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THE
ACTOR'S FIELD GUIDE:
Acting Notes on the Run |
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A
new book being released May 2004...What every actor should
carry around in their back pocket.
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ACTING
STRATEGIES FOR THE CYBER AGE |
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In this
book, Ed Hooks describes the career landscape that is awaiting
the 21st century actor and compares it to that faced by the
previous generation. For example, when Marlon Brando was a
young actor, television was not a factor in his career at
all! Television networks didn't come into existence until
1948, and Screen Actors Guild didn't negotiate residuals until
the mid 1950's. Actors of Brando's generation worked primarily
on stage, with forays into film. Actors of the 21st Century
will work primarily in front of cameras, with forays into
stage.
It is
essential that the 21st century actor re-connect with his
shamanistic origins. In the beginning, acting was done in
a circle drawn in the dirt, for the assembled tribe. Actors
are healers, similar to priests and other religious leaders.
Acting Strategies For The Cyber Age connects the dots
between ancient shamanism and cyber-opportunities for actors.
It will be a must-read.
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THE ULTIMATE SCENE & MONOLOGUE
SOURCEBOOK |
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References
to over 1,000 scenes and monologue in 315 plays. First line-Last
line, synopsis, character descriptions, broken down by genre.
Extensive indexing. Invaluable for actors and acting teachers
who are in search of scenes for class and audition monologues.
Actors
are on a never-ending search for dynamic monologues they can
use at auditions as well as interesting scenes for workshop
presentation. Frequently, they rely on the limited material
that is excerpted in "scene books" and "monologue books."
The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook presents
a revolutionary new way of finding useful scenes and monologues,
in addition to providing an overview of the body of contemporary
drama in the English-speaking world. The book, which took
two years to prepare, delivers an honestly unique approach
to the subject and will quickly become a necessary reference
for all serious actors and acting teachers.
Here,
actors will find references to over 1,000 scenes and monologues
in over 300 contemporary plays. Instead of the usual few verbatim
excerpts one might find in a scene book, The Ultimate Scene
and Monologue Sourcebook provides descriptions of the
characters, action and mood for each scene and monologue,
which are cross-referenced to brief synopses of the plays
the material comes from. The reader is instructed how to locate
the scenes and monologues in the original texts, provided
with first and last lines and, where Samuel French or Dramatist
Play Service acting editions can be cited, precise page numbers
are given. Finally, Mr. Hooks provides a professional assessment
as to the difficulty level of the material and notes challenges
that might be met in workshop.
The
Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook provides actors
and acting teachers with a way to make educated decisions
about which plays to purchase in the first place and which
material is best for their particular needs. It is designed
to save the reader time and money, as well as providing a
cohesive overview of contemporary drama.
Acting
teachers will appreciate this format for special reasons.
Student actors are sometimes in a big hurry to get from here
to stardom. They may be tempted to bypass deep study, opting
instead for quick memorization and fast presentation. Professional-level
acting teachers generally prefer that student actors read
the entire original text when learning scenes, and The
Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook solves this problem.
By using it as a reference, student actors learn which material
is best, but the book does not spoon-feed them. They still
have to locate and read the original text.
The plays
that are referenced in this book come from playwrights as
diverse as Tennessee Williams and Alan Ayckbourn, Sam Shepard
and Christopher Durang, William Inge and Jane Martin. They
include a broad range of acting styles, from the high comedy
of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward to the most quintessential
Actors Studio dramas of N. Richard Nash, from Chekhov to Shaw
to August Wilson.
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Acting
for Animators (Heinemann, $18.95) is the first book
about acting theory that is written specifically for animators.
Until now, animators who have wanted to learn about acting
have had no option but to study the subject side by side
with stage and movie actors, a group that uses acting techniques
in a wholly different way. This book distills acting theory
that is relevant to animation and leaves out the rest of
it.
Animators
need to know a lot about acting, but they don't need to
know everything. For example, an animator does not need
to learn how to make himself cry because, if he started
crying, he wouldn't be able to see to animate! Much of acting
theory, as it is taught to actual actors, is devoted to
training the actor how to emotionally stimulate himself,
a skill that animators simply do not need.
In
Acting for Animators, acting teacher Ed Hooks explains
seven essential acting principles, focusing on the connections
between thinking, emotion and physical movement. He discusses
the importance of empathy in acting and tells how to achieve
it in animation. This book is chock full of good stuff for
the animator and, already, is on a growing number of "must
read" lists. Many animation schools are making it a required
text.
In
addition to the informative text, Acting for Animators
includes an entertaining CD-ROM with illustrations of acting
principles and narration by Ed Hooks. Utilizing live-action
improvisation, actors from Ed's regular acting classes demonstrate
what it means to, for example, "play an action until something
happens to make you play another action". Also, the eight
Efforts of Laban Movement Theory are demonstrated.
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