Meisner was one of the best known and beloved teachers of acting in the country. This book follows one of his acting classes for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, it is essential reading for beginning and professional actors alike. Throughout these pages Meisner is a delight—always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges. With an introduction by Sydney Pollack, director of Out of Africa and Tootsie, who worked with Meisner for five years. This book should be read by anyone who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisner's way of teaching, it is the straight goods.—Arthur Miller If there is a key to good acting, this one is it, above all others. Actors, young and not so young, will find inspiration and excitement in this book.—Gregory Peck |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Building a Character Constantin Stanislavski, 2013-01-01 In this follow up to his most famous book, An Actor Prepares, Stanislavski develop his influential 'system' of acting by exploring the imaginative processes at the heart of the actor's craft. Building a Character deals with the physical realisation of character on the stage through such tools as expressions, movement and speech. It is a book in which every theory is inextricably bound up with practice - a perfect handbook to the physical art of acting. The work of Stanislavski has inspired generations of actors and trainers and - available now in the Bloomsbury Revelations series to mark the 150th anniversary of Stanislavski's birth - it remains an essential read for actors and directors at all stages of their careers. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Stage Fright, Animals, and Other Theatrical Problems Nicholas Ridout, 2006-08-17 Why do actors get stage fright? What is so embarrassing about joining in? Why not work with animals and children, and why is it so hard not to collapse into helpless laughter when things go wrong? In trying to answer these questions - usually ignored by theatre scholarship but of enduring interest to theatre professionals and audiences alike - Nicholas Ridout attempts to explain the relationship between these apparently unwanted and anomalous phenomena and the wider social and political meanings of the modern theatre. This book focuses on the theatrical encounter - those events in which actor and audience come face to face in a strangely compromised and alienated intimacy - arguing that the modern theatre has become a place where we entertain ourselves by experimenting with our feelings about work, social relations and about feelings themselves. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Building a Character Konstantin Stanislavsky, 2008 In his most famous book, An Actor Prepares, Stanislavski dealt with the imaginative processes. In the second book, Building a Character, he deals with the physical realisation of character on the stage, expressions, movement and speech etc. It is a book in which every theory is inextricably bound up with practice - a perfect handbook to the physical art of acting. The work of Stanislavski has inspired generations of actors and trainers. This edition, now reprinted with a new cover at a more accessible price, has stood the test of time for actors all over the world and was the original English language translation. A classic text for every actors library. An Actor must work all his life, cultivate his mind, train his talents systematically, develop his character; he may never despair and never relinquish this main pupose - to love his art with all his strength and love it unselfishly. (Constantin Stanislavski) |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: The Actor and the Target Declan Donnellan, 2006 |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Auditioning Joanna Merlin, 2001-05-08 Theater veteran and acting teacher Joanna Merlin has written the definitive guide to auditioning for stage and screen, bringing to it a valuable dual perspective. She has spent her career on both sides of the auditioning process, both as an award-winning casting director who has worked with Harold Prince, Bernard Bertolucci, and James Ivory, and as an accomplished actor herself. In this highly informative and accessible book, Merlin provides everything the actor needs to achieve self-confidence and artistic honesty–from the most basic practical tips to an in-depth framework for preparing a part. Filled with advice from the most esteemed people in the business, such as James Lapine, Nora Ephron, and Stephen Sondheim, and charged with tremendous wisdom and compassion, this indispensable resource will arm the reader to face an actor's greatest challenge: getting the part. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: A Life in Parts Bryan Cranston, 2016-10-11 “Nothing short of riveting...an engrossing first-person account by one of our finest actors” (Huffington Post)—both a coming-of-age story and a meditation on creativity, devotion, and craft—Bryan Cranston, beloved and acclaimed star of one of history’s most successful TV shows, Breaking Bad. Bryan Cranston began his acting career at the age of seven, when his father, a struggling actor and sometime director, cast him in a commercial for United Way. By fifth grade he was starring in the school play, spending hours at the local movie theater, and re-enacting favorite scenes with his brother in their living room. Cranston seemed destined to be an actor. But then his father left. And his family fell apart. Troubled by his father’s missteps, Cranston abandoned his acting aspirations and resolved to pursue a steadier career in law enforcement. Then, on a two-year cross-country motorcycle journey, Cranston re-discovered his talent for acting and found his mission and his calling. In this “must-read memoir” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Cranston traces the many roles he inhabited throughout his remarkable life, both on and off screen. For the first time he shares the story of his early years as an actor on the soap opera Loving, his recurring spots on Seinfeld, and his time as bumbling father Hal on Malcolm in the Middle, to his tour-de-force, Tony-winning performance as Lyndon Baines Johnson in Broadway’s All the Way, to his most iconic role of all: Breaking Bad’s Walter White. “An illuminating window into the actor’s psyche” (People), Cranston has much to say about creativity, devotion, and craft, as well as innate talent and its challenges and benefits and proper maintenance. “By turns gritty, funny, and sad” (Entertainment Weekly), ultimately A Life in Parts is a story about the joy, the necessity, and the transformative power of simple hard work. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: True and False David Mamet, 2011-09-07 One of our most brilliantly iconoclastic playwrights takes on the art of profession of acting with these words: invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school. Acting schools, “interpretation,” “sense memory,” “The Method”—David Mamet takes a jackhammer to the idols of contemporary acting, while revealing the true heroism and nobility of the craft. He shows actors how to undertake auditions and rehearsals, deal with agents and directors, engage audiences, and stay faithful to the script, while rejecting the temptations that seduce so many of their colleagues. Bracing in its clarity, exhilarating in its common sense, True and False is as shocking as it is practical, as witty as it is instructive, and as irreverent as it is inspiring. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: The Student Actor Prepares Gai Jones, 2014 The Student Actor Prepares is a practical, interactive approach to a student actor's journey. Each chapter includes acting principles, their importance to the process, and workbook entries for emotional work, script analysis, and applications to the study of theater. Topics cover a brief history of the art of acting and how the study of acting can be an advantage in numerous occupations; an actor's discovery of emotional work; movement and mime practices for the actor; vocal practices for the actor; solo improvisational study; script analysis for the individual actor; rehearsal tips; monologue work; original solo work; audition information; working with an acting partner or in a production; acting resources; and research topics. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit Bella Merlin, 2014-06-19 A revised and updated edition of Bella Merlin's essential guide to Stanislavsky. The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit collects together for the first time the terms and ideas developed by Stanislavsky throughout his career. It is organised into three sections: Actor-Training, Rehearsal Processes and Performance Practices. Key terms are explained and defined as they naturally occur in this process. They are illustrated with examples from both his own work and that of other practitioners. Each stage of the process is explored with sequences of practical exercises designed to help today's actors and students become thoroughly familiar with the tools in Stanislavsky's toolkit. 'Bella Merlin magically converts her extensive knowledge into real-world practice and on-the-floor technique. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut, 1999-01-12 Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five is “a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century” (Time). Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.” An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O’Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut’s words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as “the kind of writer who made people—young people especially—want to write.” George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be “the great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us . . . a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves.” More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut’s portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Stanislavski and the Actor Jean Benedetti, 2013-12-04 In Stanislavski and the Actor , Stanislavski scholar and biographer Jean Bendetti has recovered materials that can stand as a final, last work by the great director and teacher. In this volume readers will find the first English text of Stanislavski s notes and practical exercises from these last sessions. This is a major rediscovered work by Stanislavski, full of new ideas and insights about his working method. To the original materials Jean Benedetti adds his own analysis of Stanislavski's approach to acting and rehearsal methods.The master's own summary of a lifetime of theatrical experience, Stanislavski and the Actor will quickly become an essential tool for actors, students, and teachers everywhere. