Actors & Acting

Acting as an art, and as a profession, has long since fascinated many. Over the years, techniques, methods and styles have been formulated by the likes of Stanislavski, Strasberg, and Mamet, each with their own particular view on acting. Many of these legendary theatre artists have created accessible, helpful books that not only help demystify the craft, but also offer insight into their particular process. This section has a wealth of titles, ranging from technical handbooks, to intimate memoirs. An enthralling subject, these titles are sure to enlighten.

Actor Training / Auditioning / Business

Acting Skills for Life
Ron Cameron
The intention of Acting Skills for Life is to integrate personal growth and the process of creative drama with the more formal skills required for stage production. This is a very practical book, full of suggestions for drama exercises and improvisations, developed over Cameron's fifteen years of teaching drama, and includes practical information for teachers working with students on stage productions. Softcover, 484 pp. $29.99.

The Profitable Artist
Artspire
An essential book for anyone from art school graduates to established artists undertaking new arts businesses, or any artists seeking more for their career. Covers strategic planning, building budgets, intellectual property, networking, fundraising, marketing, branding and much more. Softcover, 220 pp. $29.95.

Break A Leg! An Actor's Guide to Theatrical Practices, Phrases and Superstitions
Sue Miner and Mark Brownell
This is a culmination of theatrical lore and collective knowledge passed down for centuries. A dictionary of phrases and terminology for students, actors, and theatre aficionados. You will learn what it means to "chew the scenery", why it's bad luck to whistle in a theatre, what a gobo is, and much more. Softcover, 32 pp. $16.95.

Acting for Love and Money
Paul G. Gleason & Gavin Levy
With acting exercises, audition advice, hints about the business side of acting, and much more, this is a great book for anyone who wants to act on television, on stage, or in movies. Softcover, 226 pp. $21.95.

Vox Method: The Acting Process
W. Steven Lecky
An exciting training program for actors that is rooted solidly in technique, with the aim of providing actors with ultimate artistic liberty. A comprehensive 15-step training plan, including DVD, the Vox Method demystifies the craft of acting - making it more accessible, comprehensible and concrete. Softcover, 399 pp. $50.00.

Words Into Action
William Gaskill
Acclaimed director William Gaskill here shares his insight into the theatre, plays, and the art of acting. His focus is rooted in attention and respect for the words written by the playwright, but also explores the contemporary technique of 'actioning', the use of stillness and silence, and looks at special consideration for verse acting. More an exploration of what it means to perform on stage than an instructional book, Words into Action is essential reading for the actor, director, teacher or student. Softcover, 168 pp. $23.95.

Something Written in the State of Denmark: An Actor's Year with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Keith Osborn
Following in the footsteps of Nick Asbury's best-sellling Exit Pursued by a Badger, actor and RSC alumnus Keith Osborn tells the story of the company's extraordinary 2008/9 season in Stratford and London. Softcover, 291 pp. $27.95.

Improvisation in Rehearsal
John Abbott
Packed with useful exercises and improvisation scenarios, and examples from a wide variety of plays, Improvisation in Rehearsal reveals how improvisation enriches and enlivens the creation of characters, back-stories, relationships, shared histories and emotional lives. The book also demonstrates how improvisation can be used as a powerful tool in the foundation of a strong company, and when searching for the hidden depths and dynamics in a scene. Softcover, 204 pp. $27.95.

So You Want to Go to Drama School?
Helen Freeman
With competition for places at drama school becoming extremely tough and standards increasingly high, this clear and honest guide is packed with sound advice and essential information for young people who want to train as actors and performers. Written by a teacher and audition panellist with a lifetime's experience of the audition process, it will help all aspiring actors develop the self-confidence, motivation and skills required to get into the drama school of their choice. Softcover, 167 pp. $24.95.

The Acting Bible
Michael Powell
For drama students and aspiring actors, The Acting Bible is the essential brush-up guide to acting technique. Covering a range of skills, from physical expressiveness to voice projection, and demonstrating how to analyze and understand scripts, this comprehensive reference is designed for actors in all media -- theatre, television, and film. Softcover, 256 pp. $27.50.

Acting: The First Six Lessons
Richard Boleslavsky
First published in 1933, Acting: The First Six Lessons remains a key text for anyone studying acting today. These dramatic dialogues between teacher and idealistic student explore the field of acting according to one of the original teachers of Stanislavsky's System in America. This new edition of an essential text is edited by Rhonda Blair and supplemented for the very first time with documents from the American Laboratory Theatre. Softcover, 206 pp. $28.95.

Zygmunt Molik's Voice and Body Work: The Legacy of Jerzy Grotowski
Guiliano Campo & Zygmont Molik
Zygmunt Molik is one of the last living members of Jerzy Grotowski's original acting company and was a leading trainer at the Teatr Laboratorium. Softcover, 190 pp. $39.95.

Exit Pursued by a Badger
Nick Ashbury
Nick Ashbury was in the ensemble from the Royal Shakespeare Company who, over the course of two and a half years, performed eight history plays by Shakespeare in repertory: a sequence of productions both critically acclaimed and watched by over 250,000 people. This book is Ashbury's engaging account of the camaraderie of actors, the terror of forgetting lines, technical difficulties, money problems, finding strange things in the bath, thirty-three broadsword fights and, of course, the ever-present threat of being assaulted by demented badgers after a performance. Softover, 192 pp. $25.50.

