Title: Hamlet: A User’s Guide

Author: Michael Pennington

Publisher: Limelight Editions

ISBN: 0879100834

In the introduction to this most readable and charming book, Michael Pennington playfully confesses his awareness to inflicting the world with yet another book on an over-analyzed subject.  There are more scholarly writings on Hamlet, he admits, and perhaps more artistically investigational too, but Pennington assures us, in his witty and self-deprecating style, that what he offers is an insider’s view into the Danish Prince.  Who better to bestow this insight than a gifted actor/director who’s performed every principal male role in the play, including several incarnations as the title character?   His most notable turn in the title role was with the Royal Shakespeare Company, under the esteemed John Barton in 1980.

The author smartly separates the book into two sections: The Action and The Characters.  With the first, he introduces each of the play’s five acts as a single day.  Why he should do this he can’t explain even to himself.  He declares outright that there is a significant passage of time between acts Four and Five and then proceeds with his conceit, blithely ignoring its flaw.  In his defense, the evidence offered is that, in this compression of time, the drama is better served. Anyway, each individual Day is given its own chapter, and, within each chapter, every scene is gone over with a fine-toothed comb.  Pennington asserts his interpretations of the text with droll humor and perception, staking his claims boldly.  Sometimes he treads on the toes of other analysts and artists before him, but not without allowing his reader the opportunity to form their own conclusions.

The Character section is split into families and factions, allowing Pennington the opportunity to dissect the various dysfunctions of both kin and court.  This is especially revealing when he is deconstructing Polonius and his children.  The sins of a distant father’s domineering cruelty weigh heavily on the heads of Laertes and Ophelia.  While he admits to the delicate comic-balancing act an actor must perform in portraying the play’s “Prime Minister”, the author brushes aside the traditional buffoonery associated with Polonius and focuses instead on the inept parenting and social gracelessness inherent in the character.  The careless use of his children, Pennington contends,  – spying on his son and exploiting his daughter – contributes to his and their downfalls.  This “emotional suppression” is what leads directly to Polonius’ inability to succeed as a politician too – “the pawns that he is playing with are his own.”  In these pages, the author, once and for all, kills the idea of Polonius as a simpering old boob and leaves him dead and buried.  How fortunate for us.

But what of Hamlet, you ask?  How does Pennington handle the penultimate role, both dreaded and desired by actor and director alike?  The answer is with all the depth, complexity, and contradiction the Prince of Denmark demands.  In this particular area, the author and his book shine.  He shifts skillfully from memoir to manual and back again.  Comparing and contrasting previous Hamlets – Olivier, Gielgud, Burton, etc. – with his own, Pennington speaks without preciousness or pretension.  He is concise and verbose and that is how it should be, considering his source and subject.

The book benefits greatly from Pennington’s far-reaching experience and his ability to view his subject clearly and intuitively.  It bubbles over with personal anecdotes and sidebars, lending an almost dishy quality to the text.  Imagine chumming up the chatty rogue Pennington in a cozy London pub and, in exchange for a few pints, being privy to him spilling his guts on some of England’s greatest (and not so great) performances, many of whom are/were close friends.  Approachable in language and tone, yet illuminating in content and text,  “HAMLET: A User’s Guide” is chocked full of valuable tidbits and treasures, pleasing the most avid Shakespeare scholar as well as the tenderfoot freshman.

Title:  So You Want to Be in Show Business

Author:  Steve Stevens Sr. with John D. Cady

ISBN:  1-58182-453-X

My Advice:  You’ve got to check this one out…

“I’ve always wanted to be an actor.”

How many times have we heard that in our lives?  Of course, where I’m from, that sentence is usually followed by looks of consternation and dismay from whoever happened to hear it.  And after that, it’s usually followed by advice for that person to stay in school and get good grades and to become a[n]  [doctor/lawyer/nurse/auto mechanic/salesman].

This book makes the case that it doesn’t always have to be this way!  Mr. Stevens has put together a book that is filled with the simple tasks and information that anyone can do to have a successful career in the entertainment business.  Everything from getting an agent, auditioning, meeting with casting directors, getting headshots, and getting into and working with the unions.

