Richard Hornby

Not so much a guide book for actors as a description of what is wrong with acting training and how to fix it. The author is very fond of the Stanislavski Method, but points out that it has been misused in America, and that if you teach it correctly, it is a very useful tool for training actors. He bemoans the fact that students in theatre departments are not required to act in plays, and are in fact discouraged (the book is 20 years old; I think that might have changed, if it was ever that way). The best facet of this book is the refusal of the author to dismiss the playscript and diminish the playwright to total irrelevance in the producing of a play. He does not advocate the wide spread altering of playscripts that makes them mean something totally different than they were intended. He regards the playwright as an important part of the process. One of the biggest downsides was the constant Freudian theorizing (really? In 1992? Freud?) and the misapplication of science (particularly evolution) to the artistic process in ways that were not accurate.… (mer)

An analysis of playscripts from a structuralist approach. Many resources utilize a reductionist approach to dramatic criticism, but this author favors a more structuralist approach, where the script is a unified whole, and the actual written script is considered a vital part of the performance. He prefers to look for the unifying principle underlying the play, and feels that too many actors and directors are focused on the more superficial meanings. He compares this to science, and herein lies my one major complaint. If artists insist on talking about how science is done, it would be nice if they would get it more accurate. And understand the dynamics of science. The approach he is describing is reminiscent of ecology, not the physics and mathematics he fondly believes he is emulating (both of which tend a great deal toward reductionism). Biology is ignored, though it is actually analogous to his method. Overall, though, there are very good things in this book, including the author's chiding of directors who constantly insist on speeding up performances in the belief that it will make it move; he believes that this can actually lead to a more draggy experience, if the tempo of the script is ignored. Recommend this book highly.… (mer)