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Konstantin Stanislavsky Bella Merlin, 2018-06-13 As one of the most well-known names in theatre history, Konstantin Stanislavsky’s teachings on actor training have endured throughout the decades, influencing scholars and practitioners even in the present day. This second edition of Konstantin Stanislavsky combines: an overview of Stanislavsky’s life and work, including recent discoveries an assessment of his widely read text, An Actor Prepares (1936) with comparisons to Benedetti’s 2008 translation, An Actor’s Work detailed commentary of the key 1898 production of The Seagull an indispensable set of practical exercises for actors, teachers and directors. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial ex- ploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today’s student. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: The Actor's Guide to Creating a Character William Esper, Damon Dimarco, 2014-04-08 William Esper, one of the most celebrated acting teachers of our time, takes us through his step-by-step approach to the central challenge of advanced acting work: creating and playing a character. Esper’s first book, The Actor’s Art and Craft, earned praise for describing the basics taught in his famous first-year acting class. The Actor’s Guide to Creating a Character continues the journey. In these pages, co-author Damon DiMarco vividly re-creates Esper’s second-year course, again through the experiences of a fictional class. Esper’s training builds on Sanford Meisner’s legendary exercises, a world-renowned technique that Esper further developed through his long association with Meisner and the decades he has spent training a host of distinguished actors. His approach is flexible enough to apply to any role, helping actors to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: A Director Prepares Anne Bogart, 2003-09-02 A Director Prepares is a thought-provoking examination of the challenges of making theatre. In it, Anne Bogart speaks candidly and with wisdom of the courage required to create 'art with great presence'. Each chapter tackles one of the seven major areas Bogart has identified as both potential partner and potential obstacle to art-making. They are Violence; Memory; Terror; Eroticism; Stereotype; Embarrassment; and Resistance. Each one can be used to generate extraordinary creative energy, if we know how to use it. A Director Prepares offers every practitioner an extraordinary insight into the creative process. It is a handbook, Bible and manifesto, all in one. No other book on the art of theatre comes even close to offering this much understanding, experience and inspiration. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Hamnet Maggie O'Farrell, 2023-10-24 'She's like no one I've ever met... She's like fire and water all at once.' Warwickshire, 1582. Agnes Hathaway, a natural healer, meets the Latin tutor, William Shakespeare. Drawn together by powerful but hidden impulses, they create a life together and make a family. As William moves to London to discover his place in the world of theatre, Agnes stays at home to raise their three children but she is the constant presence and purpose of his life. When the plague steals 11-year-old Hamnet from his loving parents, they must each confront their loss alone. And yet, out of the greatest suffering, something of extraordinary wonder is born. This new play based on Maggie O'Farrell's best-selling novel and adapted by award-winning playwright Lolita Chakrabarti (Life of Pi, Red Velvet, Hymn), pulls back a curtain on the imagined family life of the greatest writer in the English language. Hamnet is a love letter to passion, birth, grief and the magic of nature. This updated and revised edition was published to coincide with the West End transfer of the original RSC production in October 2023. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Creating a Role Konstantin Stanislavsky, 1989 This third volume examines the development of a character from the viewpoint of three widely contrasting plays. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Russians in Britain Jonathan Pitches, 2012-03-12 From Komisarjevsky in the 1920s, to Cheek by Jowl’s Russian ‘sister company’ almost a century later, Russian actor training has had a unique influence on modern British theatre. Russians in Britain, edited by Jonathan Pitches, is the first work of its type to identify a relationship between both countries’ theatrical traditions as continuous as it is complex. Unravelling new strands of transmission and translation linking the great Russian émigré practitioners to the second and third generation artists who responded to their ideas, Russians in Britain takes in: Komisarjevsky and the British theatre establishment. Stanislavsky in the British conservatoire. Meyerhold in the academy. Michael Chekhov in the private studio. Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and the Northern Stage Ensemble. Katie Mitchell, Declan Donnellan and Michael Boyd. Charting a hitherto untold story with historical and contemporary implications, these nine essays present a compelling alternative history of theatrical practice in the UK. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Acting in Film Michael Caine, 2000-02-01 (Applause Books). A master actor who's appeared in an enormous number of films, starring with everyone from Nicholson to Kermit the Frog, Michael Caine is uniquely qualified to provide his view of making movies. This revised and expanded edition features great photos, with chapters on: Preparation, In Front of the Camera Before You Shoot, The Take, Characters, Directors, On Being a Star, and much more. Remarkable material ... A treasure ... I'm not going to be looking at performances quite the same way ... FASCINATING! Gene Siskel |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Essential Acting Brigid Panet, 2015-06-12 How do actors fuse thought, emotion and action within their creative process? Essential Acting is an inspired and reliable toolbox for actors and teachers in the classroom, the rehearsal room and the workshop. RADA's Brigid Panet has distilled nearly 60 years of acting, directing and actor training into a unique recipe which brilliantly combines the teachings of Stanislavsky and Laban into an invaluable practical resource. These exercises are built around the need for simple, achievable techniques that can be applied by actors, teachers and directors to answer the myriad requirements of actor training. The goal is to produce a continuous level of achievement, addressing: How to rehearse How to work with a text How to audition for drama school How to access the truth of feelings and actions. Essential Acting will be a must-have purchase for anyone looking for a comprehensive study guide to the necessary work of the actor. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Directing Michael Rabiger, 2013-04-02 Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics is a comprehensive manual that teaches the essentials of filmmaking from the perspective of the director. Ideal for film production and directing classes, as well as for aspiring and current directors, Directing covers all phases of preproduction and production, from idea development to final cut. Thoroughly covering the basics, Directing guides the reader to professional standards of expression and control, and goes to the heart of what makes a director. The book outlines a great deal of practical work to meet this goal, with projects, exercises. The third edition emphasizes the connection between knowing and doing, with every principle realizable through projects and exercises. Much has been enhanced and expanded, notably: aspects of dramaturgy; beats and dramatic units; pitching stories and selling one's work; the role of the entrepreneurial producer; and the dangers of embedded moral values. Checklists are loaded with practical recommendations for action, and outcomes assessment tables help the reader honestly gauge his or her progress. Entirely new chapters present: preproduction procedures; production design; script breakdown; procedures and etiquette on the set; shooting location sound; continuity; and working with a composer. The entire book is revised to capitalize on the advantages offered by the revolutionary shift to digital filmmaking. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: No Ordinary Psychoanalyst John Rickman, 2018-03-29 The author had a deep impact on psychoanalysis, combining a deep knowledge thereof with an avid interest in social psychology, to the benefit of both. He was a fresh thinker, always innovative, with an extensive range of interests. This is an affectionate, incisive, intelligent paean to one of the greats of psychoanalysis. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Improvisation in Drama Anthony Frost, Ralph Yarrow, 1990 Improvisation is fundamental to all drama as the skill of using various resources to suggest an idea, a situation, a character, perhaps even a text, but it is also a technique for rehearsal of social statement and much more. Following an introduction to the multiple notions of improvisation, the authors examine four main areas of contemporary improvisation work, offer case studies of major practitioners and draw conclusions regarding the theoretical implications of the earlier discussions to move toward an understanding of the creation of 'meaning' in action. This book offers thoughtful reading for actors, students of drama, academics, scholars and general readers. