Playing the Mask
eBook - ePub

Playing the Mask

Acting Without Bullshit

  1. 328 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Playing the Mask

Acting Without Bullshit

About this book

'Masks are empowering… They enable you to take risks. They provoke you into working with the reckless logic of a six-year-old or the enigmatic stillness of someone wiser than you'll ever be. But above all, masks let you be you without your habitual limitations.'

In Playing the Mask, award-winning theatre-maker and teacher John Wright explores and demystifies mask-work: what masks do, how they do it, and, above all, what they can teach us about acting.

This book is a wonderfully accessible introduction to a fresh and innovative acting technique for actors, theatre-makers and teachers to use in training and rehearsal. A mask releases the actor to be playful, and playfulness generates ideas, finds meaning, develops characterisation – and is infinitely more fun than traditional training.

Rather than a dry guide to making masked theatre, it is about, for instance, playing Lady Macbeth in Red Nose, or Hamlet in the mask of The Victim, The Ogre or The Fool, or even Romeo and Juliet in grotesque half-masks… All in the name of liberating your creativity and, ultimately, improving your performance.

Extensively illustrated with a rich variety of masks, this inventive and pragmatic book is full of invaluable games and exercises drawn from the author's own workshops, his experience as co-founder of both Trestle and Told by an Idiot, and his pioneering mask and clown work in many professional productions.

'Brilliant, entertaining and accessible' Paul Hunter, from his Foreword

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Yes, you can access Playing the Mask by John Wright in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Acting & Auditioning. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication
  4. Contents
  5. Foreword by Paul Hunter
  6. Preface
  7. Acknowledgements
  8. 1. Raking Over a Few Gurus
  9. 2. When the Whole Face is Covered: Playing Full-Mask
  10. 3. When Part of the Face is Covered: Playing Half-Mask
  11. 4. When the Mask Becomes a Thought: Archetypal Masks
  12. 5. When the Text Becomes a Mask
  13. In Conclusion: Something for Tomorrow
  14. About the Author
  15. Copyright