His advice is well founded.  Mr. Stevens has had a long career in The Business since he was thirteen.  He’s been an actor, producer, casting director, and finally, an agent.  He’s worked with pretty much every Hollywood “name” that you can think of and has “discovered” and represented a great deal of them along the way.

I must admit, I was skeptical about this book when I looked at the title.  There are so many of these books on the shelf of your local bookstore that it seems that everyone has the knowledge of how to make it in this business.  There’s only one little problem:  If they know how to do it, why aren’t they out there doing it, right?  Why do they need to write a book talking about it rather than actually doing it? 

Mr. Stevens is the exception.  He has done it!  He provides information from pretty much every angle you can imagine.  And he transitions from giving advice as an actor seemlessly into giving you advice as an agent.  In fact, some of his best advice is on how to work with your agent once you get one.  His advice is most worthy because he has experienced both sides of this relationship.

If you are just getting into the business and really want to know what type of work you will really be doing, you should pick this book up. 

Title: How to Stage a Play, Make a Fortune, Win a Tony, and become a Theatrical Icon

Author: Charles Marowitz

ISBN: 0-87910-322-1

My advice: Don’t break your neck to buy it.

Mr. Marowitz is an internationally known director, author, and critic. His backlog of books tips the scales at over 30 published works. He has worked closely with Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company Experimental Group. His credits include Joe Orton’s Loot, Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime, Saul Bellow’s The Bellow Plays, David Pinner’s Fangborn, and Crawling Arnold by Jules Feiffer. So needless to say, he has the credentials to pen a fantastic book on the directing craft. However, this was not one. As he acknowledeges himself, this book was written as an “…unconscionable act of self-promotion.”

Judging by the introduction, I was prepared for this to have a sense of tongue in cheek, wink wink, nudge, nudge know what I mean…know what I mean…to it. Afterall, the book’s appeal was meant for those “who desperately crave fame and fortune and pursue theatre as a means of self-glorification rather than artistic mastery.” Instead, he paints a picture of a somewhat degrading and demoralizing experience for those interested in being directors. Perhaps this is Marowitz’s attempt to disuade his target audience from ever entering into the theatre in the first place… which I can appreciate and I agree with completely.
In this 152 page book, Marowitz starts the director’s trials and tribulations with how to choose a script and carries on through to surviving the reviews. The chapters are short and to the point which is greatly apreciated by this reviewer. Each chapter has an illustration by Cliff Mott which are superbly done. It is quite apparent that Marowitz has a decidely European feel for directing which is reflected in his tone towards dealing with the playwright, the designers and more specifically lighting designers. He even takes a swipe at American actors when discussing line prompts:

In European rehearsals, the prompter frequently whispers the text along with the actor mouthing it. This practice would drive American actors out of their squeaking little minds, as they are accustomed merely for calling for cues as they need them, but continental actors seem to rely on the custom and are inured to it.

Perhaps one of the most sage pieces of advice Marowitz offers concerns the director’s bullshit detector. He states that it “…must always be turned on and scouring the work of the company. When it finds crap, it must bleep loudly.” I found this to be solid and useful guidance.

How to Stage a Play…does for directors what “Waiting for Guffman” does for actors. If you have been through the process before then you will appreciate most of the antidotes Marowitz proffers. It is a “How to” book written in a sardonic manner and where this book falters a lttle bit is that it seems to blend the fine line between irony and instruction. Marowitz wants to mentor but loses sight of his intended audience of fame craving self-absorbed egotists which causes his book to split its focus and struggle against itself.

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Title: Tools and Techniques for Character Interpretation: A Handbook of Psychology for Actors, Writers, and Directors

Author: Robert Blumenfeld

ISBN: 0-87910-326-4

Copyright: 2006

My Advice: Take an acting class instead

There are tons and tons of books on acting techniques and methods, and a lot of these how-to books tend to tout themselves as sure-fire manuals for making you, if not the best possible, a much better actor. To his credit, Robert Blumenfeld does not posit that his book will suddenly make you a star. He offers it as a handbook of useful tools to aid you in building a character. And while fascinating from a purely intellectual standpoint, Tools and Techniques reads too much like a textbook and offers the same sterile, academic look at what is largely an intuitive profession.

