Sanford Meisner was one of the best known and beloved teachers of acting in the country. This book follows one of his acting classes for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, it is essential reading for beginning and professional actors alike. Throughout these pages Meisner is a delight—always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges. With an introduction by Sydney Pollack, director of Out of Africa and Tootsie, who worked with Meisner for five years. "This book should be read by anyone who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisner's way of teaching, it is the straight goods."—Arthur Miller "If there is a key to good acting, this one is it, above all others. Actors, young and not so young, will find inspiration and excitement in this book."—Gregory Peck

"The Improvisation Technique is then applied to exercises with scripted lines, developing sophisticated improvisation skills for enhancing character, emotions, conflict, and agreement as well as improving the actor's audition process. Also included is a unique process for breaking down scripted scenes into improvisation choices."--BOOK JACKET.

Respect for Acting "This fascinating and detailed book about acting is Miss Hagen's credo, the accumulated wisdom of her years spent in intimate communion with her art. It is at once the voicing of her exacting standards for herself and those she [taught], and an explanation of the means to the end." --Publishers Weekly "Hagen adds to the large corpus of titles on acting with vivid dicta drawn from experience, skill, and a sense of personal and professional worth. Her principal asset in this treatment is her truly significant imagination. Her 'object exercises' display a wealth of detail with which to stimulate the student preparing a scene for presentation." --Library Journal "Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting . . . is a relatively small book. But within it, Miss Hagen tells the young actor about as much as can be conveyed in print of his craft." --Los Angeles Times "There are almost no American actors uninfluenced by Uta Hagen." --Fritz Weaver "This is a textbook for aspiring actors, but working thespians can profit much by it. Anyone with just a casual interest in the theater should also enjoy its behind-the-scenes flavor." --King Features Syndicate

Mastery of craft depends on repetition: the more opportunities student actors have to be guided through analyzing scripts, the more likely they are to develop a reliable process for making choices when the time comes to work independently. That's why Acting on the Script contains eight short plays, which can be used independently or as parts of one full-length play, giving aspiring actors the practice they need to tell the story of the play and of their characters clearly, believably, and compellingly. With each new scene, readers are given the opportunity to think through the analysis and synthesis process independently, then they are guided clearly through that process. The first section reintroduces the basic elements of acting craft. The book then lays out how these elements relate to a script in general and then more specifically – by using a short play to illustrate the basic principles. The second section focuses on specific analysis and synthesis problems using original scenes especially composed to help students develop their analysis and choice-making skills and to address individual acting issues. The plays, already tested in classes and two productions (one professional and one college), are filled with the kinds of acting problems that beginning actors often have trouble with and need to learn to solve. In addition, specific problems that actors might have with certain types of material are addressed as well.

TRUE ACTING TIPS

Every actor knows that working in commercials is lucrative. But many actors, trained primarily for working on the stage, have mistaken ideas about this field and lack essential on-camera experience. Now in an updated and expanded edition, Acting in Commercials is the only resource that fills all the gaps in the performer’s knowledge of this demanding medium. Invaluable for its insight into the craft as well as the business of acting, it tells you how to prepare for commercial auditions and, once you’ve landed a job, how to deliver the most expressive on-camera performance—leading to more work and success in a competitive field. Author Joan See illuminates all the secrets she has learned while appearing in hundreds of commercials over the past thirty years. She shows you how to approach five distinctly different commercial forms and explains the specific acting techniques to employ in each. In fact, Acting in Commercials will take you beyond commercial work, sharpening all your acting skills for a broader film and television career.

A step by step guide for anyone wanting to become a working actor.