I had my doubts about the study of acting...
...until a grad-student friend of mine required this textbook for a class he was teaching. I later learned he was going against the grain by doing so; university education in acting frequently concentrates on the emotional state of the actor, and this book punctures that paradigm like a shiny pin. A Practical Handbook for the Actor, written by pupils of acting workshops run by David Mamet and William H. Macy, puts forth the idea that the actor's emotional state is pretty much irrelevant, if it doesn't translate into actions that communicate something to the audience.
This book utterly demystifies the process of how an actor creates a powerful performance. It answers every "yes, but how?" question actors in training -- and interested fans -- should have about how acting really works.
There's nothing pedestrian or insulting about pulling back the curtain and providing specific, detailed instruction. There's nothing limiting or proscriptive about this method -- because it gives the actor two kinds of tools. The Handbook provides a framework for delving into the intellectual side of script analysis, so that the actor can really understand what's going on, boil it down to essentials, and avoid all the traps of poorly-defined emotionalism.
From there, it is completely up to the actor to translate that understanding into specific, personally meaningful, play-able actions. Which are, after all, what a performance is made out of. It's not that imagination or emotion aren't important, it's just that they are the actor's tools just like her voice or posture, and deserve the same kind of forethought and attention.
There will therefore be as many different ways to play a scene as there are different actors. It's just that by paying attention to what's going on, both in the script and on the stage at this exact moment, the actor has a clearer and more direct way to do what they mean -- without having to go through the mental and emotional gymnastics required to try to mean what the script says they have to do. As the authors point out, a system that doesn't work when you're tired, when you have a cold, or when your mom is in the audience is a pretty lousy system. So why do we spend so much time trying to work ourselves up into a particular state?
There's a famous story about Dustin Hoffman and Sir Laurence Olivier, on the set of "Marathon Man" in the mid-1970s. It's one of those stories that isn't actually true, but is so instructive that it should be. They're about to film the scene where Hoffman's character confronts Olivier's, after an intense period of cat-and-mouse. Because his character hasn't slept all night, Hoffman stayed up all night, and jogged around the studio lot so he'd be appropriately sweaty and worn-down for the scene.
The story claims that as the director called "places," Olivier set down his newspaper, got up out of his chair, and was startled to see the dismal state of his co-star. "My dear boy," he said, shaking his head, "you really should try ACTING."
This book is very much more the kind of acting Sir Laurence was talking about, and not the kind that makes an actor exhausted and neurotic. I can't recommend it highly enough, both for those studying acting and those who are just fans of the process.
Good advice
Bought this to aid in developing better performances as a magician. Lots of helpful advice in this book. Recommended.
Exciting Choices for the Actor
I used this book to teach a beginning acting class at our community college. It is an excellent introduction to the craft. The book gives clear examples of selecting an action that create clear and exciting choices for the actor. Rather than focusing on emotional states such as "you're angry or you're happy," the text shows how to allow emotional truth to come from the moment while focusing on what the character is doing. The examples in the book are practical and relate well to the craft. I particularly appreciated that an action should have a test in the other character. So rather that an character delivering a letter with an action "to deliver" that is over without fanfare, a more exciting action would be "to please my boss so I'll get a promotion." The character still delivers a letter, but with a more dynamic action that is interesting to watch. The book is short. I covered the material in our film acting and stage acting units in about eight classes. It's short, sweet & to the point. I recommend it as a great review for experienced actors and as a wonderful introduction to beginning actors. Enjoy!
Very Useful
This is a very useful guide to teaching theatre. I will be using it a lot in my classroom.
bravo!
I studied for a couple of years at the Atlantic Theatre in NYC which David Mamet and William H Macy founded...they teach exclusively the principles in this book..the title says it all.."Practical"..as far as analyzing a script, breaking it down and coming up with acting impetus this book will free you from all that crap you've been taught and give you basic, workable tools to act..especially in auditions where you might be given a script and then 5 minutes later be asked to do it..once I got a grasp of the practical techniques I found my audition success rate soar..I still incorporate these techniques in every audition...the method and all that other acting stuff you'll learn like smelling the coffe and being a leave floating off a tree, well, that's nice but an actors basic tools never change, knowing your lines and analyzing the script, knowing what's going on in the scene and what you want in the scene..this book give you the tools to do just that...highly recommended!
(18 reviews)
