ABSTRACT
Acting: The First Six Lessons was first published in 1933 and remains a key text for anyone studying acting today. These dramatic dialogues between teacher and idealistic student explore the field of acting according to one of the original teachers of Stanislavsky’s System in America.
This new edition of an essential text is edited by Rhonda Blair and supplemented for the very first time with documents from the American Laboratory Theatre. These collect together a broad range of exciting unpublished material, drawn from Boleslavsky’s pivotal and unprecedented teachings on acting at the American Laboratory Theatre. Included are:
- "The Creative Theatre Lectures" by Richard Boleslavsky
- Boleslavsky’s "Lectures from the American Laboratory Theatre"
- "Acting with Maria Ouspenskaya," four short essays on the work of Ouspenskaya, Boleslavsky’s colleague and fellow actor trainer
- A new critical introduction and bibliography by the Editor.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |63 pages
Acting: The First Six Lessons
part |56 pages
The “Creative Theatre” Lectures
chapter |3 pages
What is the Theatre?
chapter |3 pages
What is a Play?
chapter |5 pages
What is the Audience?
chapter |2 pages
What is an Actor?
chapter |4 pages
What is a Theatrical Designer?
chapter |4 pages
What is a Theatrical Composer?
chapter |5 pages
What is a Collective Work in a Theatre?
chapter |2 pages
What is a Theatrical Performance?
chapter |2 pages
What is a Mechanical Performance?
chapter |2 pages
What is a Creative Theatrical Performance?
chapter |2 pages
The Qualifications of a Creative Actor
chapter |2 pages
What is the Meaning of “Living the Part?”
chapter |7 pages
What is “Spiritual Concentration?”
chapter |3 pages
What is the Spiritual or Affective Memory?
chapter |4 pages
How to Use the Affective Memory in Preparing a Part
part |59 pages
Boleslavsky Lectures from the American Laboratory Theatre
chapter |7 pages
Lecture 3
chapter |7 pages
Lecture 5
chapter |5 pages
Lesson 6
chapter |8 pages
Lecture 7
chapter |6 pages
Lesson 8
chapter |8 pages
Lesson 9
chapter |5 pages
Lecture 10
chapter |11 pages
Lecture 11
part |26 pages
Notes on Acting with Maria Ouspenskaya