In his introduction, Blumenfeld speaks of his decision to pursue a PhD. in psychology, and I have a feeling that this book is his dissertation. It sure reads like one. The book is chock full of the scientific terminology of psychology and psychoanalysis. Blumenfeld devotes his entire first to Freud and his invention of psychoanalysis; the reader is given a brief but fairly in-depth history of Freud’s life and the evolution of his method of analysis. It’s interesting stuff, especially if you only know a little about the man and the practice. However, the information is so academic in tone that I found myself struggling to read it. And the problem isn’t one of understanding, intelligence or focus – it’s just boring. As brief as his recap of Freud’s highlights is, it’s still waaaay too long and dull.

But that isn’t the real problem. Blumenfeld goes on, chapter after chapter, to synopsize the major players in the field of psychiatry and psychology – bio, introduction to the science, and eventual application, as well as a pretty thorough list of terms and examples from well-known (for the most part) plays and films to illustrate the terms and methods at work. But the problem is that all of it, from an actor’s standpoint, is useless. What Blumenfeld’s book essentially seems to purport is that it can teach you the basics of psychoanalysis and all of its schools of thought so that you can in turn psychoanalyze the character you are about to play. To me, this is an alienating and emotionally sterile approach to answering the question “Why?”

The one thing that I keep coming back to as I study different acting methods and how to use them is this: the actor must always DO something. Objectives, motivations, goals – call it what you will, you should be active onstage. That’s where the job gets its name” ACTING. When you’re writing your character analysis (if you still do those after you get out of college), you should put your objectives, your super objectives, etc., into active terms. VERBS. “I want to pull the truth out of him,” “I must shield myself from her attack,” and so on. Give yourself something to DO onstage, both physically and mentally. If you’ve got a goal, you’re actively trying to pursue it, not just standing there and reciting words. Blumenfeld’s psychoanalytical approach makes it all too clinical, and tries to define everything in terms of a “disorder,” or a “complex.” Granted, most characters in plays have a problem, many of them are not well adjusted, and some are downright disturbed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have some debilitating complex or are “suffering from” some disorder. “Have” and “to suffer” are not very active verbs, and that makes them ineffective in most acting techniques. Just knowing your character is crazy doesn’t necessarily help an actor connect emotionally, physically or intellectually to that character. We all know Blanche is crazy, but that doesn’t really help an actor playing her in the scene with Stanley. You still have to know what she wants, how she intends to get it, and what’s in her way, and each of those things are easier to access if they are laid out in simple terms. By putting everything in clinical terms and assuming that something is WRONG with the character, it seems as though the actor puts an even larger distance between him/herself and the character, essentially putting a fourth wall between the two of them so that the actor can observe from a distance instead of actively participating in the rise and fall of the character. By deciding early on to approach it clinically instead of in the present tense every time the show runs, an actor runs the risk of presenting a caricature instead of a real human being, and that’s just not as interesting or as good.

Blumenfeld goes further to describe several complexes that have accompanying physical traits, or tics, and how knowing these conditions and how to replicate the physical tic can help you as an actor. Well, maybe, but once again, it seems to inhibit actual discovery of how a character behaves in favor of imposing, as an omnipotent actor/creator, a set of predefined physical characteristics to portray a specific neurosis. For my own part, the discovery process in rehearsal is usually the most enjoyable part of the entire process. I like finding out the why, and, while a director may give a specific characteristic now and then, it tends to result in a better (and more satisfying) character when the director and I work together to discover it within the process. And while Blumenfeld, at his best, is essentially recommending this book as a reference volume, the clinical distance that the book implies is off-putting and cold, at least from an actor’s point of view.

