One of the most neglected areas of study in nineteenth-century theater is pantomime: this book provides a comprehensive overview of pantomime in the Victorian period, ranging from the ideological positions perpetrated by pantomime to discussions of practitioners and enthusiastic spectators, such as E.L. Blanchard, Lewis Carroll and John Ruskin.

With a political agenda foregrounding collaborative practice to promote ethical relations, these individually and joint written essays and interviews discuss dances often with visual art, theatre, film and music, drawing on continental philosophy to explore notions of space, time, identity, sensation, memory and ethics.

With On Screen Acting, director Edward Dmytryk and actress Jean Porter Dmytryk offer a lively dialogue between director and actress about the principles and practice of screen acting for film and television. Informal and anecdotal in style, the book spans auditioning, casting, rehearsal, and on-set techniques, and will be of interest to both aspiring and working actors and directors. Originally published in 1984, this reissue of Dmytryk's classic acting book includes a new critical introduction by Paul Thompson, as well as chapter lessons, discussion questions, and exercises.

From an actor and director who got his start as a Brat Pack member, an emotionally poignant memoir, perfect for fans of Patti Smith's Just Kids and Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends. The inspiration for the Hulu documentary.

Everyone knows Andrew McCarthy from his iconic movie roles in Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, Weekend at Bernie's, and Less than Zero. A member of the legendary Hollywood Brat Pack (including Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore), his filmography has come to represent both a genre of film and an era of pop culture.

In Brat, McCarthy focuses on that singular moment in time. The result is a revealing look at coming of age in a maelstrom, reckoning with conflicted ambition, innocence, addiction, and masculinity. 1980s New York City is brought to vivid life in these pages, from scoring loose joints in Washington Square Park to skipping school in favor of the dark revival houses of the Village–where he fell in love with the movies that would change his life.

Filled with personal revelations of innocence lost to heady days in Hollywood with John Hughes and an iconic cast of characters, Brat is a surprising and intimate story of an outsider caught up in a most unwitting success.

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!

"In compelling and intricately argued ways, the authors make a resounding case for understanding how vocal sonority is intrinsic to self-identity and self-reception ... Required Reading." - Jane Boston, Principal Lecturer, Voice Studies, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama A new, provocative study of the ethical, political, and social meanings of the everyday voice. Utilising the framework of feminist philosophy, authors Ann J. Cahill and Christine Hamel approach the phenomenon of voice as a lived, sonorous and embodied experience marked by the social structures that surround it, including systemic forms of injustice such as ableism, sexism, racism, and classism. By developing novel theoretical constructs such as "intervocality" and "respiratory responsibility," Cahill and Hamel cut through the static between theory and praxis and put forward exciting theories on how human vocal sound can perpetuate -- and challenge -- persistent inequalities. Sounding Bodies presents a powerful model of how the seemingly disparate disciplines of philosophy and voice/speech training can, in conversation with each other, generate illuminating insights about our vocal lives and identities.

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.

Drawing on hands-on experience from workshops and interviews, "Performance Practice and Process" explores the work of eight gender aware theater and performance artists and companies; Bobby Baker, Curious, SuAndi, Sarah Daniels, Split Britches, Rebecca Prichard, Vayu Naidu, and Jenny Eclair. Aston and Harris offer rare insights into the processes, as well as the practice, of these internationally renowned artists and employ an inside, practical approach to understanding their ground-breaking and politically radical theater and performance work.

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.

"Teaching Actors" draws on history, literature, and original research conducted across leading drama schools in England and Australia, to offer those involved in actor training a critical framework within which to think about their work. Prior, who brings to this volume more than twenty years of experience as both a teacher and performer in the field, devotes particular attention to the different ways in which teachers and students acquire and share knowledge through practical craft-based experience. The first book-length treatment of how actor trainers work--and understand their work--"Teaching Actors" will be an invaluable educational resource in an increasingly important area of theater training and research.

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.

To win a screen role, an actor must learn to contend with an on-camera audition. Understanding how to make the crucial adjustments to one 's craft that this kind of audition requires is vital to the career of any screen actor.

Auditioning On Camera sets out the key elements of a successful on-camera audition and explains how to put them into practice. Joseph Hacker draws on 35 years of acting experience to guide the reader through the screen auditioning process with an engaging and undaunting approach. Key elements examined include:

• textual analysis
• knowing where to look
• dealing with nerves
• on-camera interviews
• using the environment
• retaining the camera 's focus

The book also features point-by-point chapter summaries, as well as a glossary of acting and technical terms, and is a comprehensive and enlightening resource for screen actors of all levels.

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.

A comprehensive step-by-step how-to guide for the beginner movie actor.

Acting Reframes presents theatre and film practitioners with a methodology for using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) as a tool to aid their practice.

Author Robert Barton uses the NLP approach to illustrate a range of innovative methods to help actors and directors, including:

? reducing performance anxiety

? enabling clearer communication

? intensifying character analysis

? stimulating imaginative rehearsal choices.

The author also shows how NLP can used alongside other basic training systems to improve approaches to rehearsal and performance.

The book shows the use of NLP to the reader in a playful, creative and easily accessible style that is structured to enable solo study as well as group work. The text offers a range of engaging exercises and extensive analysis of language patterns used in performance. It is a source for enhancing communication between all theatre practitioners in training, productions, and daily life outside the theatre.

Acting Reframes gives actors a richly rewarding approach to help them develop all aspects of their craft.

Stanislavsky in America explores the extraordinary legacy that Constantin Stanislavski's system of actor-training has left on acting in the US.

Mel Gordon outlines the journey of Stanislavski's theories through twentieth century American history, from the early US tours of the Moscow Art Theatre to the ongoing impact of 'The System' on modern American acting.

This fascinating study by a leading theatre critic and practitioner provides hundreds of original acting exercises, used by the pivotal US figures who developed his teachings, such as Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Bobby Lewis. By going back to these primary sources, Gordon cuts through the myths and misapprehensions which have built up over time.

Part memoir and part practical guide, Stanislavsky in America is an essential resource for anyone wanting to understand Stanislavski's work and his relationship with American theatre.

This is the first book to explore how actors play real people. How do you capture Hitler, Mugabe, or a serial killer? How do you portray living monarchs or political leaders? Is it possible to embody a genius like Mozart, Woolf or Darwin? What are the pressures of performing an icon like Marlene Dietrich? Bringing together original conversations with award-winning actors, the line-up includes Jeremy Irons, Dame Eileen Atkins, David Morrissey, Henry Goodman, and Sir Ian McKellen.

Award Monologues for Women is a collection of fifty-four monologues taken from plays written since 1980 that have been nominated for the Pullitzer Prize, the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards in New York, and The Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier Awards in London. The book provides an excellent range of up-to-date audition pieces, usefully arranged in age groups, and is supplemented with audition tips to improve your acting, and to ensure that the best possible performance.