Teaching Acting with Practical Aesthetics uses constructivist pedagogy to teach acting via Practical Aesthetics, a system of actor training created in the mid-1980s by David Mamet. The book melds the history of Practical Aesthetics, Practical Aesthetics itself, educational theory, and compatible physical work into the educational approach called Praxis to create a comprehensive training guide for the modern actor and theatre instructor. It includes lesson plans, compatible voice and movement exercises, constructivist teaching materials, classroom handouts, and a suggested calendar for Acting courses. Written for Acting instructors at the college and secondary levels, Acting scholars, and professionals looking for a new way to perform, Teaching Acting with Practical Aesthetics offers detailed instructions to help students sharpen their performing skills and excel on stage.

Teaching Acting with Practical Aesthetics uses constructivist pedagogy to teach acting via Practical Aesthetics, a system of actor training created in the mid-1980s by David Mamet. The book melds the history of Practical Aesthetics, Practical Aesthetics itself, educational theory, and compatible physical work into the educational approach called Praxis to create a comprehensive training guide for the modern actor and theatre instructor. It includes lesson plans, compatible voice and movement exercises, constructivist teaching materials, classroom handouts, and a suggested calendar for Acting courses. Written for Acting instructors at the college and secondary levels, Acting scholars, and professionals looking for a new way to perform, Teaching Acting with Practical Aesthetics offers detailed instructions to help students sharpen their performing skills and excel on stage.

Teaching Acting with Practical Aesthetics uses constructivist pedagogy to teach acting via Practical Aesthetics, a system of actor training created in the mid-1980s by David Mamet. The book melds the history of Practical Aesthetics, Practical Aesthetics itself, educational theory, and compatible physical work into the educational approach called Praxis to create a comprehensive training guide for the modern actor and theatre instructor. It includes lesson plans, compatible voice and movement exercises, constructivist teaching materials, classroom handouts, and a suggested calendar for Acting courses. Written for Acting instructors at the college and secondary levels, Acting scholars, and professionals looking for a new way to perform, Teaching Acting with Practical Aesthetics offers detailed instructions to help students sharpen their performing skills and excel on stage.

For anyone who has ever wanted to take an acting class, "this is the best book on acting written in the last twenty years" (David Mamet, from the Introduction). This book describes a technique developed and refined by the authors, all of them young actors, in their work with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, actor W. H. Macy, and director Gregory Mosher. A Practical Handbook for the Actor is written for any actor who has ever experienced the frustrations of acting classes that lacked clarity and objectivity, and that failed to provide a dependable set of tools. An actor's job, the authors state, is to "find a way to live truthfully under the imaginary circumstances of the play." The ways in which an actor can attain that truth form the substance of this eloquent book.

In this practical guide, renowned actor and director Michael Chekhov shares his innovative approach to the craft of acting. Drawing on his extensive experience in the theater and his unique understanding of the actor's creative process, Chekhov presents a comprehensive system of techniques designed to help actors develop their physical, mental, and emotional abilities. Through a series of exercises and principles, actors can learn to create compelling, truthful performances that captivate audiences and bring characters to life on stage and screen.

"All the elements of preparing a monologue audition - script analysis, staging, voice, timing, gesture, movement and self-presentation skills - are thoroughly explored here. The goal of the book, as Ms. Kohlhaas states in her Introduction, is not only to help you prepare for auditions, but to make working on monologues a regular and enjoyable part of your acting life. As you follow the author along the path she charts, you are not only learning to rehearse monologues effectively, you are learning to turn auditions into exciting ways to grow and challenge yourself as an actor."--BOOK JACKET.

The first comprehensive survey and study of the major techniques developed by and for the American actor over the past 60 years. Presented side-by-side, each of the 10 disciplines included is described in detail by one of today's foremost practitioners. An invaluable resource both for the young actor embarking on a career and for the theatre professional polishing his or her craft. ''successful acting must reflect a society's current beliefs. The men and women who developed each new technique were convinced that previous methods were not equal to the full challenges of their time and place, and the techniques in this book have been adapted to current needs in order to continue to be successful methods for training actors. The actor's journey is an individual one, and the actor seeks a form, or a variety of forms, of training that will assist in unlocking his own creative gifts of expression.''

"First published in the United States, this unique survey of the twentieth century's most influential acting methods offers invaluable practical insights for actors and drama teachers all over the world." "Each of the ten famous techniques included in this handbook is described in detail by one of today's foremost practitioners. Each chapter outlines the development of the respective technique and offers practical guidance for actors wishing to explore it for themselves." --Book Jacket.

One of our most brilliantly iconoclastic playwrights takes on the art of profession of acting with these words: invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school. Acting schools, “interpretation,” “sense memory,” “The Method”—David Mamet takes a jackhammer to the idols of contemporary acting, while revealing the true heroism and nobility of the craft. He shows actors how to undertake auditions and rehearsals, deal with agents and directors, engage audiences, and stay faithful to the script, while rejecting the temptations that seduce so many of their colleagues. Bracing in its clarity, exhilarating in its common sense, True and False is as shocking as it is practical, as witty as it is instructive, and as irreverent as it is inspiring.

Playing Shakespeare is the premier guide to understanding and appreciating the mastery of the world’s greatest playwright. Together with Royal Shakespeare Company actors–among them Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, and David Suchet–John Barton demonstrates how to adapt Elizabethan theater for the modern stage. The director begins by explicating Shakespeare’s verse and prose, speeches and soliloquies, and naturalistic and heightened language to discover the essence of his characters. In the second section, Barton and the actors explore nuance in Shakespearean theater, from evoking irony and ambiguity and striking the delicate balance of passion and profound intellectual thought, to finding new approaches to playing Shakespeare’s most controversial creation, Shylock, from The Merchant of Venice. A practical and essential guide, Playing Shakespeare will stand for years as the authoritative favorite among actors, scholars, teachers, and students.