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: The Routledge Companion to Stanislavsky Andrew White, 2013-10-08 Stanislavsky’s system of actor-training has revolutionised modern theatre practice, and he is widely recognised to be one of the great cultural innovators of the twentieth century. The Routledge Companion to Stanislavsky is an essential book for students and scholars alike, providing the first overview of the field for the 21st century. An important feature of this book is the balance between Stanislavsky’s theory and practice, as international contributors present scholarly and artistic interpretations of his work. With chapters including academic essays and personal narratives, the Companion is divided into four clear parts, exploring Stanislavsky on stage, as an acting teacher, as a theorist and finally as a theatre practitioner. Bringing together a dazzling selection of original scholarship, notable contributions include Anatoly Smeliansky on Stanislavsky’s letters; William D. Gunn on staging ideology at the Moscow Art Theatre; Sharon Marie Carnicke and David Rosen on opera; Rosemary Malague on the feminist perspective of new translations; W.B. Worthen on cognitive science; Julia Listengarten on the avant-garde; David Krasner on the System in America; and Dennis Beck on Stanislavsky’s legacy in non-realistic theatre. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Isadora Duncan in the 21st Century Andrea Mantell Seidel, 2015-12-14 Part artistic study, part intimate memoir, this book illuminates the technique and repertory of American dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) and her enduring legacy from the perspective of an artist and scholar who has reconstructed and performed her work for 35 years. Providing an overview of modern activities and trends in the teaching and performance of Duncan's dance, the author describes her own work directing The Isadora Duncan Dance Ensemble, the company that sought to implement Duncan's mission to create not a school of dance but a school of life. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Twentieth Century Actor Training Alison Hodge, 2000 THE SECOND EDITION OF THIS TITLE, ENTITLED ACTOR TRAINING, IS NOW AVAILABLE. Actor training is arguably the central phenomenon of twentieth century theatre making. Here for the first time, the theories, training exercises and productions of fourteen directors are analysed in a single volume, each one written by a leading expert. The practitioners included are: * Stella Adler * Bertolt Brecht * Joseph Chaikin * Jacques Copeau * Joan Littlewood * Vsevelod Meyerhold * Konstantin Stanislavsky * Eugenio Barba * Peter Brook * Michael Chekhov * Jerzy Grotowski * Sanford Meisner * Wlodimierz Staniewski * Lee Strasbourg Each chapter provides a unique account of specific training exercises and an analysis of their relationship to the practitioners theoretical and aesthetic concerns. The collection examines the relationship between actor training and production and considers how directly the actor training relates to performance. With detailed accounts of the principles, exercises and their application to many of the landmark productions of the past hundred years, this book will be invaluable to students, teachers, practitioners, and academics alike. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: An Actor's Work on a Role Konstantin Stanislavski, 2009-09-01 An Actor’s Work on a Role is Konstantin Stanislavski’s exploration of the rehearsal process, applying the techniques of his seminal actor training system to the task of bringing truth to one’s chosen role. Originally published over half a century ago as Creating a Role, this book was the third in a planned trilogy – after An Actor Prepares and Building a Character, now combined in An Actor’s Work – in which Stanislavski sets out his psychological, physical and practical vision of actor training. This new translation from renowned scholar Jean Benedetti not only includes Stanislavski’s original teachings, but is also furnished with invaluable supplementary material in the shape of transcripts and notes from the rehearsals themselves, reconfirming 'The System' as the cornerstone of actor training. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Audition Michael Shurtleff, 2009-05-26 The casting director for Chicago, Pippin, Becket, Gypsy, The Graduate, the Sound of Music and Jesus Christ Superstar tells you how you can find your dream role! Absolutely everything an actor needs to know to get the part is here: What to do that moment before, how to use humour; create mystery; how to develop a distinct style; and how to evaluate the place, the relationships and the competition. In fact, Audition is a necessary guide to dealing with all the auditions we face in life. This is the bible on the subject. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Who's in the Goose Tonight? Vernon Chapman, 2001 Biography, theater history, anecdotes, and commentary are combined to show the development of an indigenous Canadian professional theater since World War II. From Timothy Findley’s beginnings in theater to bats occupying the Red Barn Theatre, this book offers a behind-the-scenes peek at how plays were produced, what the critics thought, what went wrong on stage and off, and some big name performers, such as William Shatner, Bruno Gerussi, Mickey Rooney, Jackie Coogan, Jackie Burroughs, Joe E. Brown, Zasu Pitts, Tallulah Bankhead, Edward Everett Horton, and Billie Burke. The book also describes the financial struggles of keeping a theater open, and, through a wide variety of plays shown on the stage of these theaters, what type of play to put on for the public. