Acting Notes

Acting Notes Synopsis

An all-in-one guide to the craft of acting, setting out the key ideas and essential skills you need to tackle any role, develop your own personal acting process, and refine your technique throughout your career.

Designed to serve as a handy toolbox whenever needed, Acting Notes brings together and explains all the fundamental elements of the actor's craft, including:

• Theory and Technique: master the essentials of acting technique through the core principles of Stanislavski, and the work of key practitioners including Michael Chekhov, Joan Littlewood, Sanford Meisner, Declan Donnellan and more
• Voice and Movement: enrich your vocal training and develop your physicality with techniques from Rudolph Laban, Jerzy Grotowski, Tadashi Suzuki and Jacques Lecoq
• Script Analysis and Character Development: discover tools to help you break down characters and examine plays and screenplays in richer detail than ever before
• Shakespeare: learn effective ways of analysing and performing Shakespeare's plays and other classical texts
• Accents: acquire the skills you need to use accents with confidence

Also included are practical tips to use in training and performance, an invaluable set of theatre games, a detailed glossary of acting terminology, and an Actor's Library to help you continue your studies and develop your craft.

Distilling an entire actor's training into one accessible volume, this book is the ideal one-stop reference and training companion for any actor, teacher or drama student.

'What an incredible resource this brilliant and comprehensive book is: an absolute bible for actors. From iambic pentameter to learning lines, from the major theorists to managing fear, from accents and voice work to Zip Zap Boing - I learnt so much! This has clearly been a labour of love, and will no doubt soon be required reading for anyone interested in the performing arts. I will treasure my copy and come back to it again and again.' Julie Hesmondhalgh

'A tautly written, comprehensive and generous book for anyone at any stage of their acting career.' Harriet Walter