Acting

The Basics

Bella Merlin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781032212081
• eBook ISBN: 9781003808794
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Acting & Auditioning
• Index: Literature

Acting: The Basics 3rd Edition is a dynamic response to recent societal and entertainment industry changes, focusing on inclusion, diversity and equity, and the actor's trajectory from training to rehearsal to performance on stage and screen, with hands-on tools and global perspectives.

The book offers vital ways of building a practical acting toolkit, through breath, body, voice, emotions, imagination and spirit. We begin with a socio-cultural look at actor as magician, storyteller, healer and social changer. Throughout, there are insights from Black, Indigenous, First Nations, South/East Asian, intercultural and feminist practitioners, together with methods focusing on disability and accessibility, intimacy directives, mindfulness and intersectionality. Key 'canonical' figures still feature (e.g., Stanislavsky, Meisner, Brecht and Suzuki) with re-visioned perspective. Scattered throughout are post-COVID insights, plus expanded sections on screen acting (including self-tapes) and Shakespeare.

This book is useful for beginner or expert, as it's always helpful getting back to basics. Because the author is both an actor and an actor trainer, the tools are steeped in user-friendly application. At the same time, transferable skills (e.g., dynamic listening and empathy) are shown as relevant to everyone. With a glossary of terms and useful online suggestions (including blogs, videos and podcasts), this is ideal for anyone learn anew about the practice and history of acting, or to take their acting and teaching into new terrain.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface to the 3rd edition
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. ‘Why act?’: some socio-cultural perspectives
• 2. ‘The player and the instrument’: actor training
• 3. ‘Systems and methods’: 20th-century innovators
• 4. ‘Building a character’: rehearsal processes
• 5. ‘Expressing your creative individuality’: 21st-century practitioners
• 6. ‘And … action!’: performance practices
• Epilogue
• Glossary of terms
• Select bibliography
• Index