You can gather information from blogs and webpages, and try to figure out Shakespearean acting for yourself.
Or you can spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on specialized acting classes. You’ll get personalized advice from an expert, which is what you’re really paying for, because the actual content of any lectures will be minimal.
But even before taking any class, invest $10-$30 on one of these excellent books, read it thoroughly, and practice. The amount of high-quality information, tips, exercizes and ideas will be a resource forever. If you then go to theatre school, you’ll be ahead of the crowd, and actually be able to implement the coach’s new tricks instead of learning the fundamentals.
So here are my picks for general acting technique and acting for Shakespeare. Some things you WON’T find in this list:
- Method Acting: Your job is to tell the story for the audience, and your personal emotional journey is usually not helpful.
- Improv: If you’re improvising in Shakespeare, you’re doing something terribly wrong
- Singing, dancing, stage combat, etc: Although I love that there are swordfights in almost every play, this list is about acting in Shakespeare.
1. Audition
: Michael Shurtleff has been casting director for Broadway shows like Chicago and Becket and for films like The Graduate and Jesus Christ Superstar. His legendary course on auditioning has launched hundreds of successful careers. Now in this book he tells the all-important HOW for all aspiring actors, from the beginning student of acting to the proven talent trying out for that chance-in-a-million role!
2. Tips: Ideas for Actors
: Until recent times, acting wisdom was passed on through an oral tradition called “tips.” Presented here are 205 tips, including the way to set up a laugh, the use of opposites, a clear definition of “actions,” how to use a “breath score,” and even how to react if you’re fired. The tips are simple to implement and will lead to a better day at auditions and rehearsals, and a better night in performance.
3. Acting: The First Six Lessons: For actors by an actor of rare subtlety and imagination; for directors by a brilliant versatile director. Richard Boleslavsky’s knowledge of the theatre was based on wide experience. A member of the Moscow Art Theatre and director of its First Studio, he worked in Russia, Germany and America as actor, director and teacher. On Broadway, he produced plays and musical comedies and he was a leading Hollywood director. “Under their apparent simplicity and light-heartedness, (the lessons are) profound and to the point. Both beginners and established actors, who take their work seriously, will find stimulation in this book.” —Sir Alec Guinness
4. Speak The Speech contains everything an actor needs to select and prepare a Shakespeare monologue for classwork, auditions or performance. “The most detailed introduction to the delights of Shakespeare that I have ever read. Equally useful to the enthusiastic amateur or the dedicated professional.” —Terry Hands, Artistic Director Emeritus, RSC
5. True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor: To hell with Stanislavsky. To hell with the Method. “The actor is onstage to communicate the play to the audience,” says David Mamet. “That is the beginning and the end of his and her job. To do so the actor needs a strong voice, superb diction, a supple, well-proportioned body and a rudimentary understanding of the play.” Anything else–”becoming” one’s part, “feeling” the character’s emotions–devalues the practice of a noble craft and is useless to the play. “The ‘work’ you do ‘on the script’ will make no difference,” he cautions. “That work has already been done by a person with a different job title than yours. That person is the author.”
Related:
RSS Feed
Loading ...