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Shakespeare's Authentic Performance Texts Graham Watts, 2015-01-29 When we pick up a copy of a Shakespeare play, we assume that we hold in our hands an original record of his writing. We don't. Present-day printings are an editor's often subjective version of the script. Around 25 percent of any Shakespeare play will have been altered, and this creates an enormous amount of confusion. The only authentic edition of Shakespeare's works is the First Folio, published by his friends and colleagues in 1623. This volume makes the case for printing and staging the plays as set in the First Folio, which preserved actor cues that helped players understand and perform their roles. The practices of modern editors are critiqued. Also included are sections on analyzing and acting the text, how a complex character can be created using the First Folio, and a director's approach to rehearsing Shakespeare with various exercises for both professional and student actors. In conclusion, all of the findings are applied to Measure for Measure. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: The Nature of Expertise in Professional Acting Helga Noice, 2013-04-15 For nearly 25 years, expertise has been considered an important testing ground for theories of cognition. Cognitive scientists have examined experts as diverse as chess masters, waiters, field-hockey players, and computer programmers. Recently, increased attention has been given to the arts, including dance, music appreciation and performance, and literary analysis. It is therefore somewhat surprising that--except for the authors' program of research dating from the late 1980s--virtually no studies on the cognitive processes of professional actors can be found in the literature. These experts not only routinely memorize hours of verbal material in a very short time, but they retrieve it verbatim along with the accompanying gestures, movements, thoughts, and emotions of the characters. The mental processes involved in this task constitute the subject of this recent research and are described in detail in this book. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Performing Psychologies Nicola Shaughnessy, Philip Barnard, 2019-02-07 Performing Psychologies offers new perspectives on arts and health, focussing on the different ways in which performance interacting with psychology can enhance understanding of the mind. The book challenges stereotypes of disability, madness and creativity, addressing a range of conditions (autism, dementia and schizophrenia) and performance practices including staged productions and applied work in custodial, health and community settings. Featuring case studies ranging from Hamlet to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the pioneering work of companies such as Spare Tyre and Ridiculusmus, and embracing dance and music as well as theatre and drama, the volume offers new perspectives on the dynamic interactions between performance, psychology and states of mind. It contains contributions from psychologists, performance scholars, therapists and healthcare professionals, who offer multiple perspectives on working through performance-based media. Presenting a richly interdisciplinary and collaborative investigation of the arts in practice, this volume opens up new ways of thinking about the performance of psychologies, and about how psychologies perform. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Working with Actors Stephen Bayly, 2023-12-28 Working with Actors provides the key to unlocking the honest, dynamic performance every actor has within them. It offers a well-articulated formulation of the Meisner Technique easy for directors and actors to use within a working context. Through setting out an accessible training programme for practitioners working across stage and screen, this book establishes a clear-cut route to building a three-dimensional character in an organic, non-intellectual fashion, based squarely on the character's objectives. Few books in this field venture out of the training studio, while in this book - alongside offering an intense and concentrated Meisner training programme - the focus is more on the 'pay-off': the collaborative act of developing the role and how that plays out in rehearsal and performance. Beyond that, the books uniquely offers: |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: The Politics of American Actor Training Ellen Margolis, Lissa Tyler Renaud, 2011-01-13 This book strives to give a fair hearing to persistent, questioning voices about our nation’s acting training as it stands, thereby contributing to the national dialogue the diverse perspectives and proposals needed to keep American actor training dynamic and germane, both within the U.S. and abroad. