Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 240 pages
- Published by: Theatre Arts Book
- Edition: 1st Edition January 22, 2001
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0878301399
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0878301393
-
Book Dimensions:
8.7 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
- Weighs: 1.2 pounds
From Library Journal
Zucker (film studies, Concordia Univ., Montreal) has fashioned a sweet valentine to her love of theater by assembling 16 interviews with prominent British actors--including Judi Dench, Nigel Hawthorne, Ian Richardson, Miranda Richardson, and Fiona Shaw--who will for the most part be familiar to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with theater and film. Following Zucker's brief career-synopsis introduction, each actor discusses his or her family background, training, preparation, approach to creative problems, work in different media, national identity, and technique. A testament to her prowess as an editor and researcher, Zucker is equally present and absent in the text, letting each actor take center stage in a smooth narrative undisrupted by questions. It's an unmitigated delight to read the insights, rants, and kvetchings of some of the brightest stars in the English-speaking theatrical firmament. For all libraries.
-Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Interviewing 16 Irish and British actors, Zucker doesn't waste a word on anything as silly as one's love life or as ephemeral as one's next movie, play, or TV special. That is impressive, given that her interlocutors include Alan Bates, Simon Callow, Judi Dench, and Nigel Hawthorne. Zucker instead focuses on the vocation of acting. She emphasizes how one trains for the profession and prepares for a role, and she illuminates the differences between acting onstage and acting onscreen. We learn that some, such as Janet McTeer and Eileen Atkins, found their vocation quickly, thanks to guiding parents or observant teachers; that others, like Hawthorne, came to acting after false starts in other fields; and that some cannot stand acting for the camera, while others easily flit from medium to medium. We learn how many do in-depth research before taking on a character and how many subscribe to "the method" style of acting. Yet these are never academic discussions. Each interview is also a portrait of a human being at a specific time and place in her or his career.
Jack Helbig
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: In the Company of Actors: Reflections on the Craft of Acting (Hardcover)
Don't let the "reflections" of the title throw you: this is no drowsy academic tome. This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in actors and acting. Many of the subjects are relatively unknown on this side of the Atlantic, but if you care about the process of real acting, this book will take you in, chapter by chapter. Critic Kenneth Tynan said "The study of actors should be a full-time task, worthy of the same passionate scholarship which lepidopterists devote to butterflies." What we have here is that passion's result, and Carole Zucker has given voice to the butterflies.
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