That isn’t to say that the information in the book is useless of completely without interest. As an overview of psychology and psychoanalysis, it’s a pretty informative and well-laid-out book. You can learn a lot about the subject itself in a brief period of time. As a playwright or a director, it might be useful in the context of reference. Surely a director could use it during script analysis to help understand why characters behave the way they do. Playwrights as well could possibly build a script around a particular complex, neurosis or disorder. However, the book essentially characterizes itself as a handbook to assist in self-analysis, something that any doctor will tell you is a bad idea for those who might possibly be “suffering” from a psychological condition. And while it may help a director or a playwright understand why a character does what s/he does, the director still needs to translate any relevant condition into terms that any actor can understand. The playwright can layer it in there, but s/he still needs to show events happening within the lives of the characters and let the director, the actors and the audience draw their own conclusions about what’s going on.

Generally, it just seems limiting and contradictory to the creative process to predispose a psychological condition as the only answer for why a character behaves as s/he does. As any actor, director, and playwright should know, every character and every play needs an arc, a journey to undertake through the course of the play, and the discovery is what makes it all interesting.

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Title:  An Actor Prepares to Work in New York City (How to Master the Business of “The Business”)

Author: Craig Wroe

ISBN: 087910306

Copyright:  2004

Advice: Own it.

Remember the days just after you graduated school and were prepared to rule the world? You had a clear grasp of scansion for the very first and quite possible the last time in your life.  Ibsen…no sweat.  You and Chekhov were spiritual brothers.  You were an acting god.  You had determination just flowing from your pores.  Broadway better watch out because there you were trained as an artist and ready to create the crap out of the first “real” role that you land.  One nagging little question kept popping up: 

What do I do now?

How do you enter into the business of show BUSINESS?  If I may hazard a little guess, not much time in your training was spent on being a professional actor.  The majority of actor training seems to be spent on developing your acting chops and it seems that the business stuff will be learned through the school of trial and error. If this is the case for you, then don’t hang your head in shame because help is on the way in the form of Craig Wroe’s book.

An Actor Prepares to Work in New York City (How to Master the business of “The Business”) is just the book for you.  It covers all aspects of your career from the early days till you are established.  As you probably deduced from the title, it does center on the large market of New York City. Don’t let this deter you from reading this book; it is pertinent to your career no matter which market you call home.

Mr. Wroe starts his book off in a logical fashion.  The headshot is the actor’s business card and this is one of the first chapters followed by resumes.  He offers advice on what to look for in a photographer, how to prepare for you session, the shoot itself and finally the difficult task of picking the “one” headshot.  All of these suggestions are very useful and can be applied by a baby actor as well as one long in the tooth.

His discussion on resumes is very interesting and concisely stated.  I really enjoyed his answer to that old catch 22 that most actors have faced at one time or another, “How to get experience when you need experience to gain experience”. The words “fuzzy math” should come to mind to give you a little hint as to his answer.  Such things as renaming your high school auditorium with your mother’s maiden name, listing every thing you have done, using larger font, double spacing, etc.

Wroe states:

What the industry doesn’t know about (nor do they care to know for that matter) is every little, out-of-the-way, non-professional or community theater you’ve worked in.  All they want to know is if you’ve had any experience in front of an audience, if you can say your lines without bumping into the furniture and if you can create a character. Minor fibs such as these give them some assurance that you have, you won’t and you can.

He also gives a working format for your resume. To be fair, Wroe strongly urges you to purge any white lies as soon as possible with “legitimate acting work”.

The book goes on to discuss mailings, agents, casting directors, auditions, interviews, personal presentation.  Each topic is addressed from viewpoint of here’s what you need to know to be successful.  It is clear from his writing style that Wroe is on your side and wants you to be successful.  He even goes so far as to discuss possible pitfalls, scams and con artists that you should be aware of in your career.  I found this to be very informative.  There is some discussions of the various unions and small section on demo reels for film work.

Where the book goes off the mark a little bit is in the chapters entitled “Respect” and “Take Control”.  I don’t disagree with his sentiments but his writing style got a little too “self-help book” for me.  His discussion on not buying pirated CD’s, DVD’s, or films along with his call for actors to volunteer in the community and to recycle; well, came across a little preachy.  Again, I am not against recycling, community service, or other artists getting paid for their art; however, these issues seem to be very loosely connected to the rest of the subject matter of this book

Wroe redeems himself with the “Index of Actor Resources”.  There is a lot of information on the various aspects covered in the entire book.  He covers Acting Unions to lawyers to tax write-offs to training institutions in the index.  Again, this is geared towards the aspiring New York actor but is still valuable to the rest of us.