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Imagination in Action Shaun McNiff, 2015-08-04 A guide to the theory and practice of creativity, with proven techniques for jump-starting the creative process—from an esteemed art educator and therapist There are art teachers—and then there’s Shaun McNiff. An accomplished painter himself, he has spent a career helping people access their creative potential through expressive arts therapy. Now, he is sharing the secrets he’s learned from observing his own creative process as well as that of others—both those who identify as artists and those who don’t. The result is nothing less than a master class in creativity by one of the great creative theorists and practitioners of our time. “This is intended as a practical text,” Shaun says, “a creativity primer, striving to capture the essential things that have been of use to me and others.” The wealth of instruction he provides here in these essential things will be indispensable to artists of all stripes, as well as to all who strive to express themselves with honesty and authenticity using any of the media life makes available. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: Thinking Animation Angie Jones, Jamie Oliff, 2007 Describes ways artists can use traditional animation techniques with computer technology. |
an actor prepares chapter summaries 1: A Practical Handbook for the Actor Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previto, Scott Zigler, 2012-04-25 For anyone who has ever wanted to take an acting class, this is the best book on acting written in the last twenty years (David Mamet, from the Introduction). This book describes a technique developed and refined by the authors, all of them young actors, in their work with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, actor W. H. Macy, and director Gregory Mosher. A Practical Handbook for the Actor is written for any actor who has ever experienced the frustrations of acting classes that lacked clarity and objectivity, and that failed to provide a dependable set of tools. An actor's job, the authors state, is to find a way to live truthfully under the imaginary circumstances of the play. The ways in which an actor can attain that truth form the substance of this eloquent book. |
Top 100 Greatest Actors of All Time (The Ultimate List) - IMDb
Day-Lewis received the Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Screen Actors Guild Award …
Actor - Wikipedia
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. [1] The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in …
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May 24, 2025 · Every pop culture fan debated who is the most famous actor in the world. However, such discussions should not just dwell on talent but consider the actor's global …
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The meaning of ACTOR is one that acts : doer. How to use actor in a sentence.
Famous Actors - List & Biographies of World Famous Actors
William Holden was a renowned American actor celebrated for his performances in classic movies like Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, and The Bridge on the River Kwai. His range as an actor …
What Is an Actor? Definition and Expert Insight - Backstage
Sep 19, 2024 · Actors are storytellers who use their body and voice as tools to transport the audience into a different world. At its core, the word “actor” indicates someone who portrays a …
Harris Yulin dead: 'Scarface' and 'Ghostbusters II' actor dies at 87
2 days ago · Harris Yulin, the Emmy-nominated actor known for his wide-ranging roles in films such as "Scarface," "Ghostbusters II" and "Clear and Present Danger," has died. He was 87. …
Harris Yulin, Actor Who Perpetually Played the Bad Guy, Dies at 87
13 hours ago · As an award-winning actor and director, he appeared in scores of stage plays, movies and TV shows over six decades, most often as unsavory characters. By Sam Roberts …
Actor Harris Yulin, known for 'Scarface,' dead at 87 - The Hill
22 hours ago · Actor Harris Yulin, known for his roles in “Scarface,” “Training Day,” “Ozark,” and more has died at the age of 87. His death in New York City on Tuesday was the result of …
Harris Yulin, prolific stage and screen actor of ‘Ghostbusters II’ …
2 days ago · Actor Harris Yulin, an Emmy-nominated actor who appeared in projects including “Frasier” and “Ghostbusters II,” has died. He was 87. The news was confirmed by Yulin’s …
Top 100 Greatest Actors of All Time (The Ultimate List) - IMDb
Day-Lewis received the Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion …
Actor - Wikipedia
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. [1] The actor performs "in the flesh" in …
Who Is The Most Famous Actor In The World Right No…
May 24, 2025 · Every pop culture fan debated who is the most famous actor in the world. However, such discussions should not just dwell on talent but …
ACTOR Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of ACTOR is one that acts : doer. How to use actor in a sentence.
Famous Actors - List & Biographies of World Famous …
William Holden was a renowned American actor celebrated for his performances in classic movies like Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, and The …