Actor Training

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Actor Training expands on Alison Hodge's highly-acclaimed and best-selling Twentieth Century Actor Training. This exciting second edition radically updates the original book making it even more valuable for any student of the history and practice of actor training. The bibliography is brought right up to date and many chapters are revised. In addition, eight more practitioners are included - and forty more photographs - to create a stunningly comprehensive study.

The practitioners included are:

Stella Adler; Eugenio Barba; Augusto Boal; Anne Bogart; Bertolt Brecht; Peter Brook; Michael Chekhov; Joseph Chaikin; Jacques Copeau; Philippe Gaulier; Jerzy Grotowski; Maria Knebel; Jacques Lecoq; Joan Littlewood; Sanford Meisner; Vsevolod Meyerhold; Ariane Mnouchki≠ Monika Pagneux; Michel Saint-Denis; Włodzimierz Staniewski; Konstantin Stanislavsky; Lee Strasberg

The historical, cultural and political context of each practitioner's work is clearly set out by leading experts and accompanied by an incisive and enlightening analysis of the main principles of their training, practical exercises and key productions.

This book is an invaluable introduction to the principles and practice of actor training and its role in shaping modern theatre.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of illustrations (p. ix)
• Notes on contributors (p. xii)
• Acknowledgements (p. xvi)
• Preface (p. xvii)
• Introduction (p. xviii)
• 1 Stanislavsky's System: Pathways for the Actor (p. 1)
• 2 Meyerhold and Biomechanics (p. 26)
• 3 Jacques Copeau: The Quest for Sincerity (p. 43)
• 4 Michael Chekhov on the Technique Of Acting: 'was Don Quixote True to Life?' (p. 63)
• 5 Michel Saint-Denis: Training the Complete Actor (p. 81)
• 6 The Knebel Technique: Active Analysis in Practice (p. 99)
• 7 Brecht and Actor Training: On Whose Behalf Do We Act? (p. 117)
• 8 Joan Littlewood (p. 130)
• 9 Strasberg, Adler and Meisner: Method Acting (p. 144)
• 10 Joseph Chaikin and Aspects of Actor Training: Possibilities Rendered Present (p. 164)
• 11 Peter Brook: Transparency and the Invisible Network (p. 184)
• 12 Grotowski's Vision of the Actor: The Search for Contact (p. 199)
• 13 Jacques Lecoq, Monika Pagneux and Philippe Gaulier: Training for Play, Lightness and Disobedience (p. 215)
• 14 Training with Eugenio Barba: Acting Principles, The Pre-Expressive and 'Personal Temperature' (p. 237)
• 15 Ariane Mnouchkine and the Théâtre Du Soleil: Theatricalising History; The Theatre as Metaphor; the Actor as Signifier (p. 250)
• 16 W&lstroke;odzimierz Staniewski: Gardzienice and the Naturalised Actor (p. 268)
• 17 Anne Bogart and Siti Company: Creating the Moment (p. 288)
• 18 Augusto Boal and the Theatre of the Oppressed (p. 305)
• Index (p. 325)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This admirable, fair-minded, comprehensive book first appeared as Twentieth Century Actor Training (CH, Sep'00, 38-0193). The present volume replaces the first edition because it has been enriched with discussions of the theater and training methods of Michel Saint-Denis, Maria Knebel, Jacques Lecoq, Monika Pagneux, Philippe Gaulier, Ariane Mnouchkine, Anne Bogart, and Augusto Boal. Each chapter is written by a well-qualified specialist. The entry on Knebel is especially valuable because the author, Sharon Marie Carnicke, has translated material by and about Knebel that existed only in Russian. Knebel's teaching brought together the competing work of her teachers: Michael Chekhov, Konstantin Stanislavski, and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. All the essays stress the context in which the work emerged, but this is especially fascinating in Knebel's case because it documents the problems an independent, Jewish, female director experienced while pursuing her craft under Stalin's dictatorial rule. Including photographs and updated bibliographies (that also list films and Web sites) and supplemented by its own Web site , this invaluable and unique resource may (as the review of the earlier edition observed) lead others to reexamine their own work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers and practitioners. R. Sugarman Southern Vermont College