Book of Sides II: Original, Two-Page Scenes for Actors and Directors is the second book in the Book of Sides series by Dave Kost, featuring original, two-page, two-character scenes for use in acting, directing, and auditioning classes. While shorter than the traditional three-to-six-page scenes commonly used in classes, Book of Sides II features longer scenes than the first Book of Sides with greater character development, more reversals, and stronger climaxes. Balanced, structured scenes designed specifically for educational use challenge both actors and directors equally with objectives, obstacles, tactics, and subtext; Two-page length is ideal for high-intensity exercises and faster-paced workshops; Printed in easy-to-read film-script format with plenty of room for notes; Scenes are completely original and unencumbered by copyright, so students may film and post legally on the internet; Universally castable, so all roles can be played by actors of any gender, appearance, skill level, or ethnicity; Accessibly-written for modern students, helping them to focus on the fundamentals of performance and directing; Simple and conducive to performing in a classroom without sets, costumes, or special props. This book was written by an educator for educators and designed for use in the classroom. Never search for scenes again!

German Expressionist Theatre: The Actor and the Stage considers the powerfully stylized, anti-realistic styles of acting on the German Expressionist stage from 1916 to 1921. It relates this striking departure from the dominant European acting tradition of realism to the specific cultural crises that enveloped the German nation during the course of its involvement in World War I. This book describes three distinct Expressionist acting styles, all of which in their own ways attempted to show how symbolic stage performance could be a powerful rhetorical resource for a culture struggling to come to terms with the crises of historical change. The examination of Expressionist script and actor memoirs allows for an unprecedented focus on description and analysis of acting itself.

Voice: Onstage and Off is a comprehensive guide to the process of building, mastering, and fine-tuning the voice for performance. Every aspect of vocal work is covered, from the initial speech impulse and the creation of sound, right through to refining the final product in different types of performance. This highly adaptable course of study empowers performers of all levels to combine and evolve their onstage and offstage voices.

This step-by-step guide to learning and practising an American accent is for anyone who wants to use a General American accent with confidence in auditions and performance. Inside, you'll find an easy-to-follow breakdown of the fundamentals required for the accent - including the shape and position of the mouth; vowels and consonants; rhythm; stressing; pitch; pace and more - as well as structured drills and exercises to build on and consolidate what you've learned, using extracts from contemporary American plays. The book is supplemented by dozens of online audio clips of General American voices, recorded by native speakers, so you can listen to the target sounds and repeat for practice. Also included are tips on fully integrating the accent into your performance, as well as a series of vocal warm-ups. Rebecca Gausnell is a voice and dialect coach, who has worked internationally in theatre, film and television. Born and raised in the United States, she studied acting in Chicago, before completing an MFA in Voice Studies in London. The Compact Guides are pocket-sized introductions for actors and theatremakers, each tackling a key topic in a clear and comprehensive way. Written by industry professionals with extensive hands-on experience of their subject, they provide you with maximum information in minimum time.

These words of Cicely Berry, the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, speak to anyone who needs to speak his or her piece - in any arena, at sales meetings or religious revivals. Berry's book will insure that the speaker and the text gets heard - accurately and with true emotional range. Never again will one be accused of simply "reading a prepared statement." Berry's exercises to develop relaxation, breathing and muscular control will literally help everyone breathe easier when confronting the printed page.

Performance practice is the study of how music was performed over the centuries. This encyclopedia offers entries on composers, musicians/performers, technical terms and musical instruments.

The success of One-Act Plays for Acting Students prompted this follow-up book of twenty-eight contemporary short dramas by nationally known playwrights. Each play has a production time of ten to fifteen minutes, yet each script is a complete work -- no cuttings. Most plays are for two actors -- one woman and one man. Also included are plays for two women, two men, three actors and monologs. No other play anthology offers as wide a selection of characterizations. Twenty-three contemporary American playwrights are represented, including William Borden, Julianne Bernsteln and Bryan Harnetiaux. Also featured are sections on Securing Rights for Your Production and Rehearsing the Play, a booklist of rehearsal helps and a list of additional scripts by the anthology playwrights. Plays are excellent for forensic competitions and classroom use. Some of the plays include: I Wanna Be a Cowboy by John Tuttle, Marla, You're On by Julianne Bernsteln, Hangman by William Border, The Lemonade Stand by Bryan Harnetiaux, Help Me, I'm Becoming My Mother! by Deanna Riley.

Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training is a beginner's guide to Knight-Thompson Speechwork (R), a method that focuses on universal and inclusive speech training for actors from all language, racial, cultural, and gender backgrounds and identities. This book provides a progression of playful, practical exercises designed to build a truly universal set of speech skills that any actor can use, such as the ability to identify, discern, and execute every sound found in every language on the planet. By observing different types of flow through the vocal tract, vocal tract anatomy, articulator actions, and how these components can be combined, readers will understand and recreate the process by which language is learned. They will then be introduced to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and will practice using the IPA for narrow transcription of speech sounds. The book also offers both an intellectual and physical understanding of oral posture and how it contributes to vocal characterization and accent work. This approach to speech training is descriptive, giving students a wide and diverse set of speech sounds and skills to utilize for any character in any project, and it establishes a foundation for future accent study and acquisition. Experiencing Speech: A Skills-Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training is an excellent resource for teachers and students of speech and actor training, as well as aspiring actors looking to diversify their speech skills.

Latinx Actor Training presents essays and pioneering research from leading Latinx practitioners and scholars in the United States to examine the history and future of Latino/a/x actor training practices and approaches. Born out of the urgent need to address the inequities in academia and the industry as Latinx representation on stage and screen remains disproportionately low despite population growth, this book seeks to reimagine and restructure the practice of actor training by inviting deep investigation into heritage and identity practices. Latinx Actor Training features contributions covering current and historical acting methodologies, principles, and training, explorations of linguistic identity, casting considerations, and culturally inclusive practices that aim to empower a new generation of Latinx actors and to assist the educators who are entrusted with their training. This book is dedicated to creating career success and championing positive narratives to combat pervasive and damaging stereotypes. Latinx Actor Training offers culturally inclusive pedagogies that will be invaluable for students, practitioners, and scholars interested in the intersections of Latinx herencia (heritage), identity, and actor training.

The book is a biographical study establishing Ernie McClintock as a leading figure of the Black Theatre Movement In this contemporary moment in education and political consciousness, McClintock's biography and the impact on the Black Arts Movement will resonate with undergraduate students and serve as a powerful case study for theatre professors to integrate into their course curriculum. Contributes to the growing discourse of Black Arts Movement scholarship, Black acting theory, and queer studies.

An impassioned and invaluable guide for actors and students of musical theatre. In Acting Through Song, Paul Harvard takes the techniques of modern actor training - including the theories of Stanislavsky, Brecht, Meisner and Laban, amongst others - and applies them to the fundamental component of musical theatre: singing. With dozens of exercises to put these theories into practice, and numerous examples from a broad range of musicals, the result is a comprehensive and rigorous acting course for those training in musical theatre or already performing, whether amateur or professional, to realise their potential - and act better. 'The most methodical, thorough and practical book on the subject that I've ever read.' Daniel Evans, from his Foreword 'If you want to maximise your potential in this tough profession, this is not just a must-read - it's your bible.' Stuart Barr

A teacher's handbook of over 140 theatre games designed to stimulate creativity in students of all ages. The games progress from Orientation ("Face to Face, " "You and Me") and Trust ("Catch Me Falling, " "Lead the Blind") to more advanced games that develop the senses, coordination and spontaneity. A section on characters and stories builds improvisational acting skills. All of the essential elements of acting and character development are explored. Sample workshops provide a guide for using the games. Anyone working with young (or old) performers in schools, colleges or community theatre will find this book a valuable resource. Twelve units: Group Orientation; Trust; Warming Up; Developing the Senses; Coordination and Interaction; Cooperation; Reality; Sensitivity and Communication; Transformation, Discovery and Spontaneity; Characters and Stories; Drawing to Music; Creative Quotations.

1. The book provides practical guidance that will support the reader as they develop and deliver a costumed-interpreted character of their own. 2. The book provides a variety of examples for the reader to draw upon in their own practice. Comprehensive guidance on verbal techniques, such as voice tone and the use of accents, is provided. The importance of non-verbal communication is also covered, ensuring that the book will be useful to practitioners working at museum and heritage sites around the world. 3. This is the first practical guide to provide a non-US approach to costumed interpretation. The author demonstrates how it is possible to enhance visitor experience and on-site engagement through the use of costumed interpretation.

Improvisation teachers Viola Spolin, Del Close, and Keith Johnstone knew that with structure and guidelines, the human mind could be trained to be effortlessly spontaneous and intuitive. Cognitive studies is finally catching up with what improvisers have known for over fifty years. Through archival research, workshops, and interviews, Theatrical Improvisation, Consciousness, and Cognition explores improvisation's effects on consciousness and cognition and compares these theories to current findings in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.

