Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 183 pages
- Published by: Smith & Kraus
- Edition: 1st Edition July 1999
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1575251876
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1575251875
-
Book Dimensions:
8.3 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
- Weighs: 7.2 ounces
From Library Journal
This book comes out of the author's own experience as an actor and teacher. As he rereads the works of Konstantin Stanislavksi (the founder of "method" acting), Brestoff (The Camera Smart Actor, LJ 12/94) was struck by Stanislavski's approach, which calls upon actors to "experience the circumstances of a play before speaking any dialogue or trying to characterize." Brestoff has refined and expanded on Stanislavski's ideas, taking the reader through the process followed by two actors as they work on a scene from Ibsen's A Doll's House. Improvisation is a key to visualizing the roles actors are to play. An 18-point process review concludes this well-written and very useful book. Recommended for theater arts collections.AHoward E. Miller, MLS, St. Louis
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
From the author of The Great Acting Teachers and Their Methods, Under the Circumstances details a step-by-step approach to playing a part. Based on the work Constantine Stanislavski was using near the end of his life, we follow two actors as a teacher guides them through their parts in Henrik Ibsen's great play, A Doll House. Then we learn how techniques are used for monologues and cold readings. We learn how analysis stems from instinct, from experiencing the character's circumstances without becoming them or speaking their dialogue. Actors memorize "events" and not lines. This approach, never before so clearly explained or engagingly taught, gives actors, from novices to professionals, a reliable, creative, and innovative method for playing a part. Under the Circumstances is a book you will put to immediate use.
Reader ReviewsRichard Brestoff's Acting Under The Circumstances tells actors how to play their parts using intellect and creative intuition. From learning quickly and settling into a role to performing at peak efficiency during a reading, this provides an important and basic step-by-step approach to acting.
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