Essential Acting: A Practical Handbook for Actors, Teachers and Directors

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

HOW DO ACTORS FUSE THOUGHT, EMOTION and ACTION WITHIN THEIR CREATIVE PROCESS?

Essential Actingis an inspired and reliable toolbox for actors and teachers in the classroom, the rehearsal room and the workshop. RADA's Brigid Panet has distilled 50 years of acting, directing and actor training into a unique recipe which brilliantly combines the teachings of Stanislavski 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 Actingwill be a must-have purchase for anyone looking for a comprehensive study guide to the necessary work of the actor.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• 1 Acting Exercises
• 2 Acting is behaving
• 3 The rehearsal process
• 4 Tips and techniques
• 5 An Introduction to Playing Shakespeare
• 6 Workshops in Laban Movement for actors

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In a book grounded in the actor training of London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Panet combines Stanislavsky and Laban to create a concise and useful tool kit for rehearsal techniques and character work. Stanislavsky is the foundation for theory and practice in textual analysis and characterization. Laban's use of flow, space, time, and force intersects with Stanislavsky's method of physical actions to encourage truthful performance. The author looks at and provides exercises for physical, emotional, and intellectual acting skills; rehearsal explorations that unlock character; and performance techniques that create a seamless relationship among actor, character, and audience. She uses Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard to demonstrate how to analyze scenes and explore dialogue. The book includes a section on handling Shakespeare and an appendix with advice on auditioning for acting programs. Whereas some acting resources (e.g., Robert Benedetti's The Actor at Work, 2008) are intended as texts for advanced students, this is a handbook suited best to the beginner with the teacher poised as a guide. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates; faculty. J. Artman Chapman University