Clown: The Physical Comedian is a detailed and comprehensive workbook for those interested in the art of clowning and physical theatre, including actors, directors, improvisers, stand-up comedians, circus artists, mask performers and devisers of new work. Offering an extensive and hugely diverse compilation of tried-and-tested exercises and games, the book is for students, teachers and practitioners to aid ensemble-building, character development, devising theatre, physicalising text and vocalising movement, plus creating cabaret acts, clown routines and adding physical play to scripted scenes. It offers advice on subjects such as developing presence onstage; increasing strength, flexibility and physical expression; developing partner and trio relationships; understanding the power of the mask; and working with an audience - in particular, turning a performance into a conversation with the audience and increasing the actor's ability to connect with a crowd. The exercises and teachings have been developed in classrooms, workshops and theatres all over the world and the book is packed with insights from the author, who has worked for over 35 years in a wide variety of venues, from intimate performance spaces to large-scale sports stadiums.

What should an actor be thinking on stage? This overlooked, important question is the crux of this new book that combines psychological theory, practical exercises, and a wide-reaching examination of inner monologue in various forms including film, musical theatre, and comedy. The inner monologue is that "stream of consciousness" or "inner voice" that constantly echoes in your head. This revolutionary new book tames and harnesses that voice to be used as a powerful tool in acting. Written in an accessible tone, the book assists actors, directors and educators in their quest for deeper more thoughtful acting and is a perfect supplement to traditional actor training.

Every scene or action or speech has a so therefore. It is the goal, the ultimate statement of the character. You should know the so therefore as you begin your scene ... The climax and the payoff is the so therefore. from Al Ruscio s Preface

When working through a scene with a student, renowned actor and acting teacher Al Ruscio will ask, so therefore, what to urge them to capture the specific actions and desires that define their character at that moment. So Therefore interweaves tried-and-tested practical exercises with sound advice, and illustrative tales from Ruscio s remarkable career, to form a training handbook as uniquely pragmatic as his favourite phrase. Breaking down his method into three broad focuses, Ruscio considers:

• Warming Up including relaxation, going beneath the words and emotional recall;
• Scene Work ranging from character analysis to an exploration of action;
• The Play discovering its spine, progressing through rehearsals and sustaining a performance.

But So Therefore also reflects wisely on such diverse subjects as Stage versus Film, and Stamina, Luck and Chutzpah. Enriching and generous, it is the culmination of a career that has taken in dozens of major motion pictures, and spans the entire history of television as well as half a century spent training actors.

Al Ruscio graduated from the famed Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre and has been teaching acting for five decades. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild and is a current voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

WHY PUBLISH: - The author applies over 15 years experience and insights as a theatre practitioner to her argument. - The book offers a fresh vantage point for a play that has been exhaustively analysed. - Shakespeare scholarship travels well globally, and so the work will appeal to a broad, international, English-speaking audience.

This volume explores the relationship between the emphasis on performance in Elizabethan humanist education and the flourishing of literary brilliance around the turn of the sixteenth century. This study asks us what lessons we can learn today from Shakespeare's Latin grammar school. What were the cognitive benefits of an education so deeply rooted in what Demosthenes and Quintilian called "actio"-acting? Because of the vast difference between educational practice then and now, we have not often followed one essential thread: the focus on performance. This study examines the connections relevant to the education offered in schools today. This book will be of great interest to teachers, scholars, and administrators in performing arts and education.

Commedia dell'Arte, its Structure and Tradition chronicles a series of discussions between two renowned experts in commedia dell'arte - master practitioners Antonio Fava and John Rudlin. These discussions were recorded during three recent visits by Fava to Rudlin's rural retreat in south west France. They take in all of commedia dell'arte's most striking and enduring elements - its masks, its scripts and scenarios, and most outstandingly, its cast of characters. Fava explores the role of each stock Commedia character and their subsequent incarnations in popular culture, as well as their roots in prominent figures of their time. The lively and wide-ranging conversations also take in methods of staging commedia dell'arte for contemporary audiences, the evolution of its gestures, and the collective nature of its theatre-making. This is an essential book for any student or practitioner of commedia dell'arte - provocative, expansive wisdom from the modern world's foremost exponent of the craft.

This book is designed for all members of stage crew who are responsible for maintaining a respectful, inclusive work and artistic environment, and documenting administrative and artistic matters throughout the entire production process. The professional theatre industry desires to understand the process involved in utilizing Intimacy Directors or consultants: industry professionals want to know when Intimacy Directors or intimate staging are required and how to build a more supportive and consensual working environment in these scenarios. Empowers theatre artists with tools and techniques to assist in the creation of a supportive and consensual working environment, and recommended practices and protocols for maintaining intimate staging during the run of a production.