Download or read book Why Acting Matters written by David Thomson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does acting matter? David Thomson, one of our most respected and insightful writers on movies and theater, answers this question with intelligence and wit. In this fresh and thought-provoking essay, Thomson tackles this most elusive of subjects, examining the allure of the performing arts for both the artist and the audience member while addressing the paradoxes inherent in acting itself. He reflects on the casting process, on stage versus film acting, and on the cult of celebrity. The art and considerable craft of such gifted artists as Meryl Streep, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Daniel Day-Lewis, and others are scrupulously appraised here, as are notions of “good” and “bad” acting. Thomson’s exploration is at once a meditation on and a celebration of a unique and much beloved, often misunderstood, and occasionally derided art form. He argues that acting not only “matters” but is essential and inescapable, as well as dangerous, chronic, transformative, and exhilarating, be it on the theatrical stage, on the movie screen, or as part of our everyday lives.
Download or read book Why Acting Matters written by David Thomson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the allure of acting for both the artist and the audience member while addressing the paradoxes inherent in acting itself.
Download or read book Acting that Matters written by Barry Pineo and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2004 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An invaluable resource for anyone wanting his or her acting to matter, this groundbreaking guide defies most modern acting methods by rejecting emotion as an acting tool. With the advice in this book, actors will see beyond the prevailing "objective-obstacle" approach and look primarily to the text the playwright provides. Actors learn how to dissect a text for key words and phrases, as well as how to score a script, find proper tempo and rhythm, modulate volume and intensity, use theatrical stillness effectively, find beat actions, listen to their acting partners, and much more. Expert tips are also provided for auditioning, cold reading, and taking direction.
Download or read book Acting with Power written by Deborah Gruenfeld and published by Currency. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A refreshing and enlightening new perspective on what it means to be powerful.”—Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet We all know what it looks like to use power badly. But how much do we really know about how to use power well? There is so much we get wrong about power: who has it, what it looks like, and the role it plays in our lives. Grounded in over two decades’ worth of scientific research and inspired by the popular class of the same name at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Acting with Power offers a new and eye-opening paradigm that overturns everything we thought we knew about the nature of power. Although we all feel powerless sometimes, we have more power than we tend to believe. Power exists in every relationship, not just at the top of big institutions. It isn’t merely a function of status or hierarchy, either. It’s about how much we are needed and how well we take care of other people. We often assume that power flows to those with the loudest voice or the most commanding presence. But, in fact, true power is often much quieter and more deferential than we realize. Moreover, it’s not just how much power we have but how we use it that determines how powerful we actually are. Actors aren’t the only ones who play roles for a living. We all make choices about how to use the power that comes with our given circumstances. We aren’t always cast in the roles we desire—or the ones we feel prepared to play. Some of us struggle to step up and be taken more seriously, while others have trouble standing back and ceding the spotlight. In Acting with Power, Deborah Gruenfeld shows how we can get more comfortable with power by adopting an actor’s mindset. Because power isn’t a personal attribute. It’s a part we play in someone else’s story.
Download or read book The Answer to How Is Yes written by Peter Block and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2003-11-01 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern culture’s worship of “how-to” pragmatism has turned us into instruments of efficiency and commerce—but we’re doing more and more about things that mean less and less. We constantly ask “how? and still struggle to find purpose and act on what matters. Instead of acting on what we know to be of importance, we wait for bosses to change, we seek the latest fad, we invest in one more degree. Asking how keeps us safe—instead of being led by our hearts into uncharted territory, we keep our heads down and stick to the rules. But we are gaining the world and losing our souls. Peter Block puts the “how-to” craze in perspective and presents a guide to the difficult and life-granting journey of bringing what we know is of personal value into an indifferent or even hostile corporate and cultural landscape. He raises our awareness of the trade-offs we’ve made in the name of practicality and expediency, and offers hope for a way of life in which we’re motivated not by what “works,” but by the things that truly matter in life—idealism, intimacy, depth and engagement.
Download or read book The Method written by Isaac Butler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Nonfiction NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 BY THE NEW YORKER, TIME MAGAZINE, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, VOX, SALON, LIT HUB, AND VANITY FAIR “Entertaining and illuminating.”--The New Yorker * “Compulsively readable.”--New York Times * “Delicious, humane, probing.”--Vulture * “The best and most important book about acting I've ever read.”--Nathan Lane The critically acclaimed cultural history of Method acting-an ebullient account of creative discovery and the birth of classic Hollywood. On stage and screen, we know a great performance when we see it. But how do actors draw from their bodies and minds to turn their selves into art? What is the craft of being an authentic fake? More than a century ago, amid tsarist Russia's crushing repression, one of the most talented actors ever, Konstantin Stanislavski, asked these very questions, reached deep into himself, and emerged with an answer. How his “system” remade itself into the Method and forever transformed American theater and film is an unlikely saga that has never before been fully told. Now, critic and theater director Isaac Butler chronicles the history of the Method in a narrative that transports readers from Moscow to New York to Los Angeles, from The Seagull to A Streetcar Named Desire to Raging Bull. He traces how a cohort of American mavericks--including Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and the storied Group Theatre--refashioned Stanislavski's ideas for a Depression-plagued nation that had yet to find its place as an artistic powerhouse. The Group's feuds and rivalries would, in turn, shape generations of actors who enabled Hollywood to become the global dream-factory it is today. Some of these performers the Method would uplift; others, it would destroy. Long after its midcentury heyday, the Method lives on as one of the most influential--and misunderstood--ideas in American culture. Studded with marquee names--from Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, and Elia Kazan, to James Baldwin, Ellen Burstyn, and Dustin Hoffman--The Method is a spirited history of ideas and a must-read for any fan of Broadway or American film.
