A Field Guide to Actor Training


Book Description

(Limelight). A Field Guide to Actor Training will help you answer this question! The book is designed to be an introduction to various theater training methodologies, highlighting their basic tenets and comparing and contrasting each system of training and rehearsal. The goal is to provide a one-stop-shopping kind of resource for student/beginning actors who are seeking training through private studios or graduate schools and who crave guidance in selecting training that is right for them. Starting with the big question of "Why is actor training important?" and moving on to overviews of the major acting methodologies, vocal training, physical actor training, and advice on how to find the right kind of training for each individual, A Field Guide to Actor Training is an essential resource for the student actor.




A Field Guide to Actor Training


Book Description

(Limelight). A Field Guide to Actor Training will help you answer this question! The book is designed to be an introduction to various theater training methodologies, highlighting their basic tenets and comparing and contrasting each system of training and rehearsal. The goal is to provide a one-stop-shopping kind of resource for student/beginning actors who are seeking training through private studios or graduate schools and who crave guidance in selecting training that is right for them. Starting with the big question of "Why is actor training important?" and moving on to overviews of the major acting methodologies, vocal training, physical actor training, and advice on how to find the right kind of training for each individual, A Field Guide to Actor Training is an essential resource for the student actor.




The Invisible Actor


Book Description

The Invisible Actor presents the captivating and unique methods of the distinguished Japanese actor and director, Yoshi Oida. While a member of Peter Brook's theatre company in Paris, Yoshi Oida developed a masterful approach to acting that combined the oriental tradition of supreme and studied control with the Western performer's need to characterise and expose depths of emotion. Written with Lorna Marshall, Yoshi Oida explains that once the audience becomes openly aware of the actor's method and becomes too conscious of the actor's artistry, the wonder of performance dies. The audience must never see the actor but only his or her performance. Throughout Lorna Marshall provides contextual commentary on Yoshi Oida's work and methods. In a new foreword to accompany the Bloomsbury Revelations edition, Yoshi Oida revisits the questions that have informed his career as an actor and explores how his skilful approach to acting has shaped the wider contours of his life.




The Actor's Field Guide


Book Description

From a veteran actor, teacher, and author, here is a quick-reference guide aimed at working actors. Got a funny scene that doesn't seem very funny? Look up "comedy." Got a scene in which you're supposed to cry? Look up "cry." Each entry includes a brief introduction to the topic, followed by several pages of short, bulleted tips or "field notes" that offer quick solutions to any acting problem. In addition, there are brief essays throughout that expand on some of the trickier aspects of the actor's craft. Edgy, concise, and infinitely helpful, no working actor will want to be without this one-of-a-kind guide. There are 100,000 members in actors unions in the US, with a 50% turnover Unique quick reference guide for busy actors Advice on everything from rehersals to auditioning and memorizing lines Author has trained thousands of actors, including Heather Locklear and Teri Hatcher Advertising inBack Stagemagazine




Approaches to Actor Training


Book Description

This insightful and practically-focused collection brings together different approaches to actor training from professionals based at universities and conservatoires in the UK, the US and Australia. Exploring the cultural and institutional differences which affect actor training, and analysing developments in the field today, it addresses a range of different approaches, from Stanislavski's System to contemporary immersive theatre. With hands-on focus from some of the world's leading programmes, and attention paid to ethical control, consent and safe practice, this book sees expert tutors exploring pathways to sustainable 21st century careers. Designed for tutors, students and practitioners, Approaches to Actor Training examines what it means to train as an actor, what actors-in-training can expect from their programmes of study and how the road to professional accomplishment is mapped and travelled.







Rethinking the Actor's Body


Book Description

How does an actor embody a character? How do they use their body as an instrument of expression? Rethinking the Actor's Body offers an accessible introduction to the fields of neurophysiology and embodied knowledge through a detailed examination of what an actor does with their body. Built on almost a decade of conversations and public seminars by the author Dick McCaw in partnership with John Rothwell (Professor of Neurophysiology at University College London, UK), Rethinking the Actor's Body explores a set of questions and preoccupations concerning the actor's body and examines overlaps in research and practice in the fields of actor training, embodied knowledge and neurophysiology.




Acting Action


Book Description

“What is it that we’re doing, when we’re acting well?” This is the question famously posed by Earle Gister, the legendary head of the acting department at Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1999. In Acting Action, actor, director, and teaching artist Hugh O’Gorman invites readers to explore the question in detail. Focusing on playing action—one of the essential components of acting passed on to renowned acting teachers Earle Gister and Lloyd Richards by Paul Mann—Acting Action is divided into two parts: context and practice. The first section provides a thorough examination of the theory behind the core elements of playing action. The second section presents a step-by-step rehearsal guide for actors to integrate playing action into their preparation process. Acting Action offers a foundation for how to get started and build the core of a performance. More precisely, it provides a practical guide for actors, directors, and teachers in the technique of playing action, addressing a void in the world of actor training by illuminating what exactly to do in the moment-to-moment act of acting.




Black Acting Methods


Book Description

Black Acting Methods seeks to offer alternatives to the Euro-American performance styles that many actors find themselves working with. A wealth of contributions from directors, scholars and actor trainers address afrocentric processes and aesthetics, and interviews with key figures in Black American theatre illuminate their methods. This ground-breaking collection is an essential resource for teachers, students, actors and directors seeking to reclaim, reaffirm or even redefine the role and contributions of Black culture in theatre arts. Chapter 7 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.




Acting Face to Face


Book Description

Acting Face to Face: the Actor's Guide to Understanding How Your Face Communicates Emotion for TV and Film is the first book to define the significant difference between acting for the stage and acting for the camera. That difference being how your face communicates thought, feeling and emotion. The actor who has the tools and skills to create and control how and what their face communicates is the actor most suited to work in front of the camera. Acting Face to Face is also the first book in a series about the "Language of the Face" - or how the face communicates nonverbally. The book is particularly useful for actors transitioning from stage to screen, by clearly defining the difference. On stage, you communicate with your body and voice; on camera you need to add a third means of communication - your face. When you understand this difference, you also understand why only a small percentage of actors get the majority of on-camera work. Acting Face to Face reveals the tools you'll need to level the playing field.Acting Face to Face exposes the myths and misconceptions about on-camera while addressing some of the major challenges most actors face when relying solely on their stage acting training to work in front of the camera. The book contains detailed photos and experiential exercises; it also helps you understand how you personally communicate and what's missing or misunderstood about your facial expressions, so you can take your acting to the next level.After working with thousands of actors and studying the work of leading researchers in the field of emotions for over 10 years, John Sudol - a veteran actor, director, casting director, Hollywood acting teacher and audition coach - has developed this book series, which stands to change the face of acting.Though developed specifically for actors, this book is also helpful to anyone in the communications business who would benefit from knowing how their face nonverbally speaks to others.* The second book of the Language of the Face series, Acting Face to Face 2, How to Create Genuine Emotion for the Camera is now available. Whereas the first Acting Face to Face defined the challenges of On-Camera Acting, Acting Face to Face 2, reveals a step-by-step process to overcoming those challenges.