Craig Wroe has lived and worked in New York City since 1984 and fills this 257 page book with a lot of his personal experience which gives this book credence.  His personal stories make this read a little faster and definitely more enjoyable than a textbook.  I would like to close by suggesting that acting programs add this book to the “Must” read lists for their students.

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Author: Ginger Howard Friedman

Publisher: Limelight Editions

Copyright: 1996

ISBN: 087910077

My advice: Read it at least once

I tell my acting students that the purpose of an audition is to get a callback, not to land the role.  The role is secured by a well organized and executed callback.  I this book, Ms. Friedman attempts to provide actors with a process to help with making that callback process as painless and as successful as possible.  However, I have to admit, her Creative Visualisation process just would not work for me.  In fact, I feel that it would get in my way of focusing on the task at hand.

In her book, she outlines several techniques for the entire callback process, which begins at the moment you answer the phone call announcing you’ve gotten the callback all the way through the moment where you leave the audition space.  She suggests that you only read the actual script only a small handful of times and spend the rest of your time using her Creative Visualization process.  Without going into too much detail, she suggests that you visualize the character and the world they inhabit in a quick overview form to have a basis for your character in the callback.  She further suggests that you don’t take too many notes, but keep the information planted firmly in your head as you continue to prepare. 

The main problem with putting this idea down in her book is that she attempts to use examples and exercises from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House to help make her point.  The only problem with this is that unless you have read the play, her brief recap of the plot line does not begin to provide the reader with enough background information to fully appreciate what she’s trying to do with her exercises.  I understand her intention, but the examples she used actually left me more confused than enlightened.  Perhaps the exercises are best kept in a workshop format rather than trying to put them down into writing.

However, after the initial couple of chapters about the audition and the callback (and wading through her examples), the book settles down a little bit and begins to provide some real helpful tips about how to prepare for various types of callbacks. 

To my mind, there is just not enough time spent on auditions and callbacks from a business standpoint for the actor.  After all, it is impossible to separate the fact that auditions and callbacks are one of the actor’s forms of marketing themselves in the marketplace.  There are a number of techniques that can (and should) be employed to help an actor land not just one specific role, but to ensure that they remain on the top of every casting director’s and director’s lists!  There are countless examples of actors using mailouts of headshots and resumes, setting up appointments to meet with casting directors, networking at parties, etc.  And now, it continues to become easier and easier to use the internet as a means of marketing one’s self in this business!

Still, Ms. Friedman makes some interesting points and this book is worth at least one read to add some of her ideas to your arsenal.  If her description of Creative Visualization appeals to you, you might want to seek out a workshop on this process to help understand it more because, unfortunately, her book just doesn’t make it very clear.

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Author: Craig Wroe

Publisher: Limelight Editions

Copyright: 2003

ISBN: 0879109866

My Advice: Own it

“New York, New York what a wonderful town”

It is the Mecca for all that is Theatre and the Arts. Anyone associated with theatre, plans or dreams of going there, living there, and being successful there. However, a lot of questions that potential New Yorkers come across when planning their move are: where to begin, how will I find a place to live, and where will I be able to afford to live? Ultimately, how can I endure long enough on a limited budget till I’m established?

That’s what Craig Wroe provides for you in his book, An Actor Prepares: To Live in New York City. Mr. Wroe is an actor, writer, and teacher who has lived in the Big Apple since 1984. He takes his life experience with New York and offers you a guide to all things necessary for survival on a limited budget. His wit and sense of humor makes what could be a tedious book to read, a joy. The simple and concise manner at which deals with the plethora of daily life issues is refreshing and appreciated.

The issues he deals with first are getting settled, finding a home, and dealing with banks. He paints an honest picture of the ordeals of finding a home. His advice, “Apartments being as hard to come by as they are, if you find something that is even remotely suitable, take it immediately. If you don’t someone else will.” Keys to deeming if a place is “suitable” are: 1) examine the apartment, building, and neighborhood 2) the commute to midtown 3) do you feel safe and content living there. The book lists several options to aid in securing a place to live. Wroe also offers some sage advice in regards to roommate-pairing services, basically, DON’T USE THEM. His examples of why one shouldn’t use them are priceless.

