The Actor's Guide to Creating a Character

Author: William Esper
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0345805690
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
William Esper, one of the most celebrated acting teachers of our time, takes us through his step-by-step approach to the central challenge of advanced acting work: creating and playing a character. Esper’s first book, The Actor’s Art and Craft, earned praise for describing the basics taught in his famous first-year acting class. The Actor’s Guide to Creating a Character continues the journey. In these pages, co-author Damon DiMarco vividly re-creates Esper’s second-year course, again through the experiences of a fictional class. Esper’s training builds on Sanford Meisner’s legendary exercises, a world-renowned technique that Esper further developed through his long association with Meisner and the decades he has spent training a host of distinguished actors. His approach is flexible enough to apply to any role, helping actors to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.

Creating a Character

Author: Moni Yakim
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9781557831613
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
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.

The Actor's Guide to Creating a Character

Author: William Esper
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0345805682
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 306

The Actor's Art and Craft

Author: William Esper
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 030727926X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
William Esper, one of the leading acting teachers of our time, explains and extends Sanford Meisner's legendary technique, offering a clear, concrete, step-by-step approach to becoming a truly creative actor.Esper worked closely with Meisner for seventeen years and has spent decades developing his famous program for actor's training. The result is a rigorous system of exercises that builds a solid foundation of acting skills from the ground up, and that is flexible enough to be applied to any challenge an actor faces, from soap operas to Shakespeare. Co-writer Damon DiMarco, a former student of Esper's, spent over a year observing his mentor teaching first-year acting students. In this book he recreates that experience for us, allowing us to see how the progression of exercises works in practice. The Actor's Art and Craft vividly demonstrates that good training does not constrain actors' instincts—it frees them to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.

Acting for Singers

Author: David F. Ostwald
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199881839
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
Written to meet the needs of thousands of students and pre-professional singers participating in production workshops and classes in opera and musical theater, Acting for Singers leads singing performers step by step from the studio or classroom through audition and rehearsals to a successful performance. Using a clear, systematic, positive approach, this practical guide explains how to analyze a script or libretto, shows how to develop a character building on material in the score, and gives the singing performer the tools to act believably. More than just a "how-to" acting book, however, Acting for Singers also addresses the problems of concentration, trust, projection, communication, and the self-doubt that often afflicts singers pursuing the goal of believable performance. Part I establishes the basic principles of acting and singing together, and teaches the reader how to improvise as a key tool to explore and develop characters. Part II teaches the singer how to analyze theatrical work for rehearsing and performing. Using concrete examples from Carmen and West Side Story, and imaginative exercises following each chapter, this text teaches all singers how to be effective singing actors.

Long-Form Improv

Author: Ben Hauck
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1581159811
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
Long-Form Improv deftly teaches the wildly popular form of improvisation that is so foundational to the comedy stylings of many of today’s top actors and thriving comedians. Crammed with innovative ideas for conceptualizing improvised scenework and “finding the game of the scene,” this crisply written manual covers techniques for experienced improvisers, curious actors, and even non-actors. A complete long-form improv resource comprising topics like ideation and character creation, improvising scenes for extended periods of time and enhancing them—and even performing the most famous expression of long-form improv, the half-hour improvised form known as “The Harold”—this astute text is written in a friendly, supportive voice by an experienced improv teacher and professional actor whose own frustration in learning the craft drove an obsession to create a program free of confounding teachings and contradictory concepts. The book’s groundbreaking infusion with drama theory and game theory brings new life to the teachings of the craft, breaking down various aspects of long-form improv into short chapters for swift, step-by-step intake of its vital lessons. Students of acting and long-form improv alike should expect Long-Form Improv to bolster their education and fast-track their course to improv greatness.

The Power of the Actor

Author: Ivana Chubbuck
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781592401536
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
In The Power of the Actor, a Los Angeles Times bestseller, premier acting teacher and coach Ivana Chubbuck reveals her cutting-edge technique, which has launched some of the most successful acting careers in Hollywood. The first book from the instructor who has taught Charlize Theron, Brad Pitt, Elisabeth Shue, Djimon Hounsou, and Halle Berry, The Power of the Actor guides you to dynamic and effective results. For many of today’s major talents, the Chubbuck Technique is the leading edge of acting for the twenty-first century. Ivana Chubbuck has developed a curriculum that takes the theories of the acting masters, such as Stanislavski, Meisner, and Hagen, to the next step by utilizing inner pain and emotions, not as an end in itself, but rather as a way to drive and win a goal. In addition to the powerful twelve-step process, the book takes well-known scripts, both classic and contemporary, and demonstrates how to precisely apply Chubbuck’s script-analysis process. The Power of the Actor is filled with fascinating and inspiring behind-the-scenes accounts of how noted actors have mastered their craft and have accomplished success in such a difficult and competitive field.

Building a Character

Author: Constantin Stanislavski
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1780935676
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Book Description
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.

Building a Character

Author: Konstantin Stanislavsky
Publisher: Methuen Publishing
ISBN: 9781408100059
Category : Acting
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In his most famous book, An Actor Prepares, Stanislavski dealt with the imaginative processes. In the second book, Building a Character, he deals with the physical realisation of character on the stage, expressions, movement and speech etc. 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. This edition, now reprinted with a new cover at a more accessible price, has stood the test of time for actors all over the world and was the original English language translation. A classic text for every actors library. An Actor must work all his life, cultivate his mind, train his talents systematically, develop his character; he may never despair and never relinquish this main pupose - to love his art with all his strength and love it unselfishly. (Constantin Stanislavski)

Character Creation

Author: Paul Tomlinson
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781731230140
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Create Larger-than-Life Characters Readers and audiences love larger-than-life characters. Think of Hannibal Lecter, Captain Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Bennet, Holly Golightly or Sherlock Holmes. But how do you create memorable story people like this? 90% of a character, like an iceberg, exists below the surface. But you have to create that submerged content so that the part an audience sees can shine in the sunlight. Or spotlight. Character Creation is not a 'how to write' or 'how to act' book - it is about doing the background work that enables you to bring a character to life. Here you will find three fundamental character personality archetypes - the primary colours of your character palette: the Warrior, the Thinker, and the Carer. And three 'hybrid' personalities that blend those three - the Crusader, the Artist, and the Adventurer. These six types are all you need to understand to create any character - including psychopaths, antiheroes, and rebels. To guide you in creating the three-dimensions of character - the physical, social, and psychological - each of the archetypes are explained in terms of a dozen key features. To help you create heroes and villains there is detail about the dark and light side of each of the types - and why individuals end up on a particular side. To allow you to develop conflict or romance, friendship or feud, there is advice on which personality types attract one another and which ones will fight. And there is a step-by-step framework for a character development arc that you can use to take your 'flawed hero' character towards a happy-ever-after or a tragic ending./p> These tools can be used to improvise a new character from scratch or to explore an existing character and fill in the 'missing pieces' of their background. Character Creation draws on the work of Stanislavski and Laban, combining this with modern theories of human psychology and mental health to provide a detailed and complete framework for creating larger-than-life characters.