Will Power

Will Power
Author: John Basil
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2006
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781557836663

Provides a guide for actors which outlines a three-week process for performing Shakespeare's plays.

Mastering Shakespeare

Mastering Shakespeare
Author: Scott Kaiser
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2012-01-12
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1581159609

Who says only the British can act Shakespeare? In this unique guide, a veteran acting coach shatters that myth with a boldly American approach to the Bard. Written in the form of a play, this volume's "characters" include a master teacher and 16 students grappling with the challenges of acting Shakespeare. Using actual speeches from 32 of Shakespeare's plays, each of the book's six "scenes" offer proven solutions to such acting problems as delivering spoken subtext, using physical actions to orchestrate a speech, creating images within a speech, dividing a speech into measures, and much more.

A Shakespearean Actor Prepares

A Shakespearean Actor Prepares
Author: Adrian Brine
Publisher:
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2000
Genre: Acting
ISBN:

Explains how to prepare to act in one of Shakespeare's play through an investigation of the language used by the playwright and a true interpretation of his meaning.

Shakespeare

Shakespeare
Author: Ronald L. Dotterer
Publisher: Susquehanna University Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 1989
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780941664929

Seventeen critics are represented in this collection of essays designed to illustrate the vitality and range of traditional and new approaches to Shakespeare studies.

Building a Character

Building a Character
Author: Constantin Stanislavski
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1780935676

In this follow up to his most famous book, An Actor Prepares, Stanislavski develop his influential 'system' of acting by exploring the imaginative processes at the heart of the actor's craft. Building a Character deals with the physical realisation of character on the stage through such tools as expressions, movement and speech. It is a book in which every theory is inextricably bound up with practice - a perfect handbook to the physical art of acting. The work of Stanislavski has inspired generations of actors and trainers and - available now in the Bloomsbury Revelations series to mark the 150th anniversary of Stanislavski's birth - it remains an essential read for actors and directors at all stages of their careers.

An Actor's Edition of Shakespeare Revisited

An Actor's Edition of Shakespeare Revisited
Author: James R. Hartman
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 518
Release: 2007-07-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 146781671X

An Actor’s Edition of Shakespeare Revisited is a book for actors, directors, professors of theatre and the general public. Each of the plays has been edited for more understandability and length. The intent of the book was to make the works more accessible without making the language modern. When audiences see a Shakespeare play, they have only one time to grasp the words as they are spoken. Audience members do not have time to look at lengthy explanations or notes about words or expressions. Therefore, this edition of these five plays, presents the plays so that audience members as well as actors can follow the plays with little difficulty. Some words have been changed to accomplish this. In certain speeches, subjects or verbs were supplied for understandability. Because Shakespeare used many pronouns, these plays make use of more nouns so that the meaning of who or what is being spoken about becomes more clear. The book also has some useful tools for the director and actors. A chart has been provided for each play that lists each character by act and scene. This can be very useful when there is a need to double cast actors. In addition, a “combination roles” page has also been added which gives suggestions for doubling parts for a smaller company. To help at rehearsals, page numbers for the beginning of each act and scene is provided on a single page for each play. Finally, each play has been broken into “beats” for the actor and the director. It is the hope of the author of this book that more people will find excitement in reading, performing, staging, or viewing Shakespeare because of the edited versions for understandability. Enjoy the plays---either reading or performing.

Speak the Speech!

Speak the Speech!
Author: Rhona Silverbush
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 1089
Release: 2002-09-18
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0571211224

A detailed guide to approaching Shakespearean text, Speak the speech! contains everything an actor needs to select and prepare a Shakespeare monologue for classwork, auditions, or performance. Included herein are over 150 monologues. Each one is placed in context with a brief introduction, is carefully punctuated in the manner that best illustrates its meaning, and is painstakingly and thoroughly annotated. Each is also accompanied by commentary that will spark the actor's imagination by exploring how the interrelationship of meter and the choice of words and sounds yields clues to character and performance. And throughout the book sidebars relate historical, topical, technical, and other useful and entertaining information relevant to the text. In addition, the authors include an overview of poetic and rhetorical elements, brief synopses of all the plays, and a comprehensive index along with other guidelines that will help readers locate the perfect monologue for their needs.

Thinking Shakespeare

Thinking Shakespeare
Author: Barry Edelstein
Publisher: Spark Publishing Group
Total Pages: 455
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781411498723

Thinking Shakespeare gives the actor practical advice about how to make Shakespeare's words feel spontaneous, passionate, and real. Based on Barry Edelstein's twenty-year career directing Shakespeare's plays, this book provides the tools that actors need to fully understand and express the power of Shakespeare's language.

The Actor as Storyteller

The Actor as Storyteller
Author: Bruce Miller
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 537
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1458471543

The Actor as Storyteller is intended for serious beginning actors. It opens with an overview, explaining the differences between theater and its hybrid mediums, the part an actor plays in each of those mediums. It moves on to the acting craft itself, with a special emphasis on analysis and choice-making, introducing the concept of the actor as storyteller, then presents the specific tools an actor works with. Next, it details the process an actor can use to prepare for scene work and rehearsals, complete with a working plan for using the tools discussed. The book concludes with a discussion of mental preparation, suggestions for auditioning, a process for rehearsing a play, and an overview of the realities of show business. Included in this updated edition are: • A detailed examination of script analysis of the overall play and of individual scenes • A sample of an actor's script, filled with useful script notations • Two new short plays, one written especially for this text • Updated references, lists of plays, and recommended further reading