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Off The Shelf
By Stephan Peithman
Together or Solo
New books on acting and directing
A
number of new books look at acting and
directing from both the individual and
group perspectives, emphasizing the
importance of both.
Organized in three sections (“Actor Training,“
“Rehearsal Processes” and “Performance
Practices”), The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit
by Bella Merlin, provides a basic guide for actors,
directors, teachers and students. Merlin explains
key terms and concepts, then illustrates each with
examples from Stanislavksy’s work and that of
other practitioners. Also provided are exercises to
help actors and students become familiar with the
“toolkit” of the title. While “Rehearsal Processes” is
the heart of the book, “Performance Practices” goes
where many other acting books do not — addressing
what happens to the creative process when the
actor’s work goes public, focusing on the tools that
can help keep the performance on course. Bravo!
[ISBN 0-89676-259-7, $23,
Drama Publishers]
In similar fashion,
Acting Teachers
of America: A Vital
Tradition is based on
Ronald Rand’s interviews
with teachers and coaches
about their approaches
to teaching the craft.
These include Michael
Howard, Lloyd Richards,
Olympia Dukakis, Austin
Pendleton, Anne Bogart,
Anne Jackson, André De Shields and Marian
Seldes, among others. Each teacher interview is
immediately followed by one with a former or
current student, such as Edward Norton, Billy
Crudup, Steve Buscemi, Doris Roberts and Lillias
White. Illustrated with portraits by photographer
Luigi Scorcia, this book is both enjoyable
and informative. [ISBN 1-58115-473-9, $19.95,
Allworth Press]
“When a company of actors works together
to create life onstage, the living play can strike
an audience deeply and unforgettably,” writes
Marshall W. Mason in Creating Life on Stage: A
Director’s Approach to Working with Actors.
What the audience doesn’t see — at first hand,
at least — is the work of the director, who has
inspired the actors (and designers) to subsume
their individual contributions to the collective
creation of the world of the play. Mason shows
how a director’s imaginative ideas can lend thematic
structure and coherence to costuming,
design, music and lighting — and how his vision
can bring this to life through the actors. [ISBN 0-
325-00919-8, $19.95, Heinemann Books]
Diz White highlights ensemble work of a
somewhat different kind in The Comedy Group
Book as she discusses the steps in creating a successful
comedy group. This you do, she explains,
by creating your own show that is so noteworthy
that the movers and shakers come to you to supply
their theatrical and programming needs. She
makes a persuasive case, based on her own successful
experiences. [ISBN 1-57525-452-2, $15.95,
Smith and Kraus]
Sometimes time constraints make it difficult to
rehearse as much as needed, particularly in film and
television. In How to Rehearse When There Is No
Rehearsal: Acting and
the Media, Alice Spivak
describes her process for
developing and building
a character when time is
short — including how
to read a script, develop
relationships, reveal subtext,
find the character’s
objective, follow up on
place and circumstances,
write a character background,
decide on character
traits and create a
character chart for quick reference. Nicely done.
[ISBN 0-87910-342-6, $19.95, Limelight Editions]
The BBC Acting Series is an amazing resource of
video presentations now transferred to DVD, covering
virtually every aspect of acting, most particularly
acting in styles ranging from Shakespeare
to Broadway musicals. Simon Callow’s Acting in
Restoration Comedy is one of the best. Taking
scenes from John Vanbrugh’s The Relapse (1696)
as the text, Callow directs a workshop of young
actors, shaping their actor’s sensibility, coaching
their performance in the conventions of the
age, the life of the costume and the audience in
performance. “Restoration comedies are bursting
with life, and it is the giving of life that is the job of
the theatre,” Callow points out. The 60 minutes of
this remarkable video go by all too quickly. [ISBN
1-55783-688-4, $39.95, Working Arts Library]
40 September 2007 • www.stage-directions.com