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Theater as life : practical wisdom drawn from great acting teachers, actors & actresses / by Paul Marcus ; with Gabriela Marcus.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublication details: Milwaukee, Wis. : Marquette University Press, 2011.Description: 263 pages ; 23 cmISBN:
  • 9780874620696 (pbk. : alk. paper)
  • 0874620694 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • PN2071.P78 M37 2011
Contents:
Theater as life -- Emotion recollected in tranquility : Lee Strasberg's "method" -- The miracle of the imagination : Stella Adler -- The reality of doing : Sanford Meisner -- Act before you think : the improvisation of Viola Spolin -- Real living is political : Bertolt Brecht -- Connecting the body to the head : Tadashi Suzuki -- The quest for self-transcendence : Jerzy Grotowski's holy actor -- "The jester is the brother to the sage" : What we can learn from comedians, comic actors & clowns -- "Deny nothing, invent nothing, accept everything and get on with it" : David Mamet's practical aesthetics -- Love art in yourselves, not yourselves in art : Constantin Stanislavski -- The art of living the "good life" : thoughts and musings from the actor's perspective.
Summary: Rather than focus on the well-known truism that great plays and dramatic performances can deeply transform and ennoble us, the Marcus's draw from a much less known dimension of theatre, namely, acting technique theory, how actors and actresses learn dramatic performance as an art, profession and way of life. They claim the emotional, intellectual and physical insights the actor must internalize and ultimately translate into action to become a great actor are "technique[s] of the self" that can be enormously helpful to the average person struggling with the problem of living a better life, the "good life," as they call it. Drawing from the psychological insights of Constantin Stanilavaski [sp] and other such "master" teachers like Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, as well as performers like Lawrence Olivier, Marlon Brando and Meryl Streep.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books (30-Day Checkout) Books (30-Day Checkout) Nash Library General Stacks PN2071.P78M37 2011 Available 33710001229157

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Theater as life -- Emotion recollected in tranquility : Lee Strasberg's "method" -- The miracle of the imagination : Stella Adler -- The reality of doing : Sanford Meisner -- Act before you think : the improvisation of Viola Spolin -- Real living is political : Bertolt Brecht -- Connecting the body to the head : Tadashi Suzuki -- The quest for self-transcendence : Jerzy Grotowski's holy actor -- "The jester is the brother to the sage" : What we can learn from comedians, comic actors & clowns -- "Deny nothing, invent nothing, accept everything and get on with it" : David Mamet's practical aesthetics -- Love art in yourselves, not yourselves in art : Constantin Stanislavski -- The art of living the "good life" : thoughts and musings from the actor's perspective.

Rather than focus on the well-known truism that great plays and dramatic performances can deeply transform and ennoble us, the Marcus's draw from a much less known dimension of theatre, namely, acting technique theory, how actors and actresses learn dramatic performance as an art, profession and way of life. They claim the emotional, intellectual and physical insights the actor must internalize and ultimately translate into action to become a great actor are "technique[s] of the self" that can be enormously helpful to the average person struggling with the problem of living a better life, the "good life," as they call it. Drawing from the psychological insights of Constantin Stanilavaski [sp] and other such "master" teachers like Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, as well as performers like Lawrence Olivier, Marlon Brando and Meryl Streep.