Actor Factor

Recommended Reading for Actors

‘Respect for Acting’ by Uta Hagen

This fascinating and detailed book about acting is Miss Hagen's credo, the accumulated wisdom of her years spent in intimate communion with her art. It is at once the voicing of her exacting standards for herself and those she [taught], and an explanation of the means to the end." --Publishers Weekly "Hagen adds to the large corpus of titles on acting with vivid dicta drawn from experience, skill, and a sense of personal and professional worth. Her principal asset in this treatment is her truly significant imagination. Her 'object exercises' display a wealth of detail with which to stimulate the student preparing a scene for presentation." --Library Journal "Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting . . . is a relatively small book. But within it, Miss Hagen tells the young actor about as much as can be conveyed in print of his craft." --Los Angeles Times "There are almost no American actors uninfluenced by Uta Hagen." --Fritz Weaver "This is a textbook for aspiring actors, but working thespians can profit much by it. Anyone with just a casual interest in the theater should also enjoy its behind-the-scenes flavor.

‘An Actor's Handbook: An Alphabetical Arrangement of Concise Statements on Aspects of Acting’ by Constantin Stanislavski

This is the classic lexicon of Stanislavski's most important concepts, all in the master's own words. Upon its publication in 1963, An Actor's Handbook quickly established itself as an essential guide for actors and directors. Culling key passages from Stanislavski's vast output, this book covers more than one hundred and fifty key concepts, among them "Improvisation," "External Technique," "Magic If," "Imaginary Objects," "Discipline," "What Is My System?" and "Stage Fright."

‘Sanford Meisner on Acting’ by Sanford Meisner

This book, written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, follows an acting class of eight men and eight women for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Throughout these pages Meisner is delight--always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges. With an introduction by Sydney Pollack, director of "Out of Africa" and "Tootsie," who worked with Meisner for five years. "This book should be read by anyone who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisner's way of teaching, it is the straight goods."--Arthur Miller "If there is a key to good acting, this one is it, above all others. Actors, young and not so young, will find inspiration and excitement in this book."--Gregory Peck

‘Building A Character’ by Constantin Stanislavski

This is the second volume of Stanislaviski's enduring trilogy on the art of acting. The "System" which he describes is a means both of mastering the craft of acting and of stimulating the actor's individual creativeness and imagination. It has become the central force determining almost every performance we see on stage or screen, and still remains today the only comprehensive theory of acting we possess. In Building a Character Stanislavski discusses with mastery and insight the actor's physical means of expression for realizing character on stage, such as the use of body, movement, voice, tempo, expression, make-up and costume.

‘Creating A Role’ by Constantin Stanislavski

The first volume of Stanislavski's enduring trilogy on the art of acting defines the "System," a means of mastering the craft of acting and of stimulating the actor's individual creativeness and imagination.

 

This volume completes, with An Actor Prepares and Building a Character, the trilogy in which Stanislavski set down his life's accomplishment. Creating a Role describes the elaborate preparation that precedes actual performance. Stanislavski here relates the techniques he describes in his preceding books to analyzing specific plays and their roles.

‘An Actor Prepares’ by Constantin Stanislavski

The first volume of Stanislavski's enduring trilogy on the art of acting defines the "System," a means of mastering the craft of acting and of stimulating the actor's individual creativeness and imagination.

 

"An Actor Prepares" is the first volume of Stanislavski's enduring trilogy on the art of acting. Fusing psychological realism and expressionism, his exploratory exercises teach actors to evoke past emotions that draw out their vulnerability. Stanislavski here introduces such concepts as the "magic if," "emotion memory," the "unbroken line" and many more now famous rehearsal aids. This classic manual is written from the viewpoint of fictional actors taking lessons from a director (based on Stanislavski). Through the student's mistakes, questions, revelations, and struggles, Stanislavski teaches the actor about the stage, truth, and life itself.

‘The Art of Acting’ by Stella Adler

Stella Adler was one of the 20th Century's greatest figures. She is arguably the most important teacher of acting in American history. Over her long career, both in New York and Hollywood, she offered her vast acting knowledge to generations of actors, including Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. The great voice finally ended in the early Nineties, but her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly caught and encapsulated by Howard Kissel in the twenty-two lessons in this book.