ABSTRACT

Acting (Re)Considered is an exceptionally wide-ranging collection of theories on acting, ideas about body and training, and statements about the actor in performance. This second edition includes five new essays and has been fully revised and updated, with discussions by or about major figures who have shaped theories and practices of acting and performance from the late nineteenth century to the present.
The essays - by directors, historians, actor trainers and actors - bridge the gap between theories and practices of acting, and between East and West. No other book provides such a wealth of primary and secondary sources, bibliographic material, and diversity of approaches. It includes discussions of such key topics as:
* how we think and talk about acting
* acting and emotion
* the actor's psychophysical process
* the body and training
* the actor in performance
* non-Western and cross-cultural paradigms of the body, training and acting.
Acting (Re)Considered is vital reading for all those interested in performance.

chapter 1|4 pages

General Introduction

Between theory and practice

part I|77 pages

Theories of and Meditations on Acting

chapter 2|16 pages

Introduction

chapter 3|17 pages

The Actor's Presence

Three phenomenal modes

chapter 5|9 pages

“Just be your Self”

Logocentrism and difference in performance theory

chapter 6|20 pages

The Actor's Emotions Reconsidered

A psychological task-based perspective

part II|156 pages

(Re)Considering the Body and Training

chapter 7|14 pages

Introduction

chapter 8|7 pages

An Amulet Made of Memory

The significance of exercises in the actor's dramaturgy 1

chapter 12|15 pages

Bali and Grotowski

Some parallels in the training process

chapter 14|13 pages

My Bodies

The performer in West Java

chapter 15|19 pages

“On the Edge of a Breath, Looking” 1

Cultivating the actor's bodymind through 182Asian martial/meditation arts

chapter 17|20 pages

Effector Patterns of Basic Emotions

A psychophysiological method for training actors

part III|105 pages

(Re)Considering the Actor in Performance

chapter 18|7 pages

Introduction

chapter 20|8 pages

Dario Fo

The roar of the clown

chapter 21|9 pages

Forum Theatre

chapter 22|14 pages

Resisting the “Organic”

A feminist actor's approach

chapter 24|6 pages

Task and Vision

Willem Dafoe in LSD

chapter 25|8 pages

David Warrilow

Creating symbol and cypher

chapter 26|15 pages

Robert Wilson and the Actor

Performing in Danton's Death 1

chapter 27|10 pages

Anna Deavere Smith

Part I: The Word Becomes You