Drawing on Ken Rea's 35 years' teaching experience and research, as well as interviews with top actors and directors, The Outstanding Actor identifies seven key qualities that the most successful actors manifest, along with practical exercises that help nurture those qualities and videos to demonstrate them. Featuring contributions and insights from Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Judi Dench, Al Pacino, Lily James, Rufus Norris and many more, The Outstanding Actor gives you techniques that you can immediately put into practice in rehearsals, classes or private preparation. It also shows you how to increase the chances of having a more successful career. This new edition covers topical issues such as the #MeToo movement, gender balance and race issues, and how these affect working conditions and careers. There are also brand new links to video resources that bring the valuable exercises to life. The book also includes forewords by Damian Lewis and Lily James.

Drawing on Ken Rea's 35 years' teaching experience and research, as well as interviews with top actors and directors, The Outstanding Actor identifies seven key qualities that the most successful actors manifest, along with practical exercises that help nurture those qualities and videos to demonstrate them. Featuring contributions and insights from Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Judi Dench, Al Pacino, Lily James, Rufus Norris and many more, The Outstanding Actor gives you techniques that you can immediately put into practice in rehearsals, classes or private preparation. It also shows you how to increase the chances of having a more successful career. This new edition covers topical issues such as the #MeToo movement, gender balance and race issues, and how these affect working conditions and careers. There are also brand new links to video resources that bring the valuable exercises to life. The book also includes forewords by Damian Lewis and Lily James.

"Grote describes the company's reorganization as the King's Men, which led to the writing of Shakespeare's great tragedies, as well as the trials of the plague years, Shakespeare's retirement from the stage, the development of writers to replace him, and the burning of the Globe.".

There is a sense that permeates most acting classes which promotes the idea that acting is hard and you need to do a bunch of traditional steps if you're ever going to get anywhere. The flame of this concept is kept lit for two reasons. One is tradition. Successful actors and teachers in our theatrical history supposedly believed in or espoused such ideas and two; it is easier for teachers and actors to follow a path that is well worn. Actors feel intimidated to challenge the ideas and teachings of past masters. But isn't that exactly how every field of endeavor evolves? Think of where we'd be in science or medicine or sports if no one questioned past methods or tried to discover new ones. This book will show you an approach that is direct and to the point, an approach that will be far easier to remember and utilize. We'll use real life. We call it acting only because people are watching. "If you're an actor, this book will restore your sanity." Steven Pressfield, Author: The War of Art, Turning Pro, The Legend of Bagger Vance

"Scofield, however, is adamantly not a celebrity actor. As guardian of his craft and integrity, he has kept himself most carefully out of the limelight. This, in fact, is the first full biography of him. Garry O'Connor, highly respected for his theatrical biographies, presents a richly drawn, fully dimensional portrait of the great actor. O'Connor interviewed the intensely private Scofield himself, as well as many of the actors and directors he has worked with, including Simon Callow, Trevor Nunn, Richard Eyre, and Peter Hall. The result is a biography of one of the past century's most remarkable and enigmatic icons."--BOOK JACKET.

How to Become a Better Actor Instantly Without Killing Yourself with "The Method"! Discover the the psychological secrets of "The Life Acting System" If you are an actor, you've probably done your fair share of pointless exercises in classes: "Hold the imaginary teacup. Feel the warmth of the tea. Can you smell it? Can you smell it?" ...or you may have had your fill of "gurus" who may direct scenes, but don't give actors any understanding of how to get where they need to get--on their own! If you are not a trained actor, this book will help you to STOP THINKING and START DOING! It cuts through all the b.s., is mercifully short, but yet will help you get to the core questions that every actor should answer. Based on 50 plus years of psychological research, I make the case for what I call "Life Acting." A very simple, behavior-based approach that can be as effective with a toddler as it can be with a veteran wanting to go as deep as possible. That's why it's humbly titled "The Best Book on Acting." You wont be disappointed. You will become a better actor because 1. You won't be scraping your psyche with an internal focus to present something that has nothing to do with the material. 2. You won't be overly focused on emotion, (often pushing and unrealistic) but on the INTENT of the character. 3. You will be more focused, more colorful, more memorable and interesting because you know how to make crystal clear choices which lead to impacting the audience! 4. You won't be "in your head" in performance, trying to juggle the balls of technique, emotion and connection. You will be "doing"! 5. You will understand the crucial difference between Homework, Rehearsal, and Performance. This book might reboot your whole way of building a character. It will be faster, more precise and more interesting. The questions for Homework can be broken down to such a basic level that a small child can use them and be effective!

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.

"Self-Management for Actors will guide you through the process of taking control of your career from the business side of things. There is no secret method, there is no password entry system to the Working Actor Club. What does exist is a simple, self-management concept that allows you to handle the business of your acting career without losing the ability to be a creative artist."--BOOK JACKET.

The life and career of Sidney Poitier are analyzed in this biography of the actor, highlighting his work as the only black leading man during the civil rights era and the honors he has received for his work for racial equality in Hollywood.

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.