He even decodes the mystery of finding an address on the Avenues in Manhattan. He claims of the formula, “I won’t attempt to explain how it works (as if I knew, I’m an actor for God’s sake: I can barely balance my checkbook), but it does.”

The book is broken down into five categories. They are: Getting Settled, Staying Healthy, Personal and Professional Resources, Shopping, and All Work and No Play. Each one of these categories has sub- points and they are very detailed. For Example under Shopping, the book addresses each of the following topics: Provisions; Spirits, Beverages, and Brews; Vitamins and Supplements; Clothing; Shoes; Handbags and Accessories; Leather Goods; Makeup; Sunglasses; Furniture; Mattresses; Housewares; Electronics; Books, Plays, and Scripts; CDs; Flowers and Plants; Art Supplies; General Merchandise Stores; Sample Sales; Flea Markets; Thrift Shops; Street Fairs; Outlet Stores; Weekly Sales Listings and Discount Coupons and finally Bargain Retail Areas.

In each one of these sub-points, Wroe lists the stores complete with their address and phone numbers that in his estimation give the most value for money spent. He also gives at least a paragraph of justification for his choice. There is a “best bargain” per sub-point; for example, when one is looking for men’s and women’s shoes the best bargain is: Make 10 Ladies and Gents Shoewear Warehouse Store (44 West 39^th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, 212-391-2926) and socks can be purchased at either the sock vendor at the Sunday Greenflea Market at I.S. 44 (Columbus and 76^th Street, 212-721-0900) or the sock guy who sets up a card table on the west side of Ninth Avenue between 42^nd and 43^rd Streets every weekday from about 3 pm on.

The amount of effort that is involved in just searching down the right place to buy socks is amazing and every aspect of this book is that detailed. He explains when, where, and who to sign up with to get discounts or sales notifications for all areas under Shopping. There is a very informative and amusing tutorial about the proper way to “borrow” apparel from the leading retailers and the art of haggling.

In this 350 page book, he covers every possible want or need to having a comfortable level of lifestyle without having to spend an extravagant amount of money to do it.

The book is organized extremely well and is a quick, entertaining read. Not only that, Wroe’s writing style gives you a sense the book was written just for you by a trusted friend. It’s a great reference book to help you prepare for your move to New York City. Even though it is geared toward the actor anyone can find useful information in it.

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Author: Mark Brandon

Publisher: Limelight Editions

Copyright: 2005

ISBN: 0879103167

My advice: Own it

It seems the longer you stay in the entertainment business, the more and varied advice you’ll receive about how to go about landing that break-through role. Most of the advice that is presented, however, is based in some kind of fantasy world and was probably created by people who were looking for excuses as to why they weren’t getting cast. The fact of the matter is, for the professional, there are techniques that can be employed that will help any actor, regardless of experience level,increase their chances for nailing that next audition.

That’s what Mark Brandon provides for you in his book, Winning Auditions: 101 Strategies for Actors. Having worked in the industry and been through several university training programs as well as a number of workshops, I can tell you that Mr. Brandon has provided a product that is worthwhile. Most of these strategies he has developed after teaching workshops on acting for the camera and discussing these problems with his students. In his introduction to this book, he talks about the process of culling through his copious notes and compiling them into its current form.

Furthermore, he goes to the trouble of breaking them up into three categories: Preparation Strategies, Presentation Strategies, and Performance Strategies. He also cross-references himself several times throughout the book linking one strategy with another and pointing out their most important differences.

His strategies were devised from actors working in the field. These are the actors who are continually going out and being seen before scores of casting directors and agents and their own observations about acting techniques and how to apply them in the highly competitive world of film and television auditions.

