Great Acting

With clarity and insight, Richard Brestoff introduces the great acting teachers, explaining their techniques and how they are applied today. Beginning with Quintilian and Delsarte, he guides us to the present with an inside look at what is currently being taught in the major acting schools and private acting studios; The Actors Studio, Yale University, NYU, Juilliard and many more are visited. The Great Acting Teachers and Their Methods will help you understand the most important ideas about acting, where they originated and how they are used in training programs today.

This book is for anyone who has ever been moved by a performance and wondered how it was done. Whether you are a student of drama, a devoted film enthusiast, a theatre educator, or simply a curious reader who loves the stories behind great art, this is the companion you have been looking for. Most books about actors either read like dry encyclopaedias or slide into breathless celebrity gossip. This one does neither. It sets out to answer a deeper question: what does it actually mean to be a great actor, and why should that question matter to all of us? From the ancient stages of Athens to ...

""Once I started this incomparable story, I couldn't put it down, and I cannot get it out of my mind—nor will I ever. The message of what can be accomplished by training through affection and joy will thrill all animal lovers."" —Betty White A captivating true story of loyalty, friendship...

Unauthorized. Unrestricted. No holds barred. In We Promised You a Great Main Event, longtime sports journalist Bill Hanstock pulls back the curtain to give a smart fan’s account of WWE and Vince McMahon’s journey to the top. Untangling the truth behind the official WWE storyline, Hanstock...

From the noted Hollywood biographer and author of The Contender comes this celebration of the great American love story—the romance between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart—capturing its complexity, contradictions, and challenges as never before. In Bogie & Bacall, William Mann offers a...

When a trigger hits, it can feel like your mind and body take over. Your heart races. Your thoughts spiral. Your emotions surge before you even understand what’s happening. In those moments, long explanations don’t help. You need simple tools that work immediately. Trauma Trigger Reset is a practical, easy-to-use guide designed for the exact moment when distress strikes. Instead of overwhelming theory, this book provides 30 fast, proven tools you can use to calm your body, interrupt spiraling thoughts, and return to a steady state. Each technique is short, clear, and designed to be used...

The master acting teacher Richard Boleslavsky presents his acting theory and technique in a lively and accessible narrative form. Widely considered a must-have for beginning as well as established actors, Boleslavsky's work has long helped actors better understand the craft of acting and what it takes to grow as an artist. He has taught generations of some of the best stage and screen actors and actresses. Written in the form of a series of dialogues, these lessons aim to inform and instruct the budding actor on some of the basic principles of acting and learning to act.

From the celebrated film critic and author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, a fascinating look at some of the cinema’s finest actors and how they approach their craft "Open to any page and you’ll become enthralled by the...tales of forgotten film lore, childhood memories, sexy...

Improve your performance on stage with this insightful collection of essays by world renowned actors, directors, and theater practitioners, including Michael Chekhov, Sofya Giatsintova, and Constantin Stainislavski himself.

Architects of the Nineteenth Century: Biographical Studies of the Figures Who Shaped Modern Culture, Politics, and Art BOOK ONE: Edwin Booth Explained: The Life, Art, and Legacy of America’s Greatest Shakespearean Actor is a comprehensive biography of one of the most influential and complex figures in American cultural history. Best known as the greatest Shakespearean actor the United States ever produced, Edwin Booth’s life was marked by artistic brilliance, personal discipline, and extraordinary moral burden. Born into a legendary theatrical family and shaped by the volatile genius of...

A great guide to beginning a career as a professional actor including chapters on acting classes, acting terminology, how to perform scenes and monologues, cold readings and auditioning.

Have you ever had that sinking feeling that your career’s going nowhere and that if you could only find half the confidence your colleagues seem to have, you could find the success and fulfillment you crave? This clear yet empathetic guide will show you the path towards increasing your confidence at work, arm yourself with the tools you need no matter what chaos is unraveling around you.

While her name is synonymous with elegance, style and grace, this poignant, funny and deeply moving biography, reveals the private Audrey Hepburn and invites readers to fall in love with her all over again. Over the course of her extraordinary life and career, Audrey captured hearts around...

If you've decided to ignore your family's wise advice to get a "real job" instead of pursuing acting, prove them all wrong by picking this book up. If the world needs another actor (you), then you need this deep dive into building an acting career, written by the storied and acclaimed voice actor and director Joel McDonald (Borderlands 3, Tiny Tina's Wonderland, New Tales from the Borderlands, One Piece, My Hero Academia, Space Dandy.)Learn what to do and what not to do to craft the acting career you've always dreamed about.

The seductively beautiful, street-smart, and powerful Lucky Santangelo, star of four of Jackie Collins’s previous international bestsellers returns in this “winning sequel” (People). In Chances, Lucky grew up in a top crime family; in Lucky, she was married three times; in Lady Boss, she...

Maybe the Moon, Armistead Maupin's first novel since ending his bestselling Tales of the City series, is the audaciously original chronicle of Cadence Roth -- Hollywood actress, singer, iconoclast and former Guiness Book record holder as the world's shortest woman. All of 31 inches tall, Cady is...

The poster-child victim of a dysfunctional family from Beech Grove, Indiana, Steve McQueen experienced an unsettled early life with a rebellious and alcoholic mother. McQueen channeled his difficult childhood into a masterful career on screen portraying tough, self-sufficient characters in such iconic films as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Sand Pebbles, Bullitt, and Papillon.

A penetrating consideration of Tennessee Williams’s most enduring character—Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire—written by the co-author of The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters and Furious Love. Ever since Jessica Tandy glided onto the stage in Tennessee Williams’sA Streetcar Named...

Do you sometimes secretly, with guilt, admit a painful truth: that you don’t always like your kid? Do you miss days when you had a happy, healthy relationship… when she wasn’t a pain, didn’t argue with you all the time – and was fun to be around? Do you feel helpless as this goes from bad to worse? Well, the best gift you can give this kid this holiday season is start now and greatly improve relations. Here’s a compelling reason: “Bad marriages start in childhood; with impaired parent-child relationships; with parents who are emotionally unavailable to their kids. For girls, ...

The seductively beautiful, street-smart, and powerful Lucky Santangelo, star of four of Jackie Collins’s previous international bestsellers returns in this “winning sequel” (People). In Chances, Lucky grew up in a top crime family; in Lucky, she was married three times; in Lady Boss, she...