Download or read book Creating a Character written by Moni Yakim and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 1993 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Actor and mime artist Moni Yakim reveals his time-tested techniques and step-by-step exercises for physically evoking a character. Beginning with a chapter on looking inward, Yakim gives exercises on discovering aspects of one's own character. Then he teaches the actor how to identify with qualities outside the self. Finally, he shows how to apply these techniques to 12 classical theatrical roles.
Download or read book Planning Matter written by Robert A. Beauregard and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: City and regional planners talk constantly about the things of the world—from highway interchanges and retention ponds to zoning documents and conference rooms—yet most seem to have a poor understanding of the materiality of the world in which they’re immersed. Too often planners treat built forms, weather patterns, plants, animals, or regulatory technologies as passively awaiting commands rather than actively involved in the workings of cities and regions. In the ambitious and provocative Planning Matter, Robert A. Beauregard sets out to offer a new materialist perspective on planning practice that reveals the many ways in which the nonhuman things of the world mediate what planners say and do. Drawing on actor-network theory and science and technology studies, Beauregard lays out a framework that acknowledges the inevitable insufficiency of our representations of reality while also engaging more holistically with the world in all of its diversity—including human and nonhuman actors alike.
Download or read book Acting That Matters written by Barry Pineo and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-09-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An invaluable resource for anyone wanting his or her acting to matter, this groundbreaking guide defies most modern acting methods by rejecting emotion as an acting tool. With the advice in this book, actors will see beyond the prevailing "objective-obstacle" approach and look primarily to the text the playwright provides. Actors learn how to dissect a text for key words and phrases, as well as how to score a script, find proper tempo and rhythm, modulate volume and intensity, use theatrical stillness effectively, find beat actions, listen to their acting partners, and much more. Expert tips are also provided for auditioning, cold reading, and taking direction.
Download or read book Playwrights and Acting written by James Mcteague and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1994-12-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the acting aesthetic of Brecht, Ionesco, Pinter, and Shepard and presents a detailed methodological approach to the performance of their plays. The originality of the book lies in the systematic and critical analysis of both the process of preparing a role and the shifting assumptions on matters essential for a coherent acting methodology for each playwright. The book is distinctive in that it focuses almost exclusively on the playwrights' published remarks concerning theatre and acting, supplemented with observations by actors and directors who were close collaborators with the playwrights on productions. The analysis begins with a chapter that examines and questions the applicability of the Stanislavsky system that still dominates the post-World War II theatrical scene. The following four chapters are devoted to the playwrights' construction of a coherent view of theatre and acting. An approach to acting is critically examined from the standpoint of the function, means and manner in which the role is realized with regard to the relationship of the actor to self, to the text, to the character and other characters, to the director, and to the audience. At the end of each chapter, a summary of the essential elements for an approach to the role is offered, accompanied by a proposed acting methodology. In the conclusion, an analysis is presented that recognizes what may be applied through Stanislavskian methods and the divergences which demand particularized responses to the plays of Brecht, Ionesco, Pinter, and Shepard.
Download or read book Acting as If Tomorrow Matters written by John C. Dernbach and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a guide to making the United States environmentally sustainable. It explains the progress made to date on sustainability, including a description of the most significant obstacles to rapid and increased success. Building on the framework that has guided real progress so far, the author explains in detail how to make a greater variety of more sustainable decisions even more attractive, how law can provide an even better enabling environment for sustainability, and how public opinion and leadership can more effectively be engaged to support sustainability.
Download or read book About Acting written by Peter Barkworth and published by London : Secker and Warburg. This book was released on 1980 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is on every aspect of acting. Topics include the connection between speech and movement, how to cope with bad dialogue, the subject of concentration and more.
Download or read book Pretentiousness written by Dan Fox and published by Coffee House Press. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pretentiousness is the engine oil of culture; the essential lubricant in the development of all arts, high, low, or middle.
Download or read book True to the Life A novel written by and published by . This book was released on 1868 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Molly Bit written by Dan Bevacqua and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Molly Bit doesn't believe she's destined for success - she knows it. This certainly helps her get through the countless auditions featuring actors who look and dress just like she does; helps her swallow the indignity of less talented actors landing roles; even helps her endure the industry's aggressive over-sexualizing of young women. When Molly is offered a lead role in a major film, she knows, too, that to seize this opportunity she must sacrifice everything. Even her commitment to an old friend. It's her big break, and Molly becomes a star. But she soon learns the hardest part of fame is everything after."--Publisher description.
Download or read book The Art of Acting written by and published by . This book was released on 1863 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Act Like a Sales Pro written by Julie Hansen and published by Red Wheel/Weiser. This book was released on 2011-08-15 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Act Like a Sales Pro was a finalist for TOP SALES AND MARKETING BOOK OF 2011 and featured on the cover of Ken Blanchard's Sales and Service Excellence Magazine and her articles have appeared across the globe. "In Act Like A Sales Pro, Julie Hansen challenges the reader to examine themselves honestly first, (strengths and weaknesses) then provides numerous methods on how to proceed with passion. Her writing style offers sage advice and smart nuances for those who will use it. Specifically, her insight on closing sales should not be missed. This is important work." --Mitchell Tilstra, Business Development Manager, Bunger Steel Acting is the ultimate form of persuasion. Now you can learn the methods that great actors use to engage and inspire clients and win more sales than you dreamed possible! Act Like a Sales Pro shows you how acting and improv skills can enhance your own selling style, make you stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace, and create a memorable buying experience. Easy-to-follow steps, exercises, and real-world coaching sessions help you move confidently from cold-calling to closing by applying techniques that have produced some of Hollywood's most compelling stars. A breakthrough approach to delivering the sales performance of your life!