An Actor's Work on a Role
Konstantin Stanislavski
Originally published over half a century ago as Creating a Role (the third volume in Stanislavski's authoritative series) this classic book sets out Stanislavski's psychological, physical and practical vision of actor training. This new translation from renowned writer and critic Jean Benedetti not only includes Stanislavski's original teachings, but is also furnished with invaluable supplementary material in the shape of transcripts and notes from the rehearsals themselves, reconfirming The System as the cornerstone of actor training. Hardcover, 259 pp. $45.95.

Tackling Text [and subtext]: A Step-by-Step Guide for Actors
Barbara Houseman
Having helped the actor with basic vocal technique in her enormously successful book, Finding Your Voice, Barbara Houseman now shows the actor how to cope with the demands posed by the text [and the subtext] of the play itself. Softcover, 317 pp. $32.99.

The Intent to Live: Achieving Your True Potential As An Actor
Larry Moss
Inviting you to join him in the classroom and onstage, Larry Moss shares the techniques he has developed over thirty years to help actors set their emotions and imagination on fire, resulting in performances that are powerful, authentic, and career changing. Softcover, 358 pp. $19.95.

The Second Circle
Patsy Rodenburg
In this book, Patsy Rodenburg expounds on her theory of the Three Circles of Energy. She believes that everyone is born with a vital presence, and with this text you will learn to remember and channel positive energy into every aspect of your life. The charisma you see shimmering around a famous actor is tangible - you have the potential to be that energized. Hardcover, 276 pp. $27.50.

The Actor, Image and Action: Acting and Cognitive Neuroscience
Rhonda Blair
In The Actor, Image and Action, Rhonda Blair combines recent devlopments in scientic thinking with a brilliant reassessment of both the practice and theory of acting to look at how imagination, emotion, memory, physicality and reason are inseparable in the brain's structure and function, and their importance to an actor's engagement with a role. In doing so she provides the latest step in Stanislavski's attempts to 'reach the unconscious by conscious means.' Softcover, 138 pp. $39.95.

The Actor's Art and Craft: William Esper teaches The Meisner Technique
William DiMarco & Damon Esper
William Esper, one of the leading acting teachers of our time, explains and extends Sanford Meisner's legendary technique, offering a clear, concrete, step-by-step approach to becomming a truly creative actor. The Actor's Art and Craft vividly demonstrates that good training does not constrain actor's instincts -- it frees them to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives. Softcover, 286 pp. $18.95.

The Purpose of Playing: Modern Acting Theories in Perspective
Robert Gordon
The Purpose of Playing provides the first in-depth introduction to modern critical acting, enabling students, teachers, and professionals to comprehend the different aesthetic possibilities available to today's actors. The book presents a comparative survey of the major approaches to Western acting since the nineteenth century, their historical evolution, and their relationship to one another. Softcover, 418 pp. $41.00.

Michael Chekhov: On Theatre and the Art of Acting
Five-hour CD Master Class
Michael Chekhov
This five-hour CD master class features renowned acting teacher Michael Chekhov covering topics such as characterization, shortcuts to role preparation, how to awaken artistic feelings and emotions, overcoming inhibitions and building self-confidence, psycho-physical excercises, and development of the ensemble spirit. Audio CD. $54.95.

Training of the American Actor
Arthur Bartow
Training of the American Actor offers a detailed technical overview of such theatre artists and educators as Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Michael Chekhov, Uta Hagen, and Jerzy Grotowski. Also discussed are a variety of theatre theories and practices, such as The Viewpoints, Practical Aesthetics, Interdisciplinary Training, and Neo-Classical Training. Softcover, 281 pp. $24.95.

Inside Inside
James Lipton
A revealing behind-the-scenes portrait of the award-winning TV show Inside the Actor's Studio and its creator and host, James Lipton. Softcover, 492 pp. $16.50.

Actors At Work
Rosemary Tichler & Barry Jay Kaplan
With a nod to The Paris Review's Writers at Work model, Actors at Work looks at the ways in which some of our most respected stage and film actors approach their calling. Rosemary Tichler and Barry Jay Kaplan explore these performers' influences, their idols and insecurities, their paths to work and success, the uses of training, and the art of acting itself. Softcover, 369 pp. $18.50.

Back to top

Seeking Representation: A Step-By-Step Guide to Finding a Talent Agent (In Canada)
Valerie L. Poulin
When Poulin wrote the first draft of Seeking Representation in 1995 there were few, if any, books available to guide industry newcomers and emerging actors through the process of finding a talent agent. From the detailed introduction to the business to the nitty-gritty details of getting paid for your work, this book will aid any aspiring performer in need of a helpful guide. Coil-bound, 111 pp. $14.95.

Different Every Night: Freeing the Actor
Mike Alfreds
This book is a culmination of a lifetime's work in the theatre. In it, Mike Alfreds dares to do what very few directors other than Stanislavsky have done: he takes us into the rehearsal room and describes an immensely detailed methodology for the actor to bring the text to life, and, crucially, to keep it alive right up to the final performance. Indeed, he demonstrates that by investing in the truth of every moment, the actor can ensure that a performance will be 'different every night.' Softcover, 362 pp. $37.95.

Acting: Working in the Theatre
Robert Emmet Long
For the first time in the thirty-year history of the Working in the Theatre seminars, this volume gathers the insights of more than 100 great performers. Here is a book for students, actors, and others in the profession, as well as anyone with a passion for the theatre. The humor, art, grace, and dedication conveyed by these artists transform lives every night. Now, they speak directly to us about what it is really like to be working in the theatre. Softcover, 174 pp. $18.95.

Back to top

Last modified July 18, 2012 .
Please note that all prices are in Canadian dollars. All prices are subject to change without notice.