Perhaps his simplest strategy is the one that he references the most; in fact, its so simple, it’s elegant: Have Confidence. I know that sounds simple, but throughout the book, he references this strategy (it’s number 5 in the book, by the way) and tells you exactly how a lack of confidence can affect you and your performance at the precise moment you need it the most. He goes into detail about how to use the various types of sides you’ll see in the casting director’s office from film/TV scripts to commercial copy and beyond. He also talks about simple strategies to help you improve your cold-reading technique and how to keep it at its best.

The strategy that is provided the most detail in the book is Number 71: Above All Else, Aspire to Truth. In this strategy, Brandon details the difficulty and inherent problems most actors face in preparing their audition ahead of time: getting so bogged down in their preparation that they forget to just let it go and strive for honest and truthful reactions when they are reading before the casting director. He outlines several techniques to help actors with less experience overcome this problem.

In short, in this short 110 page book, he covers the absolute basics of what to expect in auditioning for pretty much anything in front of a camera.

The book is organized extremely well and is a quick, easy read. Not only that, it’s just as easy to use as a reference book to help you prepare for those auditions where you’ve got a few doubts or feel a bit behind the 8-ball.

If you are an actor, or are thinking about getting into the film/TV business, you could do a lot worse than to have a copy of this book handy.

A Practical Handbook for the Actor

by: Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previto, and Scott Zigler, with an introduction by David Mamet

Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, New York, � 1986

My thoughts: Own it. Don’t wait. Go now.

We all know that not everyone believes in or adheres to the same approach to acting technique. Most of us realize that there is some kind of process to develop a character for performance however, not many of us agree on what that process is exactly. That’s because each of us is a completely different human being (gasp!) and has our own needs and methods of working. Failure to truly grasp this concept has been the problem with so many books on acting in the past. Everyone was trying to write a book that would explain what it is that an actor does and how great performances are derived.

No such book exists. Not even this one.

The writers of this book don’t try to make the claim that this is the only book you’ll ever need to learn the craft and the art of acting. However, they do provide a simple, concise look at a technique that has been developed and has worked for many people all over the world with some success.

The entire book weighs in at less than 100 pages (only slightly more than most play scripts) and can honestly boast that it has dug it’s way past all the years of crap and stigma that Acting has had heaped on it and gotten to its core. The techniques listed here are derived from the Stanislavki’s method, but his method has been modified, added to, and subtracted from in order to update it for a more modern (and, I might add, American) audience. To be quite honest, whether you are a newcomer to the world of theatre with stars in your eyes, but not much experience, or you are a hardened veteran of the stage, this book is worth keeping on your shelf and returning to time and again.

The book is broken up into two major sections: The Technique and Pitfalls (Working in the Real World).

The first section is not filled with exercises that are impossible to figure out (much less learn anything from) in book form. It simply goes through a technique of analyzing a script and preparing a performance. The writers’ major philosophy is that acting is doing; you can’t just be something. After they establish this, they simply and elegantly lay out a method for which you can decide what it is you want to do on stage. However, it doesn’t stop there.

After you have figured out what to do, the writers tell you to get the hell out of the way. You should always be ready to improvise within your given circumstances in the moment. They provide examples of this, but unless you are familiar with the plays they use as examples, you will feel a bit lost. As always, being as well-read in the world of theatrical literature is a must for any actor.

The second section deals (in very simple terms) with working and using these techniques in the real world. It is titled “Pitfalls” for a reason. It is very honest with its readers about the fact that this technique is great in the studio where you’ve got the freedom to fail and learn from those failures, but is more difficult to put into practice in the real world because of time contraints, budgets, overbearing (and often impatient) directors, and, of course, the egos of actors (yours and others’). When you are in rehearsal for a professional production, it is expected that you come to each rehearsal prepared; having done your homework. The technique outlined in the first section, they say, is your homework! You are expected to do your homework outside of rehearsal and bring that homework into rehearsal ready to put it to the test.

The other great thing about this book is that they place emphasis on the fact that simply reading this book and writing down some analysis on paper will not make you a great actor. You must get this stuff up on its feet and put it in…say it with me…action! They stress that the best way to do this is to continually seek out acting classes; merely reading about acting can not and will not make a novice a better actor or an experienced actor any better.

If you don’t already own a copy of this book, go ahead and pick it up from amazon! It’s a quick, easy read and it really quite insipiring.